Sister Winters - July 9, 2012

Dear family and friends,

 

Thank you for all of your wonderful emails this week! It really is the best start of my week to see all of the fantastic things that you're doing and thinking and saying. Thank you for keeping me on board - I really do love hearing from all of you. This week was one of those "roller coasters," but after it was all done I can honestly and completely say that I enjoyed the ride. :)

 

A definite highlight of this week was English class. I realized about two weeks ago that this year the 4th of July would fall on a Wednesday... aka English class. :) I was sooo excited, and told my English class to prepare an American dish and we'd have a party. None of them remembered. :) But I brought some Wal-mart brand chocolate pudding (a member visiting from the states gave us a couple of packages)! Mmmm. Everyone liked it. Plus I used a combination of candy corn and peanuts (a Winters favorite - thank you so much for the package, Mom!!!) in a game that we played. "Don't Eat Pete!" is a favorite in my class - a game that involves eating candy until you lose and everyone shouts, "Don't Eat Pete!" Well, this time I put my 4th of July thinking cap on and came out with "Don't Eat Patriotism!" Haha, so much fun! Especially because it was beginning English, so they struggled a little bit (we had to yell it really slowly). And in my English class version of the game, the students have to say a few extra words - try saying "Washington, D.C.," "The Declaration of Independence," and "The Star-Spangled Banner" and pretend that you're just learning how to speak the language. A little hard. :) I think the best part of that day though was singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner" at the end of class. I wrote all of the words on the board and then we sang it together. It was awesome. Actually, we sang it a lot that day - in companionship study, in our meeting before English class (it's 5 white missionaries and one Taiwanese - in the middle of the song he got up to the board and wrote "I'm Taiwanese" - I think he felt a little left out :)), and then in English class. Maybe not quite as patriotic as running the Peachtree Road Race, but I'd say a whole lot more memorable. All in all a great day.

 

Another huge highlight of the week was meeting our new mission president and his wife - President and Sister Day! They are amazing. I said earlier that this week was a little bit of a roller coaster - let's just say that the Days helped with turning everything going down to everything going up. I know that we're sent to specific missions for specific people that we're supposed to meet, but I had never considered my mission president and his wife being some of those people until meeting the Days. They are wonderful, loving people who are 100% southerners through and through. I seriously felt like I was right back at home in the Peachtree Corners Ward when I heard them talking to me. It was amazing how familiar the feeling I had with them was - I think it's because that feeling really is part of my home. Everything that they said expressed their love for us, their impressment with how the work is going, and their willingness to do whatever it takes to support us and to help us. I think one of my favorite parts was listening to Sister Day introduce herself and her family and the South - I LOVE THE SOUTH! Meeting them confirmed it more than ever. :) Anyway, then they asked all of the missionaries present to introduce themselves and say some things about themselves, etc - when it was my turn to get up, I introduced myself, said I was from Georgia, and then I said, "So I say 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' to everything that was said about the South." Everyone laughed, and President and Sister Day said that they knew that we were going to have a great working relationship - I agree.

 

Last thought for the day - we really were so blessed this week. Even though I hit a record-high for people giving me wrong phone numbers this week, I still felt such an outpouring of love this week. And when I showed my faith and tried my best to bear my testimony, we saw miracles. We brought people into the chapel, they felt the Spirit, and they wanted to learn more. We also met an absolutely golden investigator this week. She's amazing - we met with her for the second time yesterday, and when we asked her how praying went. "Oh, it was great - I had these awesome feelings when I was praying, and I believe that Someone is hearing my prayers." Wait... what? And then we asked her if she'd be willing to pray about the Book of Mormon: "No problem - I've already been praying every day." I asked her if it was hard to get used to praying every day: "No, it was pretty easy and natural." WOW! And then here comes the best part: we asked her what she was going to do after she got home, what her fun plans for the day were, etc.: "Oh, I'm probably going to start reading The Book of Mormon." I couldn't believe it! I feel so so blessed to teach her. We also had a major breakthrough with Becky, one of our investigators who's required a little more time. I really believe that she'll get baptized this month. And I also really believe that the day of her baptism will be one of the happiest days of my life.

 

God is so good! He knows us and our needs. And He's so willing to help us and show His love for us. I've felt that so many times in my life, and I've been especially blessed to feel it many many times on my mission. I love being here, and I love all of you!

 

Go forward with faith this week!

Love,

Sister Winters