11/16/09

Hello all,

I only have a few minutes to write to you today. Pday's gone by pretty fast and we got a flat tire last night so we spent a little while at PepBoys this morning. After e-mail we're on our way to a zone activity where my companion and I will exchange companions for a day.

The sister I'm going to be on exchanges with trained my companion and she has also served in Leander before so I'll probably learn more about the area from her when she gets here:)

This past week has gone okay. A lot of our lessons have fallen through and our investigators haven't been keeping with their appointments lately. We also had a baptism scheduled for the 21st but our investigator called us this past Wednesday and told us she wasn't ready to make the commitment.

This woman that my previous companion and I have been teaching (as well as missionaries before us in 2007) and her comapnion before me, is really sweet and has been through a lot. She questions her abilities but is a wonderful single mother with a five year old. This is the same woman I've written to you about previously who's boyfriend looked up anti things online. Through much prayer, he moved out and things were moving along but she is still worryed that she's not "LDS" material and she really doesn't like Relief Society because all the women cry and she has a difficult time with that. We've told her that they're just expressing the things in their hearts and that she doen't need to compare herself to anyone else, but she's still strugllin with that as well as some WOW (Word of Wisdom) problems.

We were able to have dinner with her on Saturday and it was good to see her. She was also happy and relieved that we didn't "hate her" for not wanted to get baptised yet. We were able to talk with her for awhile and share some hopefully strenghening scriptures with her and also let her know how much she was loved by Heavenly Father, our Savior, and us as well as the members. We assured her that we could take things slowly and she was more than welsome to continue coming to church even though our visits wouldn't be as frequent. After dinner she walked us to the door and we parked our car around the block so she walked outside with us. As we were walking away she said "Thank you for not giving up on me". When I heard that I thought "How could I"?

Before I came on a mission everyone told me that teaching people and then having them turn away was going to be one of the hardest things I experience, and it has been. I'm realizing why prayer is so important because it can be really difficult emotionally sometimes. Somedays, when no one seems to want to learn more about the gospel, it's almost like we're getting a very small but real taste of what the Savior went through or other prophets when no wanted to listen. So far this has been a great, trying experience but I'm slowly being softened and molded into the woman my patriarchal blessing promises I can become with faith and prayer:)

Sorry again if my e-mail's a little chopping but I had to type fast. Love you all and hope you have a good week.

Sister Green