Stories from Ruth #36

 

Against all odds I am pulling up a permanent residence here in Chelmsford. My new companion will be Sister Lezano which is kind of cool since she sat with me when the prophet came. Presjdent must have just looked at us and said "oh, those two are going to be companions."

Well I am excited but next transfer is going to be crazy. The only person staying in my district is Elder Schönemeier. The Maldon elders are getting whitewashed by Elder Smith who was the AP when I started my mission.

I am excited to stay. Honestly I love Chelmsford. Also it's one of the nicest areas in the mission which surprises me. To be honest I thought I would mostly serve in small, ghetto towns, but I am not complaining. The members here are amazing and so are the people we are teaching.

Harvey brings me hope that there are people who want to change. He is so sincere in his desire to

learn and to live the commandments. This week we taught him word of wisdom which he struggled to understand when the elders taught him. He used to drink green tea everyday with three tea bags inside. When we taught him this time we focused on why we keep the word of wisdom and how as we keep it we are better able to receive revelation from God. We showed him a video of a testimony from a missionary we knew and their struggle with green tea and he loved it. He committed to start living the word of wisdom and I know as he does it will be easier for him to receive revelation from God, because every commandment we do not keep estranges us from God. 

Every sin is also addictive and when our minds our clouded by sin it is hard to recognize answers from a still small voice. We also met him with Chloe, a recent convert from the other ward, he asked her a lot of questions about how it had helped her in her life. Then she testified of the sabbath day and to our joy he came on Sunday! Sister Strate and I were so happy! It is amazing because we can see how much happier he is already.

 

Ruth loves her little blender because she loves smoothies

On Thursday Sister Strate and I were directed to go to a certain street and there tract this certain area. Most of the houses were empty besides one guy who was atheist and never wanted to know God. Then after about ten or so houses a little Indian woman opens the door. We told her that we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she invited us in. That was the first time I have ever been invited in so I was a bit confused. We went in and sat down and taught her about the whole restoration and read some of the Book of Mormon with her. She loved it and said that she would tell her husband. The whole time while we were teaching her she was smiling. When we taught her about the apostasy and because of it there are so many different ways to baptize although in Ephesians it says one lord, one faith, and one baptism, she got excited because she always wondered why there were. We are going to visit her again on Wednesday. It was a miracle from the Lord.

This Week at Our House # 19 We Skype with Ruth

The highlight of this week happened today when we skyped with Ruth. She is looking beautiful, happy, and healthy, so I am satisfied. I loved talking to her and hearing her voice. All of the kids were so excited and had little things they wanted to say. The earlier parts of the week were average home school with a lot of gardening and yard work thrown in.

1. John continues to work hard on starting his business. He's developing games and starting a website to promote them. He continues to have Johnny and Adam work alondside him learning how to program and develope their own games and now he has Kate working on the art for his website. 
2. I have colorado potato beetles attacking my potatoes, so I have spent hours in the garden squishing and killing beetles. I think I am winning since my plants still look healthy. I heard that they can take out an entire crop in 2 weeks and that they have grown resistant to most pesticides both organic and industrial. I am pleased with the rest of my garden. I have lots of baby plants sprouting. The corn, onions, watermelon, honeydew, and yellow summer squash all began sprouting this week. I will plant another set of corn on Saturday, so we get corn twice. I started to see if I can get some sweet potato slips so we can grow sweet potatoes, but I may have started that too late. Anyway, I am enjoying being outdoors so much, and having the kids there playing or helping.
3. Ruth is looking as beautiful as ever. Maybe even prettier than she used to. She has one investigator that really wants to know truth, and that has made her mission so far.
4. Kate always worries about her ducklings, whether they are too hot, or too cold or eating the right or wrong things. It's cute. I think I know what she will be like as a first time mom. Kate was so excited about talking to Ruth that she forgot it was mother's day. She even walked through the stores wondering why their were roses and things out everywhere. Now she is sitting in bed feeling depressed because she is no longer talking to Ruth.
5. Johnny has been the most helpful person trying to make sure I have a good mother's day. 
6. Josh named his chick "cutie pecky". Adam nicknamed Josh's chick, "hecky pecky" and it has stuck for everyone except Josh. Adam is my main garden helper. He comes out whenever I am out and waters and weeds and digs. He was the one who helped me figure out how to set up a temporary chicken run so we could move the chicks outside without having to run to the store first. And he will probably be the one to help me paint the deck and repair the room in the next few weeks.
7. Rachel read 10 books over two weeks and I let the kids get food treats for each book that they read between my grocery shopping trips. Rachel choose simply orange juice and the best cut of steak that the store sold. She has refined tastes and big ambitions.
8. Anya has been writing lots of poems and little rhymes and is just doing a great job with them everyday. She recited a couple to Ruth.
9. Joseph has been wearing his favorite fleece superman pajamas while we have been having 90 degree weather. I asked him why and he said because when he wears these pajamas he is never cold.
10. When I finally got to cleaning and organizing the garage, I was able to make the play area I had planned on making. The kids have loved it spent lots of time there. Joshua has spent hours there since I used his birthday money to get him some play dough and he has loved it. 
11. John was watching youtube videos of blue whales with Josh and Arwen and Arwen said, "It looks like a giant cucumber!" I thought that was an accurate description. Josh felt insulted for the blue whales.
12. John has always used this plastic dinosaur to tease the girls by having the dinosaur say lovey-sappy things to them. John calls it the "romatisaurus". He got Suzy to shout out, "I am not Lila!" by having the romantisaurus say things like, "I love you, my lovely Lila." But now the the romantisaurus is sleeping, Suzy is back to saying she is "Wiwa."
13. Sam is 18 months now!!! He won't go to nursery anytime soon, though. John and I were gone for three hours this week getting our temple recommends and Sam cried the whole time, even though he was home and had all of his siblings.

