July 25, 2011

well, let me tell you just how this week started off shall I? It was really funny. On Tuesday, we went over to Willard's to teach him new member lessons. so we were talking with him on his porch and then he asked that we go inside his house to get him a drink of water. So we do so. We come back out and sister nelson shuts the door all the way and that is not good. Willard did not have his key and the door was locked! We locked willard out of his house. haha. oops. We start brainstorming up ideas. We tried to open up his front window but people here paint the wood around the window and that in return paints them shut. Whoever thought of that idea failed. haha. Then we went to a persons house that was just around the corner and this person is a lock smith so we thought maybe he could figure out how to get us in. But that person was not home. bummer. We called some other locksmiths to figure out what the price would be if we were to get them to come over and let us in and it was 30 dollars. Not bad i guess. We get back to willards house and then we walk around the house seeing if there were any windows that we could open. There were not many choices. Willard settled on getting one of the windows open and he said he wanted a brick to throw through the window but we insisted that we come up with another idea first. I tried to do something with his cane and I ended up putting a crack in the window. that was not good. So, we brainstorm some more and then we remember that we had some people working on our house and we were thinking that maybe they would have a crowbar. So, we walk home and go up to a worker and we said, "do you happen to have a crowbar?" The worker looks over to find two sister missionaries and says, "You are the last two people that I would ever expect to ask for a crowbar." hahahaha. then he found one and he says it is a little rusty but then we said, "we are not scared to get dirty." :) We go back over to willards and his friend showed up and helped us. We got the window open with a crow bar, a couple sticks for leverage, and finally a jack. We got the window open so that I would be able to get through it. I was the smallest one so i had to do it. I did it really gracefully for being in a skirt. :) We did not break any more glass but when we tried to close it, then the glass got broken. Willard told us not to worry about it though so I guess we won't. Yes, that was an interesting morning.

We met this lady on tuesday and her name is Kathy Gross. She is so cool. The first time we tried to meet her, her husband answered the door and he was not very nice to us. We were praying that she would answer the door. She did and she is this west indies lady and she is about 4 foot 11. Very short and she is about in her 60s. she is fun. We got her as a referal. Her friend lives in Hawaii and we got a phone call from her and said that she gave kathy a book of mormon a long while ago and wanted kathy to be taught. SO COOL. We were talking to kathy and she eventually said something about the book of mormon. She said that she believes in it to be a word of god and thinks that everyone should read it. She believes it. I hope she will want to be baptized soon. :)

Wednesday night we were planning on tracting and I felt as if we should go see another referral that we got. We have been trying to contact this referal for a long while. We go over to the house and we are always running into the father of the house. We were looking for a meagan wyatt. The fathers name is randall. he is a preacher, or used to be. His doctrines that he teaches DO NOT go along with our doctrines or alot of peoples doctrines. I get a headache every time that we have to talk to him. We have talked to him three times and it is just not cool. So this was going to be the last time that we would probably to go over there. We get there and randall is outside as usual. He says, "Meagan is here today" YEAHHHHHHH. We walk up and then this boy comes up to us and says, "I think you are looking for me." We were confused. Then he explained that he had talked with some elders in a different area and had a word of wisdom pamphlet. His name is logan So the referal was wrong and I guess meagan sounds like logan? anyways, logan said we could go out and sit on a swing area and so we do. Just us three. Then here comes randall. I roll my eyes to myself. Randall is getting really contentious with his son and i finally spoke out loud and said, "You know, we are not here to be contentious and figure out all the problems so we are going to move onto a question that logan has. (turning to logan) you had a question about..." I was getting really frustrated with randall. Throughout our visit logan got up and left and came back 3 times. He was getting mad at his father. The last time that he left, i felt prompted to do something. He started coming back and i just got up in the middle of randall's sentence and said that I would be right back and then I started to walk towards logan. Logan had a big smile on his face. I asked him if we would be able to come back and preferably somewhere else or without his father. He laughs and then we go sit on the back of a pickup truck. Then we talk for thirty min and it was a good talk. I felt the spirit so much. Logan is searching for truth and he can not find it. He has so so so so many questions and his dad makes those questions confusing and does not really answer them. So I was able to answer all of his questions simply. There was a big storm coming so we left and had another appointment with him the next day. On the way home, it was stressful. It down poured and it was dark and I could hardly see and I had to slow way down. The streets were flooding pretty bad but we were able to get home. Then next day, we had a three hour conversation with him! three hours went by so fast. He was just popping out question after question. I like logan alot. :)

