Niahonamagajeen...???

Hola! [La lengua de los ángeles]

It’s been another wonderful week here on Temple Square. For whatever reason, Word decided that it wanted to be set in “Spanish-mode” akin to Buzz Lightyear & so now all of my words are spelled incorrectly. Oh technology, what a love-hate relationship we have!

As GS, S. Nelson & I got to sit in on the Sunday morning STAFF MEETING! I know – be excited! This meeting includes all the people who run the mission :) We were glad to attend and get some things cleared up about our role. We feel much more “in control” now. Beehive House is officially now first-come-first-serve. Yessssssss! After our meeting we called Roger to teach him more about the church. After 10 min or so he said, “Hang on, I want you to talk to my girlfriend.” So she gets on, we talk to her as well – get them both on the phone, pray – commit them to pray about the things we discussed right after we hang up, they agree & *BAM* two New Investigators :)
8:52 Monday morning. We’re walking to the Square when who should be a-walkin’ our way? ELDER L. TOM PERRY!!! I KNOW!!! “What?! Sisters, no comp study this morning?” He shook our hands, wished us a wonderful day and we parted ways! I love this mission :) Oh my goodness, okay so this lady calls into GS, she’s from Korea but lives in Canada now. She was calling in for a “niahonamagajeen” which I couldn’t –for the life of me – figure out. FINALLY it clicks: Liahona Magazine! It was hilarious though, she was asking me if I was a member & if I was why couldn’t I understand her??? Great story.

Cinnamon Melts from McDonald’s magically appeared on our desks in GS Tuesday morning. Soooo good! Miracle of the day: We took 3 Seniors in HS (not Seniors in life) around the Square in the afternoon. The whole time they were mostly closed & unresponsive, so we took them across the street to the Conf Center! As we walked into the auditorium, ‘tall-guy’ [turns out his name is Conner] goes “Whooooaaaa!!!!” Welcome to the CC Auditorium – where all of your 9 year old Tonka dreams come true :) We discussed conference, prophets & the restoration. We then invited them to meet with missionaries. Tori said she “wouldn’t mind” them coming but the two guys were either verbally against it…or silent. We re-invited at the Map in the NVC & they ALL REFERRED FOR MISSIONARIES! Amazing, right? God allows us to be a part of these miracles, EVEN when we’re ridiculously rusty from being in GS! We ended our day with WP which included a CI that we just laughed our way through. We’re getting along so great.

We had an absolutely fantastic District Meeting! We real played contacting members at Conference. IT WAS SO GOOD! I AM SO EXCITED! Conference is a wonderful time of the year :) We are eagerly awaiting the jam-packed weekend of Conference – it’s just so fun! We contacted some wonderful members at the Good Samaritan display and ended up taking them through it. That was the first time I’d ever done that! No one is EVER down at that display! We went through it just as it was meant to be seen, what a neat experience to finally have a tour that goes as planned.

On Thursday we alternated so well during our contacts, it was amazing. We’ve tried coming up with different ways of making sure that we both speak evenly. None have worked! So we finally decided to keep things brief & that after I talk – it’s S. Nelson’s turn – then it’s my turn etc. So no matter whom they ask the question to or who asked them the question –the other one speaks. It works brilliantly! That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone accepts our message or likes us. Weird, I know. We took this family around that I later compared to “trying to entertain a country run by a dictator”. The father was the speaker and what he said – went. We did our best to involve the four other members of the family but it’s hard to get through to people when they won’t even maintain eye contact. “Always look eye!”

BIG NEWS: (For missionaries) Friday morning we had CONNECT training. It’s okay if you have no idea what I’m talking about –none of you would. Oh MAN it’s so exciting! Connect is a new program designed just for missionaries. It’s basically an online area book, which allows us to log what we’ve taught them, when, their reactions/thoughts & also the commitments we give them. It’s still in primitive-mode right now, we’re the ones trying it out first :) Ideally, once it’s full-steam-ahead it will allow us to more easily communicate with the missionaries we send our investigators to. Since we log exactly what we teach them, once the locals get their information they can log into Connect & see that their New Investigator has already had the first two lessons & is keeping certain commitments! AMAZING, huh?

I absolutely love being a missionary. It’s ridiculous really because you’d think that after doing this day in & day out I’d get tired of it – but it’s just so wonderful I don’t see how anyone couldn’t wake up deliriously happy EVERY day! There is no happiness like that of knowing that you are doing exactly what God wants you to be doing. I know this church is Christ’s true church. It has blessed my life so much & it is my greatest pleasure to tell everyone I meet, all about it.

Love you all,

Sister Ainsley Marie