In the Head of Hannie: March 16, 2015

Me and Hermana Sheffer at the Elder Bednar conference

So I'm a little bit grumpy right now. My week has been really good except for last night and this morning. The ladies in the FHC are talking out the waazoo and it is making it really hard to type and concentrate. Bleh, they are interrupting my happy time.

I'm going to start off with the bad experience and then head to the fabulous part of my week. So I don't know if I've already told you but our district consists of Me, Hna Sellers, Hna Moffett (STL), Hna Bowen (STL), Elder Padilla (DL), and Elder Gammell (basically also district leader) and as you can tell it is a leadership packed district. I HATE it. It just feels really unbalanced but I'm getting used to it little by little. Anyways, at district meeting we decided to start a contacting game, because contacting is something Hna Seller and I struggle with. We would report our contacts every night and the companionship who had the least amount of contacts had to make treats for correlation. We all agreed to the terms. Hna Sellers and I were super excited because I would help us make the initial contact with people, we even biked a few days to see if we could see a few more people. We made this game on Thursday, Friday was Elder Bednar, Saturday was weekly planning, and Sunday was church. We did NOT have a lot of time. Anyways, last night during follow up call Elder Padilla was like 30 minutes late calling and I was G-R-U-M-P-Y. Then he said, Sisters, your numbers are really low, if you would just start contacting you would get your numbers up. I was pretty heated about that. It just makes me a little upset that this game turned into this. I've forgiven them though, I've just realized how hard it is to be in a district with a whole bunch of leaders...I don't find it very fun.

This week has been awesome though. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Jardine. He just kept saying, "It is so good to see you happy, Sister Porter." It was really touching. I love him and Sister Jardine SO much. I really hope I don't get transferred to the new mission. I don't want to leave them. President and I just talked about the importance of missionary work and my view on it and we talked a lot about the scriptures in Mark 4 and Alma 26, none of which were the scriptures we were assigned to read. It was really nice.

Elder Bednar was amazing. I got to see Hna Hurley, Hna Cuesta, Hna Kaaa, and Hna Clark (who is Hna Hurley's other baby, aka my sister). I also got to see Elder Ward, Rindlesbacher, Poulton, Gove, Ross, Packer, Steidley, and Simms. I LOVED seeing everyone I LOVE.

Elder Bednar had us prepare by studying his talks about Asking in Faith, Conversion and Testimony, and acting. I love that he taught us that we are all living, breathing, moving people. We are NOT objects and we should not be acted upon. We should have the ability to choose whether we act or not. That involves us to change the way we teach. We tell people that they will see blessing when they pray and read but really we should be inviting them to look for those blessings as they pray and read. He did a great job showing this to us.

I also LOVED that he told us we need to pray with a question in mind and we need to ACT. We need to have an action question. That is so simple yet so profound. I love it.

There was a lot more that I learned but I don't have my notes with me, maybe next week?

Mom said she wanted to know more about my investigators. Right now we are teaching Maricela and Yareli. They are mother and daughter. They had known someone who was a member of the church before and they were really excited to let us in. Maricela really thinks this could help them and their family and she is really excited. This week we were going to teach them the plan of salvation but it didn't happen and the lesson we did have with them was super rocky. It was a really bad lesson but they are super sweet and understanding. They told us they couldn't come to church this last week but they really wanted to the next week. We are really excited.

Sinai- she moved out of the Esparza's house so we cannot teach her anymore. She has a date but lost it because she didn't come to church. The other Hermanas are going to teach her if we can find her. She is really sweet though.

Jorge- he is the boyfriend of a member who recently came back into activity. He is amazing. He doesn't live in the mission so we can't technically teach him. We sent him to the Oakland Missionaries. HE has been to church 5 times with us and went to church 1 time in Brentwood. He really wants to get baptized and he is hoping he can find a house here. Maybe we can start teaching him? Figures crossed. He is really awesome but we can't count him as an investigator.

Lupe- she is amazing. We contacted them on the street a few weeks ago and every time we went back she kind of avoided us and wouldn't let us in. Then finally we went over after 3 last week and she invited us in. She said we had always stopped by when her husband was home and he is not interested. She is having some problems and she really seems ready for help. She said she kept getting the feeling that we have what can help her. She is really cool. WE have a lesson with her tonight.

Jesus y Rosalea- we haven't added them as investigators yet but it is a really cool story. Their house was a potential for us that we had knocked 5 or 6 times this last transfer. The girl always blew us off and wasn't very interested. Then, our ward mission leader gave us their address in correlation and we said "Hno Ku, we've knocked this house tons of times." he said "no you didn't" we said "Yes we have." He then told us to go back and tell them that Jesus Ku commanded them to be taught. We went back and they answered the door. We told the lady that Jesus Ku told us to come and teach them. Then a man walked up and said "You are from Jesus' Ku's church? I need to know more. Come back MONDAY?" Of course we will be back Monday. WE are really excited to teach them tonight.

This week has been amazing.

Alright, a few reminders....

1. Transfers are in a week. So don't send stuff to the house anymore. I'm actually really nervous for transfers because it is very possible that I could leave. The house we live in now is being sold and so we need to find a place to live. Too bad we haven't yet and we only have a week left.

2. Letters are welcome. My inbox was a little empty this week so feel free to shoot me an email.

I love you all. Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Porter

P.S. Don't forget to write me your conversion story...please!