I need to end this letter. We don't have much time today but know that I love you all.

Love, Sister Amanda Ralph

July 18, 2011

hello! This week was a pretty good week. It was really strange to not have a baptism this weekend. Maybe in a couple weeks we will have a couple more baptisms. That challenge of 5 baptism dates, mom, is going to be a real challenge but it can happen. Just have to have lots of faith and prayers. Not much has really happened this week. We got our car back on tuesday. The alternator was broke and the battery was dead. On tuesday we could not find anyone to give us a ride to the car shop so we decided to walk it. It ended up being a 2 mile walk and it was not as hot as it was on monday and it only took 45 to walk it. We were walking with purpose. :) I am very very glad to have the car back.

We met with Judy Jones' mom this week. She is becoming more and more interested. She will be baptized as soon as she stops her coffee drinking and gain a testimony about that. We want to teach her more than we are able to. She lives too far away.

We were finally able to meet with Kendra this week. We have been trying to discern her needs and how dedicated she really is. She is not really all that dedicated though. We asked her how her reading is going in the book of mormon and she says it is going good and then she attempts to tell us what is going on. She says, "I think it is about a guy named Aprhomani and he is trying to tell us how bad being wicked is." We just smiled and said, "um, not quite." It reality she was totally wrong. Haha. She can't fool us. :) when we were talking, she was smoking and the smoke was going right into my face so I felt like a smoker. It was so hard to breathe. She got up and left for a couple seconds and I turned over to sister nelson and I said, "How is that smoking going for you?"

We had a scare of LICE. we were visiting this part member family and they do not live in the cleanest inviroment. they have dogs that get let out and then brought back into the house and I am sure that there are a million of fleas everywhere. I have been bitten by fleas before so I was not too concerned for that. We left and the next night we get a phone call from Bishop telling us that they have lice! The little girl has lice and i touched her hair to feel it because I wanted to. It was just a couple seconds though. The mom has lice too and I gave her a hug. And I guess the dog has lice and we played with the dog. Sister nelson more than me. We were sooo concerned about this. We really didn't want to have lice. But it has been a couple days and we do not have lice thankgoodness. We will not be visiting them for a while. :)

We went tracting and had a good experience...or not. This lady come out of her house and shut the door and then she looked at our tags. We had not said anything just How are you? She looked at our tags and then looked a bit scared and said, "the church of jesus christ of latterday saints? no thankyou. I am not interested." then she went back inside quickly. I wanted to say why not but she shut the door too quickly.

The last thing that happened that I think is worth mentioning is that we got hit on by a person that was very much high on pills. We were talking to a guy outside of these apartments and this drunk guy is in his car with the door opened and he starts to say, "do you want to know what I think?" We stated what he thought and pointed to a plan of salvation tattoo on his arm. That was pretty unusual to hear someone say the plan of salvation that is not of our faith. Sister nelson goes to talk to him for a little bit and he asked her to date him. She politely says no. He leaves for a while and comes back and says, "Do you want to know what song I really like? Itzy Bitzy Spider." he then proceeds to sing us the song. hahaha. it was so funny. He then leaves but keeps yelling to us trying to get us to go out with him. crazy drug people.

anyway. That is pretty much it. :)
have a great fantastic week. :) Sister Amanda Ralph

