Transfers, Truck Drivers and 101 Referrals!!

G’day!

We have had a wonderful & eventful week here in SLC! The weather can’t quite make up its mind, resulting in a blizzard coming out of a blue sky??? Welcome to the mission :)

On Sunday Sis N and I met up with Ralph, who is living in a shelter right now. He was, what you could say, “blaming the world/church” for his problems & ready to tear up temple work cards he had…which I’m still wondering what good he thought that would do. So we laid the smack down & told him what was up. Sis N tends to attract the homeless & entitled. So I’ve learned to be bolder in helping people come to terms with the fact that it’s all up to them!

We called Linda, our truck driver investigator & had an amazing lesson! She kept saying, “Well I’ll be darned! Is that right?” as we told her about the Apostasy & Restoration. She almost lost it when we told her about the modern-day Prophet and Apostles. It was the best ever! I think too often we forget how important the knowledge that we have is…wow that was an intense sentence. But it’s up to us to share this light we have with everyone! God has called a prophet in OUR day to lead & guide us! As Linda said, “Well I’d think if there WAS a prophet, everyone would want to listen to him!” So go on, share it with your friends!

We have a whiteboard in GS & we decided to set a goal of getting 100 RC(Referral Center) referrals while we’re in GS. WE GOT 101!!!!! MIRACLE!!!! Our goal for this next transfer is 150! Wish us luck!

TRANSFERS!!! Nothing’s different! Change is good, but not moving beats all. I’m personally hoping to stay in this apartment one more transfer because then I will have lived there for HALF of my mission ;) Ridiculous

Monday we called Brittany who lives in a shelter for battered women. She is 20 & asked to offer the prayer at the end of our discussion. She just wants her family to be happy & together. I think we take a lot for granted in life. Shanita is 15 and she is golden! The missionaries got in touch with her there in Tennessee & she loved church! She even brought her sister with her – see who YOU can invite!

We had lunch at BlueLemon on Tuesday – a member paid for us :) On the Square we talked to an “aged” lady who thinks her daughter had a baby at the age of 55….It took a while for us to realized that maybe she wasn’t “all there”.

Outbound sisters are back!!! Sister Williams from Scotland is one of my favorites and I love seeing her around again! She’s the sister that says “Miiiidget on a scooter!” All the first transfer sisters are foreign, it’s awesome! They’re all so different, France, Sweden, Zambia!, England etc. I’m in my 6TH transfer & I’m starting to feel old. It also puts a lot of pressure on to work, work, work! Which I love.

Not too many people are out on the Square at 9AM so we watched a talk by President Monson about forgiveness. The quote that stuck out to me was when he was talking about not getting caught on “the jagged reefs of lost opportunity” because you could have let it go. It’s so important to do a self-assessment on these things & really see how you’re doing at forgiving others. I think we can all do a little better.

Hilarious phone call: A very upset woman living in Hawaii called in, wanting a number for the missionaries there so she could tell them off. Here’s the story. She pulled into her driveway to find her 9 year old daughter talking to missionaries in the yard. [So far so good] Here’s the thing, the daughter didn’t have a shirt on. The mother continued on to tell me, “Those missionaries talking to my minor daughter is WRONG!” This whole time, I was still caught up at the part where her daughter didn’t have a shirt on. So I asked, why??? She didn’t know but she said “Wouldn’t it look strange to see that?” (YES – tell your daughter to get dressed in the morning!) No, I didn’t say that. I told her that the number she called was actually to request for a DVD and that I don’t have access to numbers in Hawaii. *Silence* “Okay….I’ll find ‘em myself.”

Please pray for the Elders in Hawaii. Both that they’ll be safe & a little more wary of possibly awkward looking situations :)

Yesterday we were taking a tour when all of a sudden I felt super nauseous. What are you supposed to do? You can’t just excuse yourself in the middle of a tour to go to the bathroom. So I had to pull a cowboy, tough it out & ‘rub some dirt in it’. In an insane amount of pain, all the while getting hot flashes & feeling like I was about to explode on the side of the street – we walked our guest over to the conference center. Sis N told her about prophets & I focused on breathing and thinking happy thoughts. We finished talking with her 5 minutes later and I finally got to the safety of the bathroom. We had dinner right then so we went home, I slept for 30 minutes & felt well enough to keep at it! Gotta love the mish :)

We called Howard, our other truck driver who lives on the West coast. We hadn’t ever taught him before, so we were calling for the first time only to find out that the missionaries had already visited him TWICE!!!! WAHOOO!!!!! I’m so proud of them!

Anyways, sorry for writing so much I’m failing at brevity & clarity. I should probably work on that. It’s been an amazing week full of miracles & little joys that come with being a missionary. I love putting my tag on everyday & knowing that I get to go out and save souls! For FREE!!!

Doon-say Payar-hay
I love you[Urdu]),

Sis Despain Jr