Strep + Zone Conference!
Most of this week was spent with me overcoming my strep. That was a hoot!! I will let the week tell you all about it.
Monday: "Too Busy to Sleep". We set goals every day as missionaries, and we actually made up a goal for how many hours we were hoping I would get to sleep. The goal was three, but I only got 2.5. Not bad though! Biking to the library was hard, but not impossible. We also had a zone activity that day though. We were playing kickball. I couldn't help but play a little. Then we were busy all night with appointments. I definitely could not wait to sleep that night.
Tuesday: "Back to the Doctor". When I woke up, I felt terrible. My mission nurse told me to go back to urgent care because they gave me a pretty weak antibiotic. We canceled everything for the day and had a member take us to the urgent care. I got a waaay stronger medicine. Then I slept, then we had dinner and institute. We had to go to that because Ashley would be there and we have had poor contact with her. Turns out, it is because she is completely questioning her testimony and God's love, and has been having problems with the word of wisdom. We are very concerned about her.
Wednesday: "Zone Conference!!" I love Zone Conference. We had President Smith and the gang come to give us a training all day. Though I was battling some serious strep the whole time, I got so much out of it! I learned about inviting people to baptism, teaching repentance, and worked directly with president to help us overcome one of our investigator's problems with setting a date for baptism. It was great. I am praying that I may be able to apply all that I learned in the field. It's one thing to know, it's another to do. I loved seeing everyone though. Seeing Pres and Sister Smith makes everything so much better. That night we went to eat with a member, then went on a surprise visit to Taylor and Travis. Taylor is the one I had the role play with President about. We tried to find her struggles with baptism and found that she didn't even know for sure about the church. It turns out that I and others had her convinced that when she knew, she would have this great and overwhelming feeling about it. I asked Sister Hilton to share how she gained her testimony to show that we can gain one through smaller and more subtle means. We comitted them to focus more on reading the Book of Mormon. We had overlooked that in our teaching, so hopefully now she will have the perfect opportunity to gain a testimony.
Thursday: "Just Go Back to Sleep". We had plans. But then I couldn't really do anything. This day was the worst for my strep. I just laid in bed all day. We did do stuff from 4 to 9 though. One of those things being seeing the Lotts! They are a younger less active family who just had a baby! They are pretty hard to get with, so I was so excited to see them! We had a great lesson and they comitted to have family prayer, something they had already wanted to do. It really was like the perfect lesson.
Friday: "We Did It Anyways" Though I was still struggling, we went to an appointment and they weren't there. This was at 10:30am. I promptly fell back asleep when we came back. We went out later at 3. We kept teaching and then even got randomly fed dinner! We just kept trying to work.
Saturday: "You're Not Here" That is just a funny quote from when we went to heart attack Ermilisa's door. She got in late the night before and wasn't feeling well. She opened the door half awake to tell us she wasn't feeling well, so Sister Hilton said "Shh, go back to bed, you aren't here". We then proceeded to cover the door :) The rest of the day was normal. It was hard to work, but we did it! We also found ourselves in the hardcore ghetto to deliver a referral's bible. We couldn't do it. The spirit was just screaming at me that this was not a good place to be. (In the most kindest, spirit like way).
Sunday: "Progress" We had an amazing Ward Council. They really focused on people, which is what you are supposed to do. Ashley came to church, thank goodness. She is doing better, but I am not sure how much so. We had a great lesson with Travis and Taylor. The elders came to give them both blessings. She is a week to her due date, but she wants the baby to come so badly. It's been really hard on her. I love those two so much!!!
Okay, Enjoy some of the pictures. I am out of time sadly.
-Sister Peterson
That mail sign by the way, was in the super scary ghetto area.