July 11, 2011

This week was a really good week. We are struggling to get more people to teach. That limits the baptisms we are able to have but this week we have a ton more time to go tract and find people. We are going to try to look for Mr Moseley and hopefully we will be able to find him. We as a zone for missionaries, are doing a fast. One missionary gets a day to fast and that has helped out a whole bunch in finding people to teach. One companionship has gotten 5 baptism dates within the last couple days. It is crazy. Pray that we will find elect people to teach this week. :)
We met our new Mission President. His name is President Woodbury. He is a great guy. He has the voice of President Greer and it is kind of strange. He is a great guy and he will be able to do marvelous things. I love his wife. She is so...spunky? so excited I guess to be there. She is very musical and has sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 9 years. That is pretty cool. :)
Thursday night we were able to do something that was quite awkward. There is a member who lives at an apartment complex and on thursday nights there is a church devotional thing. This member is Brother Mink. He really wanted us to go tract by his apartments and we were able to meet sherri so it was a good thing. well brother mink also wanted us to come to this devotional thing and we were kind of dragging our feet because we did not want to step on anyones toes. Well, we ended up going this thursday making it completely clear that we would not be teaching anything and that we would just listen. So we went and it was pretty fun but really different then The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. We first went in and it was a little awekward at first but people were very nice to us. I want to teach some people that were there but I don't know if they would be open to that. Well, we ate dinner first and that was good. Then they started to sing songs and brother mink was playing the electric guitar and he soooooo good. He is one of the better guitarists I have ever heard. It was amazing because if you look at him he does not look like he would be that good but he certainly was. Then there was a guest speaker and he spoke about why we worship. It was good. I felt the spirit sometimes. He said some things that were not correct doctrine but over all it was good. I found out a couple interesting things that don't seem to invite the spirit all that well. They were always saying Amen in the middle of the speech and some hallelujahs. it was certainly strange. I think that the strangest thing ever was when all of a sudden the preacher would break out into prayer. Then i would kind of bow my head and think it was strange and then the preacher would go on with his speech. I do not think that we will go back as missionaries. :)
We left after that and there was a sign that had Sister Nelson's nick name on it and so we pulled over into the gas station and took a picture of it really quick. We were out of the car for only 30 secs. I should not have taken the keys out of the ignition. When I went back into the car, the car would not start at all. When I put in the key, it would do some strange clicking sounds and the car would not start at all. I was very confused. I was thinking that the car was thinking we were trying to steal it. But we were not trying to I promise. Haha. We ended up having to call a member to come and jump us. We figured out that it might have been the battery. The car did start after 3 min of charging. I now know how to jump a car. not all that difficult really. :) We got home safely and on time. The next day, in the morning, we tried the car again. It would not start. Then later that day, a tow truck came to take our car to a dealership to figure out what exactly was wrong with it. We have been without a car for a couple days now and it is not all that fun. It has been the longest I have been without a car ever. I don't much like it. We have been relying on the ward which is a good thing but it is more burdensome. We have good members though. We found out that the alternator is bad and the battery is dead. They had to order a part and it will be fixed by tomorrow morning. I am going to be happy to have a car back especially because it is soooo hot outside. It was feeling really good for a long time. Today is the hotest it has been all year.
Okay. The Baptism. It was oh so funny. the interview was on friday and Elder Tuescher came all the way from Mckee to interview him but he forgot one essential thing...the interview paper. We didn't have any with us at that time and had no car to get home to get one. It was pretty funny. Elder Tuescher talks ALOT and the interview went longer than we thought. We ended up having to go but we knew that willard would pass. The elders came by the house to get the interview paper and Elder Tuescher signed what he needed to sign. Then they left. We were able to talk to the member who was going to baptize Willard. His name is Brother Williams. He is a great guy. Brother williams and willard have a lot it common. They are best friends now. Brother williams has not done a baptism before. This would be his first time. He was a little nervous buy confident that he would be able to do it. Willard had a stroke and so immersing him would be a little different. I was praying that Bro. williams would be able to do it. I knew it was going to be a weird one. so we got willard all prepped for his batism. We got him in his jumpsuit and then the talk on baptism was said and done and then it was time to get him baptized. We were waiting at the baptismal font. The doors were closed to the font so we could not see anything for a while. They got willard into the water and bishop came around and was opening the doors. (oh a side note. We had another member, steven rodriguez at the edge of the steps just in case bor williams needed help in getting willard back up). As bishop was opening the doors, bro. williams hand was already up and he was saying the ordinance and I thought that he was just practicing but all of a sudden there goes willard. He he in the water and then bro williams is struggling to get willard back up. Steven is in the back ground and he is starting to get into the water and he slips into the water. Not fully thankgoodness. He just got his shorts wet. it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny. I was laughing so hard. It was a struggle to get composer again. There were no witnesses for the baptism so they had to do it again. This time it was a little bit better. I was laughing still and willards face was so funny. We found out later that he got water in his eyes and in his nose because he had a hard time getting back up. But it was done. It was a close one but it got done. :) I was pretty much laughing the whole entire time and instead of going back to the piano to play some interlude music while willard got changed, I had to go to the bathroom to gain composer. I was crying. Literally tears were falling down my face as I was laughing about what happened. I couldn't help it. It will be by far the best most memorable baptisms in my life. :) The next day, willard almost did not get confirmed. The person he gets a ride with was there and willard was not there. There was ten min til the start of the meeting and willard had to be there. The person said that the door was open to the house but willard was not there. We pretty much told him that he needed to go back and get willard. It took a long time. There was supposed to be ward business and there was none because willard was not there. I got done playing the sacrament hymn and walks in willard. Phew. he made it. I was so so so so so happy that we was there. Then there was ward business and he got confirmed and it was amazing. Before willard sat down he was welcomed into the ward and then bishop got up and said that willard had been interviewed and found worthy to hold the priesthood. Willard is now a priest and that is pretty much amazing. He loves being baptized. :) He has a new light in his eyes and it is great.

