9/9/13

Hello everyone!
(For those of you who don't know or haven't caught it, I'm quoting my character from "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" at the beginning of every letter. It fits, though. :) )

This week was pretty good! We taught 4 lessons to investigators/ potential investigators, which is more than we have since I've been in Sandusky! I told you about the two coolest ones last Tuesday (Shonna and Joshua). We haven't been able to meet with them again, but when Shonna left a message last night to cancel, she said she was calling for the "two sweet girls who talked to her last week" and she really wants to reschedule when she's feeling better. I'm thinking good things are still to come. :)

We've had some interesting tracting experiences this week. We tract WAY TOO MUCH in this area, but until we have other ideas, that's what we're going to do! Anyway, we talked to the SWEETEST girls who were practicing their baton-twirling in the front yard, then a nice woman who was walking with her grandkids, and then we met "The Pagan." Seriously, though, that's what he called himself. We knocked on his door, and he leaned around the doorframe awkwardly, like he wasn't wearing clothes or something. When we introduced ourselves, he started LAUGHING. Like, belly-laughing. As in, leaned on the table next to him and laughed for thirty seconds before explaining. Then he said, "You came to the wrong house. I'm not even a Christian; I'm a pagan!" And he shut the door laughing. We laughed when we walked away-- how could we not? The guy was crazy! I hope he departs from his "pagan ways" someday and finds the gospel. :) We also met a 92-year-old Pentecostal who said that as long as you believe in Christ you're good... until he found out we were Mormon. He was warning us to stay away from the Mormons and believe in Jesus. He also told us to join a good church with the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues and such. Umm... He was cute, though. Sister Hawkins got kinda upset when he cut off her testimony (not to him, but she told me after). It just goes to show how hard Satan is trying to fight the work.

We also met another potential investigator (we're really bad at making them actual investigators, but we're working on it!) who actually knows Shawn, a member of our ward who own a barber shop. When he learned we were Mormons and we knew Shawn, he asked if she had sent us. :P He's really funny, though, and somehow the Spirit touched him and he said he'd read the Book of Mormon. He's met missionaries before, and talked to them before, and has one if not two copies of the BoM, but something in our situation made him promise to read it. I hope he really does. His name is Larry, he's retired, and so fun, and he needs to be baptized. :D

One last story: We had ward coordination on Saturday evening, and during it our ward missionaries (Shawn and the mission leader's wife, Sister Reel) got talking about "Brother Toft." When they learned that none of us sisters had been to meet "Brother Toft", they decided they were going to kidnap us. So, they skipped most of the ward indexing party, "kidnapped" us, and with Sister Coffelt (who had come to the indexing party but we kidnapped her as well) took us to meet "Brother Toft"... a.k.a, Toft's Ice Cream. It was a big shop, with good ice cream. Anyway, that wasn't the good part. There we were, four sister missionaries and three ladies from the ward, filling every seat in the Reel's rather messy van, talking and laughing for the rather long drive (longer than I had expected; probably 20 minutes) to Brother Toft. We were laughing so hard I could hardly talk! Then, less than a block away from Toft's, the road was closed. Instead of taking a detour, Sister Reel turned down a side street, pulled into a parking lot, then, with Shawn's encouragement and the rest of us dying of laughter, she drove over the grass into a neighboring parking lot, to the road on the other side of the construction, and onto Tofts! Of course, we took the same route back to the church as well. :D It was so fun, and a real stress reliever just to be with members, eating ice cream and laughing more than I have in a long time. It was wonderful. :)

Sorry the letter's so long today. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!



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***Sister McKayla Richards***
"For with God, nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)