Week 7 Yet another week in Missionary Paradise

Dec. 22, 2014

WOW... This week has been crazy and we have been so busy, but not in the ways that we are planning. We had a plan and solid appointments set. We would get there and they fell through... basically ALL of them. We have had to do some house cleaning of our investigators and "drop" them from the list because they are not progressing :( which sucked and was hard... but we are going to reach out to them after this crazy Christmas season. :)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!! The first couple of weeks were rough and I was learning a crazy TON! but now I feel like a missionary and trust that I am here for a reason at THIS! time. :)

Investigators.: "J" cancelled on us... again. It is so hard when he says one thing and then does another. We don't think that he realizes that Satan is working REALLY HARD to get him to not be baptized, but we are working with him and he'll get there, so we have no baptismal dates... at all. It seems like our job right now is to do the ground softening which is hard work and we don't see many results. I mean think about it, in Spring if you want a garden you need to till or turn over the ground and when you are done the only noticeable difference is that the ground is a little darker.  BUT - it makes it possible for the seed to BE planted and be able to grow :) so its super important but hard at the same time.

The ward here is AMAZING!!!!!! They are all so generous and excited about missionary work. We have received sooo many gifts from them :) and we have SOOO MUCH FOOD! Everyone wants to make sure we have been fed these last few weeks so I really don't have to buy food this week. We have about two weeks worth of food, not to mention that we have dinner at least 3-5 times a week with members. We have a lot of food...we are so blessed.

Ok.... funny story... so last Monday we had dinner with a new family in the ward (the Tolman's) that moved from Utah... they live way out in the middle of nowhere and they invited both sets of missionaries (Elder Dickert and Elder Dixion and us). We finally found their house after turning around ALOT!
 

6 pm: We pull into the driveway and are late so we call the Elders to see if they were already there. We weren't sure if it was the right house. We asked them if they were already there and they said, "We are stuck in the mud". We thought they were joking but they weren't. We just sat there and laughed. We asked if they wanted us to send Bro Tolman but they said, "No."
 

6:30 pm: We went inside and chatted for about half an hour and then I texted the Elders to see if they were unstuck.... the answer was no... so we called them and sent Bro Tolman out to help. We had a nice long conversation with Sister Tolman (who is Brazilian! I come to Illinois and eat Brazilian food... SWEET! lol)
 

7:30 pm: An hour after we had sent Bro Tolman out, Sister Tolman calls her husband and finds out that BOTH cars were stuck and that they had called another member in the ward to come get both of them unstuck.

8 pm: We start eating dinner without the men....

8:30 pm: We leave and text the Elders to see if they are unstuck. FINALLY - after about 3 1/2 hours, they were unstuck and on their way to eat.... lol
 

We saw the Elders the next day at district meeting and their car was hilarious to see! It was COVERED in mud... and they showed us the inside... which was also covered in mud... lol

It is so awesome here. We are so blessed (even though our plans fall through).

I love you all and miss you... but I LOVE being here... so y'all just have to wait... (yes, they do say "y'all" here)

-Sister Brimley

Scriptures :)

D&C 50:25 and 3 Nephi 19:25 and Light of Christ in the Bible Dictionary... and look at the LIGHT! and what it can and will do!

 Sister Eschenbrenner

Indian Food from Aunt Dyann