Okay. I love you all. I hope this week is a great week for yuns. I love you very very much.
Amanda

July 5, 2011

This week was such a good week. It went by really fast and I have a feeling that this week is going to go by equally as fast. Judy Jones got baptized this weekend and it was great. We taught her on tuesday and she was very concerned about tithing but she prayed about it and figured out a way how she would be able to pay her tithing. She was concerned because of her husband not wanting to pay tithing. Then she said if he complained about her paying tithing, she would bring up that they spen over 100 dollars on cigarettes. haha. We had spearmint tea with judy on tuesday. Don't worry it was good tea. the Herbal tea that you can drink. It was really good. It was the best tea I have drunk. I have tried peppermint tea and I did not like that so much. Judy also told us a way that we could speed up our metabolism. It does not sound very good but I guess it would help. You take 2 tsp of Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 tsp of honey and 8 oz of water. (tessa this is not for you because you are so so so stinkin skinny. haha. if you want to you can). I am going to try it. We shall see how it works out. The baptism was absolutely wonderful. She passed her interview with flying colors. She brought her mother with her and I do believe that we will be able to baptize her as well. her moms name is mary smith. That is cool. Mary is funny. She pretends like she is not interested but then she all of a sudden gets interested but then doesn't get interested. Deep down I believe that she wants to be baptized and that she believes.

We are teaching a lady named Sherry Taylor. She is very dear to my heart. I love her. She is 55 years old but she looks 65. She is not in good health at all but she is very sweet. She wants to know more about the gospel. We are working on getting her a big book of mormon so she can start to read it. She really wants to know. I believe that she will get baptized. She has a granddaughter named April and she is 12 years old. She is a little bit autistic. She loves us. We were over at their house last night for 4th of july and some of their family were over. April had the chance to go outside but she told her family, "I am going to stay here and spend time with my sisters." I felt special. Eariler in the week we had a lesson with Sherry about the plan of salvation. It was good. It was really good. In the middle of the lesson Sherry started testifying of what the plan meant for her. I was starting to tear up. Tears were just flooding my eyes. It was crazy. She is very special lady. She gets depressed alot and that is hard to deal with sometimes. One day this week we were able to go over and do some service for her. We cleaned her kitchen. She is not used to people doing stuff for her. She is always doing for others and not letting others do for her. We started cleaning and she was getting very shakey. she asked that we come over to her and pray for her. we did so and it was amazing the difference in her countenance. She was not shaking nearly as much. when sister nelson said Amen i immediately thought that April needed to read the book of mormon. So we gave april a book of mormon and she started reading and almost immediatley sherry was so much better. She was not shaking and she was having fun with the conversation we were having. The spirit is amazing. It helps out so so so much.

