Overcoming Fears
Oh man, this week was awesome. Really just the latter half, but hey, I got to bike a lot, so no complaints.
Monday: "Ermilisa?!" We actually saw her!!! She was in town for a little bit. Her husband is basically dying out in New Orleans, long story. But we had a lesson and started painting her kitchen. We love painting. Good day.
Tuesday: "Stuff.." It was normal, we saw Ermilisa again!!! Yay! More painting. I got crazy and just started sanding tons of walls and painting. We got a lot done and she is very happy about it. Institute was the bomb too. I bore a testimony of difficulties I have been facing on my mission. People really liked it!
Wednesday: "More Biking!" I love biking. Not as much in a skirt, but it's okay, I am getting better at it. We tried to see people, tried to mow someone's lawn, but her lawn mower didn't work. We tried a member around the corner, but they happened to have been on their way home when we went over. Oh well! Later we went and saw said member. They committed to come to church on Sunday!!!! That is so awesome! (They did actually come to church!) I have been teaching them my whole mission, so that brought so much joy to my life.
Thursday: "Not National Pancake Day". After volunteering, we went to go get free pancakes with Taylor and Travis, except, they read it wrong. National Pancake day is tomorrow. Not the 3rd. You all better go get yourselves some free pancakes tomorrow. We saw Amanda and had a great lesson with her. Same with Sister Robertson. I love her! Her non-member husband made us some delicious spinach pie! He is really warming up to us weird Mormon girls!!!
Friday: "An Eventful Day". Well, it started out with lunch. I was minding my own business when I go to the bathroom and low and behold, there is a cockroach on the wall. A big one. After making girly noises, I got my more macho companion to come and kill it. We didn't know how though, and didn't want it turning on us. We called the elders. Our district leader finally answered and gave us the wise counsel of "Hit it and run!". We had other concerns, but after resolving them, we stayed on the line while Sister Hilton got on a chair with a shoe to hit it. I hid behind the bedroom door in case it was a palmetto bug. Those fly and bite. She hit it, thinking she had killed it. It was on the counter, but not quite dead. She proceeded to hit seven more times. We disposed of said cockroach in the dumpster, ending the story.
That afternoon, I overcame a large fear of tracting! It went well! Then, that night, another big hurdle! I invited someone to baptism for the first time on my mission! He said yes, and is going to try!
Saturday: "Just Sit and Listen" We did a lot of that. Ashley took us places while we taught the plan of salvation. That went well. Sister Knight talked forever, but it's okay, next week we are going there for dinner! (She is a great, authentic southern cook). That night we got caught in the middle of a huge fight between a baby daddy and his two baby mamas. It was pretty crazy. I don't think my companion has seen something like that.. It's okay though, because if he hadn't been there, things would have gotten physical. Missionaries to the rescue!!! We had dinner with the Freemans, my adopted family. They invited a nonmember! It was great!!!
Sunday: "Oh the Joy". Church was alright. The testimonies born really struck me. The spirit was powerful. Sadly, Taylor and Travis weren't there. She was having contractions and bad back pain. Don't worry, baby hasn't come yet! We went there after church and spent way longer than we should have, but it's okay. We needed to. We ended up teaching them all while eating cupcakes that we made for them. We went over the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the intention to invite her to baptism. She started talking about all of her concerns while we were there. She had already overcome them though...? We then invited her to pray about the date we had thought of. Travis was to become worthy of the priesthood by April 16th. That day, she texted us telling us that she actually had been praying and did want to be baptized, just we weren't supposed to tell Travis. He would get too crazy about it. She wants to quit smoking before the baby is born and be baptized when all her family is down here for the baby!!! How exciting??? That made my day. Two people I invited to baptism. I can't believe it.
The trick to overcoming my fear, was to pray in advance about a day. That seems obvious. When you do that, you know that God knows they can be ready by that day. It doesn't matter where they are now, because God has told us they can be ready. What a miracle. I am so grateful for this week and the many things I have learned! Thank you all for reading! Have a blessed week :)
-Sister Peterson
