Bulgaria, Alabama & Nova Scotia... all in a day's work!

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!!!

Just so everyone knows, the amazing, the fantastic, the I-don’t-care-if-this-isn’t-in-my-comfort-zone-I’m-gonna-do-it-anyways Jennifer Despain…is the best mom ever :)

This week started off with a baptismal commitment agreed to by Chris who lives in Alabama! He is 19 and read the Book of Mormon in one night. Sunday night. He said, “Ya – it should probably only take me…5 hours to read it. I’ll have it finished by tomorrow.” *Insert slightly confused amazement on our end HERE* We called him back Tuesday and sure enough, he had finished it & share his thoughts with us! He said he really liked it and loved how it all just made sense. He said he had already prayed about it & was “sure it was true…how soon can I get baptized?” *GOLDEN* We called him back Thursday to hear about his impressions on the General Conference talks we sent him. He loves President Monson, “he speaks so well & everything he says…sounds good!” He especially likes the Plan of Salvation. He’s planning on going to church on Sunday so he can find the missionaries & let them know he wants to be taught & baptized!!! He asked again about going on a mission – we are so keeping in touch with him :)

This week’s cooking creation: Caramelized Pineapple Cake Cookies! Hereby deemed: DELICIOUS!

Motorcoach #1: That’s right, I took my first motorcoach! For those of you who don’t spend your Summer months traveling the world, a motorcoach is a huge bus that seats 60 people & stops at major sites throughout the country. One of those “major sites” happens to be my mission :) We took 35 travel-loving Senior citizens from Nova Scotia around the Square Tuesday morning. It was so fun! It took the group a full 5 min to get seated in the Tabernacle and as we started talking the organist decided that would be prime time to start practicing. Genius. I love the organ, it’s a wonderful instrument but I have to say –those who play it tend to have the worst timing ever. We said what we could & let them enjoy the music for a minute. We moved them from the Flag Pole to the Assembly Hall & took a few questions at the end. We got a referral! It’s amazing for a Senior/English motorcoach :) I really enjoyed it though because you have to keep things VERY simple. You say a sentence & switch – it was great!

I read Sis Deaver’s update a few weeks ago where she was talking about members here actually appreciating what we do. I couldn’t help but smile as I recalled all the moments that members have been amazingly rude to us :) After such an experience this week Sis Nelson said, “Wait…that was really rude – wasn’t it?” It’s kind of funny to see how accustomed you get to people being ridiculously awkward or rude because we get it every day! But hey, we don’t mind. Story of the week is actually about a Sister Missionary serving in the area. As she scheduled a tour with me she said, “We need someone who can tell them the truth – but do it nicely. (Later) Basically, we need someone who has done this before.” [Impatiently & condescendingly.] I told her we do this every day & we’ll get someone on it. We talked with the Sister who took the tour & she said, “She was CRAZY!” Hahahahahaha we meet such interesting people on the mission :)

Miracle! We got flagged down to take a tour from the Airport Shuttle at West Gate. I am SO glad that we did. Ivan is originally from Bulgaria but now lives in the Southern USA. He’s in his mid-20’s and was traveling because he got a free ticket! We took him to the Assembly Hall & proceeded to sit and talk with him for the next 45 minutes – one of the best discussions of my mission. He asked about our missions, what it entails, if we think that getting cancer is a punishment from God etc. In the end, he was very impressed by our dedication, our happiness & our willingness to talk with him. He has friends who go to church every Sunday but are “idiots every other day”. He followed up with, “But you seem like…completely decent people!” *Insert moment of bliss HERE* In that moment that he said that and we could tell he really understood what we stood for, I felt legitimately appreciated. It was the best feeling ever. We only had 10 minutes left before we had to get him back to the shuttle so we took him to see the Temple display. We invited him for missionaries because we knew this is what he’s been looking for! He took the route of trying to get in touch with them first – which is never effective. I was confused because I could tell he really wanted to say yes, but something was holding him back. That morning we had worked on brainstorming effective questions & re-inviting –so it came in handy. In the end he told us that his visa had run out & therefore couldn’t have anyone know his address! So we got what information we could, said we would call him in the mean time & sent him off on the shuttle!

This week was absolutely fantastic. We have our ups & downs with the work but having a solid companion makes a BIG difference. Sister Nelson is an amazing missionary and is always pushing me to do my best – even if it means her pushing the DIAL button for a Spanish phone call :) We’ve been together TEN weeks & we’re still getting along great – working hard!

This church is so true. God loves each of us so much. Review the standards of the church & make sure you’re not just settling for being better than the world. We have a potential in this life that I think very few realize. We only do this life once – give it your ALL!

Lots of love,

Sis A. Despain