We had a dinner appointment with the Truett's. They are a great family. Just him and her. They are old. in their 80s. They like fish. So we go over and Bishop is there and he gave us some great news. He had just got finished meeting with Jackie Sturgill and had a great experience. He was talking to Jackie and a random guy come up to them and says, "you must be doing something good. They get into a conversation and this guys name is Mr. Moseley. It turns out that mre moseley has read the book of mormon and the doctrine and covenants and he knows that the prophet joseph smith is a true prophet! Holy smokes. How cool is that? He lives not too far from us either. It is really really cool. I can't wait to start teaching him and get him baptized. I hope we are able to find him. Mr moseley is supposed to talk to bishop so we shall see. Then we eat dinner. that is the really really bad news. They say, You ready for some fish fillets? I almost gag. I say yeah that sounds great when I am just crying why why why do we have to have fish? It was very very nasty store bought fish. I douced it in ketchup. One time we ate catfish and that was not very good as well. I am not a fishy person. :) One time we went over to another members and we had salmon. That was not all that bad actually but it still was not my favorite. The people here love fish and I am going to have to start liking it some time I believe.

There was another very exciting experience. Willard. He will be getting baptized this weekend. He came to Judy's baptism and he felt the spirit so much. He was very much glowing. Well, afterwards, he wanted a blessing. Bishop had willard and a member named Brother Williams come into the office. We went as well. Bro. williams had never annointed with oil before or gave a blessing so this was very new to him. It was very excited to experience. Brother williams annointed with oil with bishop wispered in his ear what to say. Then bishop gave the blessing. Bishop was saying things that he had no idea was going on in willard's life. It is all that willard needed help with. He was really listening to the spirit. Willard was very excited for the blessing. It said he would get full health back from his stroke if he were to rely on the lord and stay strong. it was so cool. Later this week he has felt really good and he has felt the spirit of the lord and he is determined to fight off the adversary this week. He wants so much to be baptized. He is so excited. I am excited. Everyone is excited. Willard has been telling me the whole time that we have taught him that I am a perfect example of a lady. haha. He then said he had the perfect name for me. Miss America. hahaha. That is sweet of him. He also says I am pure as a snowflake. I try to be a lady and I try to be pure so it is working I guess. :)

Well, I believe that is all that happened. It was such a good week and it is going to be even better this week. I find out transfer news this saturday. Today we are going to meet our new mission president. Their names are President and Sister Woodbury. Life is great. And I hope you all think so too. :) I love you all. Love amanda.

June 27, 2011

so this week was pretty much amazing. I was expecting it to be a very difficult week becauwse of the baptism this weekend but it was not as bad as any of the other baptisms. it was amazing. Jackie Lee Sturgill got baptized on June 25th, 2011 at 3:00pm and confirmed the next day. It was a great experience. We taught Jackie a couple more lessons this week and they were all easy lessons. He was very excited to get baptized. On Friday night, the interview took place. It was taking a really long time. I was worried that maybe he was not going to pass. We eventually had to knock on the door so it could end. The members who took jackie to the interview had to go and we also had to go because we walked to the church. It takes a five min drive to go to the church but takes an hour to walk to church. Craziness. on the way to the church for the interview we had a very eventful walk. We met a man named C.D. no joke. He told a story and I don't know if I trust this one or not but he said that his older brothers found him at a City Dump and took him to his mother and that is what the mother called him. haha. What a funny man. Then we walked and there is a jehova church called kingdom hall and I guess I said, "I don't really want to tract here" and then sister nelson said "why? it is next to kingdom hall!" She said it really loud and she motioned her arm towards the church. As she finished doing that we looked to our left and we saw people sitting out on their porch. Yikes. They were not smiling either. I was totally not expecting sister nelson to say that and when I saw those people I just busted out laughing. It was so funny. I still laugh at this moment about it. Half in disbelief that sister nelson said that and half at the looks of those peoples faces.