Pictures

We had this old fashioned plain doing tricks in the air over our house.

Our play area in the garage and the kids enjoying playdough with their playdough toys that have been in storage for two years.

Our temporary outdoor chicken run. We plan to build a wooden frame to connect it to, so it can be moved around the yard.

The Best Mother's Day Present

The kids had been saying, Sunday is Ruth Day!! Indeed it was and we are so grateful that we got to see her beautiful face and hear her voice!

Stories from Ruth #35

I have seen a lot of miracles this transfer. We are teaching a lot of solid people and a lot of people who actually take time to read the Book of Mormon. Harvey reads parts over and over again until he understands it. James read Alma 40-41 like we told him to and then read the whole introduction and up to chapter 4. Chris is in Helaman after reading it for a month. 

To me it is wonderful to see so many people who read and love the Book of Mormon. This week James was just telling us what parts of the bible to Book of Mormon makes clear and really enjoys it. Harvey is reading it and intensely searching for answers. He really learns from everything we teach. It gives me a lot of hope, because he lets the spirit teach him. He was never christian but he is willing to act and learn more than any investigator I have taught on my mission. If he has a question he asks and he seeks for answers and understanding. Lately I have begun to lose hope in people. I felt like no one wants to know the truth. People feel good but they do not want to change. They are comfortable within their sins. Seeing Harvey, Denise, and James, has really changed that a bit for me. I know that if they are not baptized now, they will be at some point. They will all read the Book of Mormon and they will all receive that witness of its truth. President Keiron was baptized after 9 months. Sometimes conversions are not immediately seen, but we are seeing them change.

It is hard most days I feel like Moroni who says that he prayed for them but had no faith because of their wickedness. Harvey especially has helped me to realize that people will seek to change and seek truth. No one who met with the elders for a month would keep meeting eith the missionaries who they did not know, six months later if they did not feel that it was not in part true. If they did not feel that this is where God is. Not in some other church but here. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Denise has not responded to us this week, but she has exams and is moving, but I am still worried. However, I have faith that if she is not baptized now, she will be later.

This Week at Our House #18 More Company at Briarhovel

John's parent's did an Eastern state tour visiting their many children east of the Mississippi that coincided with John's sister being sealed to her husband. We got Grandma and Grandpa Robertson Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They left right after Sacrament meeting this morning. We were happy to see them. It has been two and a half years.

