Hello Family!
Awesome news here in the London 1st ward area. Sister
Mendenhall is going to New Market to serve with Sister Adams, and I am staying
in London 1st and training! We are both so excited :) I am stoked. What a
humbling experience. My new companion and I are going to go CRAAAAAZY here in
London!!
So many great things happened this week. I will try to fit
in as much as I can.
First off, do you remember A...? The man I talked to while
emailing in the library who was GOLDEN? So he is YSA and this week we brought
the YSA sisters to teach him with us and pass him off to them. The sisters got
there and Sister DeRuvo yells "B...?! How are you? What are you doing
here?" A.... looked shocked and disoriented. Turns out A...'s real name is
B..., and he is a less-active in the YSA ward. We are pretty sure he
is a little autistic. All the missionaries in our area know him because he
calls them or finds them on the street and asks them for a Book of Mormon. We
are the first people he has introduced himself as A... to, isn't that crazy? He
really liked us and was devastated that we couldn't teach him any more. Haha no
wonder he always had the PERFECT answer to EVERY question we asked. So funny :)
Also, do you remember S...? The lady we taught the
Restoration to through the door? We have dropped by her house over and over
again for the past couple months and can never get a hold of her. We were in
her area, and saw a Jamaican lady walking down the street. We yelled
hello to her, and as she answered we KNEW it was S.... Hahaha we yelled
"S...?? Is that you?!!!? We found you!!!!" hahaha we didn't really
think that one through because she looked at us with like terror in her eyes.
We introduced ourselves to her and she got so excited. We talked with her on
the street for 45 minutes, committed her to baptism, and gave her a Book of
Mormon. She couldn't believe herself that she was actually listening to us, and
even more she couldn't believe that she accepted out invitation to come to
church. She was the only one of our investigators to come this Sunday, but no
worries! S... came :) Sad thing is she didn't like it at all. She thought it
was boring..... just you wait S... :) Haha we were talking about faith in
Relief Society, and the teacher asked what people had faith in. S... blurts
out "You have to have faith in the impossible. Like me actually being
here!"
While we were talking to S..., a man walked up with his
dog. He was really friendly, saw we were from the church and said he would love
for us to come and visit some time. We started taking down his information,
asked for his name. He asked Sister Mendenhall what her name was, and when he
saw she wasn't going to give him her first name, he blew up. He couldn't
believe that we would ask people for their first names and we would keep ours
confidential. We had no time to explain why we go by Sister - He said
"forget it" and walked away laughing his head off in disgust. The
three of us stood there in silence for a minute in shock of what just happened.
Finally S... said "I told you men were crazy" hahah. A little while
later he came back and apologized for being rude. And as we were explaining, he
blew up again about it and walked away even more frustrated then the first
time. He was just having a bad day :)
Something else that was
awesome about this experience is we were about to go to our car to leave when
I heard the sound of a shovel and had the feeling to go and talk to
whoever it was behind the fence in their backyard. So we went and talked
to A.... for a while. All in all he didn't seem too excited about it
all, but it was right after we were leaving that encounter when we came
across S...! So if we had not followed that prompting then we most
likely would never have ran into S...! I love this work
:)
G... is doing AMAZING!!!! This is his fourth day with no
cigarettes. Heavenly Father really blessed him by allowing him to get sick so
that cigarettes was out of the question for a little while. He has such a
motivation to get baptized that he has been reading the Book of Mormon, no
coffee, no cigarettes, he got a new job, and he has been focusing all his time
on helping Brother Palladino and his family stay in the Canada. G.... wasn't
praying every day, but with this new desire to help Brother Palladino out, he
has been praying every day for their family. We committed him to prepare for
March 30th, giving him more time to show his commitment to come to church and for
reals quit smoking. We're excited! We haven't told him Sister Mendenhall is
leaving yet and we are a little nervous to see how he reacts. But he's been
doing great so we hope that his increasing testimony in Christ will help
him overcome his greater testimony in the missionaries..
Also, WE GOT TO MEET G....'S
PARENTS!!!!!!!! We weren't sure what to expect because G...'s description of
them. They are the cutest, sweetest little couple. We loved getting to talk to
them and believe it or not, they are new investigators!! We are stoked.
On Wednesday we had some extra time to go where the Lord
wanted us to go. For several weeks I felt that we should go to two different
places on the map. We prayed about it and both felt that we should go to
Grenfell. We drove there, got out of the car, and the first people we met were
a complete answer to our prayers. D... has been looking for a church that has
a really great kids program for her daughter C.... boy did we have good
news for D...!! Not only is our good news that the Primary program in our
church is amazing, but we were able to testify that this church is TRUE!!!
We're excited to teach them.
If anyone would like to donate a bus to the London 1st ward
they are more than welcome to. Haha because every prepared person we meet and
teach doesn't have a car and the bus doesn't go near our church on Sunday
mornings. The most exciting days are calling up the small number
of ward members with cars to see who can pick up who. And I'm serious
when I say they are the most exciting days. I absolutely LOVE calling people,
and Saturdays are so stressful it is so much fun. Haha Sister Mendenhall thinks
I'm ridiculous.
In our first transfer, we met a Cambodian lady who referred
us to her son L... , but she gave us the wrong address. On Monday,
we were talking with another Cambodian we had just met and he referred us to
his friend L... (same person!) with the right address!! So we went and
visited him and he LOVED it. After our first lesson, we asked if there was
anything we could do for him and his family and he said to "just keep
coming!" You got it L... :) Heavenly Father was truly looking out for
him by putting all his family members and friends in our path!
K... accepted a baptismal date! He decided his own date,
for August 17th - a time when his wife would finally be in Canada and she could
attend church with him a couple times before. We know it is a ways away, but he
is so excited and we know it is the best thing for him and his family's
situation.
So many wonderful experiences. I am so happy. I know this
gospel is true. I am so grateful to have served my first three transfers here
with Sister Mendenhall. I am SO GRATEFUL for everything she taught me. And I
feel honored and excited beyond all reason to get to teach, lead, and guide a
new missionary into this new experience. Please pray for me and us!! haha.
Please don't waste a single day. This life is too precious and too wonderful to
miss any opportunity to be happy. Choose now. Choose today :) I love you all!
KEEP YOUR STANDARDS!!!
Sister Bodine
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