Jackie ended up passing his interview. The next day he got baptized. He brought a friend with him and his name is Michael. He looked promising as maybe a new investigator. We found out that he is already a member and not active. We got pictures with Jackie and then he got into his jumpsuit. We were so nervous that he would not be able to fit into the suit becuase he is so tall. He fit though. Phew. Then he got baptized after a talk that was given. It was wonderful. It is always nice to see the results of your labor. His face was priceless and one that cannot be described. The next day he was confirmed and that was great as well. He feels a little overwhelmed for some reason but I think he is just thinking alot. I hope things will go great still.

Oh. Michael. He flirted with me. Yeah. It was gross and I wonder why i am being cursed with guys flirting with me. Ever since I have moved to Corbin, there have been a lot more ment that flirt with me. I am getting a little annoyed by it. Sometimes it is really funny. Michael was way over the top though. I was nicer than I should have been but he gave me his email address and that was that. It was weird and I probably will not be emailing him. I wanted to say this to him, "I will not email you when I get home because you are not an active member of the church and I have way more higher standards in my future husband and you don't even come close to it." Haha. That would have been very very bold of me to say. I should have said it. haha.

I gave a talk yesterday. Guess what it was all about? Missionary Work. It was perhaps the easiest talk I have ever written. When I got up my voice was shaking so much. I was nervous for some reason. Maybe because there were alot more people out in the congregation than I am used to. Wait til i get home. There are going to be alot more in the congregation. Yikes. When I got up to talk, I ran into a scripture that I wanted to read but I realized I forgot my scriptures and so i said, "I want to read a scripture but I need to go get my scriptures." then I left the pulpit and got my scriptures. It was great. n

So we had a great experience with Willard this week. He has been really stubborn about baptism. This week was different though. He has been able to correct some of the things he has done in the past. That allowed the spirit to be more in his heart. Sister Nelson and I had no idea what else we could do and then the spirit took over this lesson. We talked about the five steps of the gospel. Faith Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Endure to the end. We told him that his first baptism was different than the one in the church of jesus christ. The first baptism he had faith and then he got baptized but he got baptized in his sins. He was living with someone at the time. He totally skipped repentance. This one would be different beause we would make sure that he was clean and pure. We asked him what he thought about that. He said, "you could be right." then we waited for a couple seconds, maybe 10, and then he pipes up and says," Acutally, I know you are right." We got a bright smile on our face and we were both thinking the same thing. "we have already asked him to be bapitzed so many times should we do so now?" Then he said, "the spirit told me." Then we jumped on the opportunity and asked him to be baptized. He said yes!!! He wants to be baptized on the 9th of July!!! Woohoo!!!. I am excited for this one.

Judy Jones has been making great strides as well this week. She knows that this is christ's church. She is going to be baptized this weekend, (july 2nd). We will have had three baptisms in a row. Not on the same week. Why? everyone is special. well, the real reason is because we didn't know when Jackie would be moving and so he needed to get baptized as soon as he could, judy wanted us to for sure be there for her baptism, and willard wants to make sure he is out of his situation so he wanted the 9th. It is going to be great. The weeks are going by fast and they are fun. :) So, yeah. We need more solid people to teach now. We don't really have that many elect people anymore. We shall search for them somehow.

I don't really have anything else to say really. I have a crazy awesome shoe tan though. It will be gone by the winter so you won't be able to see it but it is cool. I love you all very very much. Love amanda