1. John continues to work and work and work. And still no job, but he is getting his business going and his first product-- a computer game-- is nearly finished. He got to test it on his dad and decided to make it easier. John's dad also brought him two old phones that are new enough to test his games on and that is very important as our old phones are too old.
2. I really enjoyed visiting with my mother in law. She was very patient listening to all my little opinions and she took me shopping and bought us needful things and things for my garden and a gas powered lawn mower. Both Grandma and Grandpa helped me with my garden and taught me how to plant corn. 
3. Ruth's investigator had a dream that she needed to be baptized. This was huge because one thing the missionaries have trouble with understanding that not all baptism into all Christian churches is the same. And in one week, I get to talk to her!!!!
4. Kate thought about going home with her grandparents to get her mission stuff done in Utah, but John said no. He does not want her to leave early, so she has to wait until our ward stuff is straightened out.
5. Johnny's game is coming along well. He now has levels and bosses. He has worked harder on this than anything I have ever seen him work on. I have been thinking that I need to look up contests for him to enter his game in.
6. Adam enjoyed his Grandpa a lot. He followed him around and talked to him. I think Adam likes a lot of the same things as his grandpa.
7. Rachel enjoyed her Grandma and the new chicks and still got in plenty of time for reading and lego play.
8. We got some more chicks. I went to a garden nursery and they had 3 and 4 week old chicks. I was so excited. We had 3 of the 5 original day old chicks die. I had looked up how much it would cost to get 4 week old chicks online and it was $20 a chick. The ones at the nursery were only $3. Anya was excited because her chick was one that died and we got an older one that looked very similar. Anya then said a prayer of thanks that we were able to afford older chicks.
9. We gave Joseph a 4 week old chick that already has most of its feathers. Joseph named it gold eagle because it's light brown and has big wings. Joseph also enjoyed his grandparents, especially playing games late at night and working in the garden.
10. Joshua loves his chick too much. He wants to hold it constantly. I hope his little chick can survive him. We have talked to him a lot, but he doesn't listen very well.
11. Arwen really enjoyed meeting her grandparent's again. She was young enough when we moved, that she did not remember them at all.
12. Suzy enjoyed her grandma. One of things both grandma's noted about Susan is that she changes her clothes several times a day. I think 4 to 6 times is her average. I think she really likes clothes. Tonight we had some interesting, intense, and stormy clouds that scared Susan a lot. Adam and Joseph went closer to them, and Susan was running after them and crying and telling Adm to get in the house and stay in the house. 
13. Sam had a fever most of the time his grandparents were here, so he was not his cute self, but I am glad that got to meet him.

Pictures

Stories from Ruth # 34

This is my favorite email from Ruth so far:

 

This week has also been full of miracles! Last pday we spent it with the Braintree elders and Jess Tofpik (a return missionary from Brazil in our ward) and went to Preto which is a lot like Tucanos.
The Lord loves to test our faith. Sister Strate and I felt promoted to talk to the dudes in the skate park. So we did. We walked into the middle of the skatepark and started talking to this guy with a skateboard and his friend actually came up and was listening. Then he told us that he beleived in God although most of his other friends did not. He was super chill. We did not end up meeting with him, but he was very interested and invested in the conversation.

Over a month ago there was this 17 year old boy the elders were teaching who came to church to church twice and then had to be referred to us, because he is in our area. A little before they referred him he disappeared. No one was able to get into contact with him. Then we received our smartphones and whatsapp! We were able to get into contact with him! He told us he had seen our messages but had not been able to reply because he did not have data which whatsapp does not require. We asked if we could meet him and go over the Book of Mormon with him which we did. He also came to church with us on Sunday and enjoyed it. He gets along really well with the youth and had a lot of fun. It was wonderful to see.    

On Friday we taught Denise and at the beginning of the lesson she we talked about Alma seven and she had read that and some more pages. She felt like it was pointing her to come unto Christ and a new beginning. She then told us how for a while she had not been studying the bible like she should and then we brought the Book of Mormon which was familiar and new like Alma 7:11. Denise began to tell us that she had had a dream a few days previous and she told us she said this was going to sound crazy since she had already been baptized but she felt like she needed to be baptized again. We told her that we were planning to invite her to be baptized that lesson and she was speechless. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she said yes. We talked about prophets and she loved it. She said prophets and apostles were beautiful. She understood the authority. And she was told about priesthood blessings. Esther early on felt impressed to speak on Lehi's dream, so we did. We told her about Lehi's dream and she loved it, wrote it down, and her baptismal date, a scripture from d&c (be still and know that I am God), and Neal A Maxwell quote ("God does not send thunder when a still small voice is enough"). Also she asked Esther to send her conference notes about revelation. Esther taught her about the holy spirit and how we can the gift of the holy spirit with us all the time after we are baptized. Sister Strate and I taught about baptism and the relevance of the sacrament and how vital it is.

 

This week my spiritual thought is about the armies of Helaman:
Alma 53:20 "And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
21 Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him."

If we want to live with God again we too need to be valaint, for those who are not valiant cannot dwell in the kingdom of heaven. In the bible it talks about how we need to be valiant in Christ's name if we want him to declare ours before the father. We need to seek to know him and become worthy enough to live with him and the father again if we are to declare his name. We must and can become that perfect and worthy to be taught directly by him and must be if we are to be like him, for we cannot be like and cannot declare the name of a person we do not know.