Bird Dropping - May 2, 2016

Note from Mamma Millington:

Lexi's  subject line for this note --So a bird Pooped on my head

 

I've discovered what it means to be a missionary. It means being pooped on and forgetting until you shower the next morning. #focused

Okay so this week! Man, time flies when you're having fun! It feels like I was just sitting here telling you about all the crazy things that happened last week. This week was pretty eventful too, we had some of the strangest lessons I've had so far! 

So we met with Israel! He was the one that texted us and said he wanted us to teach him the word of God. We went and knocked on his door and after waiting a minute, he walked up behind us from the street and invited us to sit on some couches on his front porch. And OH MAN. He was intoxicated. I mean, I don't have a lot of experience with drunk people, but wow. We could totally smell it on him. And oh man, Spanish is hard enough when the person speaking is sober! Needless to say, it was an interesting lesson. He started out by asking us about the apocalypse and the giant animals that are going to take over the world.. We weren't quite sure what to say except that we don't know a lot about the apocalypse, but we do know that Jesus Christ will come again! Then we tried to get through the Plan of Salvation. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but he ended up quizzing us on the ten commandments.. Haha luckily we've got them all down! Then he randomly asked us if he could find a woman in our church because his woman had just left him.. We told him we weren't sure. Wow. Anyway, he finally ended up telling us that he was super drunk (surprise) and I told him that it was ineffective for us to try to teach him when he couldn't think straight or make any sense. I even said "you can't feel the love of God when you're not making any sense." Hahaha oh man, I've got a lot to learn as a missionary and as a Spanish speaker. But it's true! When you're way drunk you can't do anything! And I'm not sure how this one happened either, but he suddenly started launching into this dream of his to have a son. He started crying and talking about how he wants to watch his son walk and when he falls, he wants to pick him up and give him a hug.. It was way awkward because tears were just streaming down his face and we didn't know what to say! But we told him that we would love to come back and talk to him more about the word of God when he can think straight.. Wow, it was something else for sure. We haven't seen him since, but we're trying to stay in touch with him and hopefully sober Israel wants to hear the word of God too! Hahaha. Good times good times.

Also I forgot to mention something last week! On our way up to the fireside in Eatontown on Sunday we saw some Jews on wave-riders in this little pond in the middle of Lakewood. And they were still in their church clothes!! Oh man. I've gotten so used to seeing yamikas and suits all over the place, it's not even weird. Also the stereotype about Jews being bad drivers is SO true. Oh Lakewood. Also we had transfer calls last night and SURPRISE! Sister Pace and I are staying right here :) but I know one of our elders is leaving, one of our sister training leaders is leaving, and our zone leader is leaving too. So things will be different around here! But I'm glad to have another six weeks here and another six weeks with Sister Pace as my trainer. 

So I've been working on some family history stuff that's pretty sweet! I was working on finding more documents for Washington Lemmon. What a good guy. The lady who does the Family History Center here (Sister La'Faund... I don't know if that's how you spell it, but I'm just now realizing how similar it is to La-fawn-duh. but these ladies couldn't be more different. Hahahaha) is way serious about family history. She tells me every time that this is the most important work we can do because this is the book we will present to the Lord. So y'all back home better get working on your family history work too! Don't get struck down! 

We had a couple interesting adventures on Thursday to find wifi, including walking to a Dunkin' Donuts and walking to a Panera! We got some good food, but we didn't eat healthy at ALL that day. We also tried to walk to a less-actives house and see her because we've been trying to call her for weeks and haven't gotten an answer. But we still didn't find her. Honestly we aren't sure if she's still alive.. She might be in New York at the doctor still. Anyway, crazy stuff. We're praying for her. BUT good news! SERGIO IS ALIVE!! We haven't seen him in weeks, but our relief society president told us yesterday that she got a hold of him and he should be returning back to his home today! So we'll keep calling him and hopefully be able to go see him soon! Another recent convert of ours was lost for a while, but now is found! He was blind, and now he sees. Haha jk, but he did break his leg and his phone. So that was a bummer! But he's improving and he should be getting a new phone tomorrow, so all is well there too :)

So the day I got pooped on. That was Saturday. We'd had our ESL class at the library that morning and then got some KFC for lunch (thanks, dad! :)) and then we were doing some studies at High Point. We got out and walked around for a while, and then I felt something fall on my head.. But it was a little bit of a cloudy day (a cloudy week, actually) so I didn't think anything of it.. Then we got in the car a little later and I went up to fix my hair and there was totally poop right there on my head. Hahaha I literally started laughing and crying and falling apart. It had been a little bit of a stressful day and that was my breaking point. But I pulled myself together right quick, and honestly Sister Pace could not have cared any less about the poop in my hair. I thought it was really awful and really hilarious, and she just didn't care. BUT! I thought you all would appreciate it:) Especially you, sether. And like I said, I kind of forgot about it until the next morning right before I got in the shower. Haha but now my hair is nice and clean :) Hopefully no one saw it... 

So another great story from this week. This was just on Saturday! When I was with Sister Baine a couple weeks ago, she had met someone named Ana that lived on Walnut, super close to our apartments. But she spoke Spanish, so she was going to introduce me and then have me come back with Sister Pace to teach her in Spanish. But when we knocked a couple weeks ago, this man answered the door and said she lived in the basement, but didn't get off work until like 8 at night, but that we could come back another day to find her. So Sister Pace and I had knocked this house like three times since, and finally on Saturday someone else answered the door! He said Ana did live there, but he wasn't sure if she was home. He invited us to walk around back, into the garage, and down the stairs to the basement door to see if she was there.. We had knocked so many times, we thought "why not?" and headed on back. The glass in the door to the garage was broken, and the garage itself was dark and pretty sketchy.. But we walked down this little stairwell and knocked on the door.. This guy answered who looked like he was about our age, and said she was here and he'd go find her. He walked away, and shortly there-after walked back and was like "umm.. who are you guys?" Haha so we said we were missionaries! So he went back, and then returned and said she was in the shower! I was like "oh that's okay--" and I was going to say we could come back another day, but Sister Pace blurted out "That's okay, we can wait!!" and oh man. The next five minutes we spent standing in that stairwell were so funny. Neither of us had any idea why she'd said that or what we were doing there!! But we laughed and laughed (as quiet as we could, the door was still open). Anyway, then Ana came. She looked about our age and her hair was all wet. We apologized for interrupting her shower and introduced ourselves. Long story short, she'd never met with any missionaries and didn't have a clue what the Mormon church was. Hahaha we don't think it was the right Ana. But she asked us what we believe (the golden question!) and Sister Pace gave a quick summary of the Restoration. We showed a video and asked if she'd be interested in meeting with us. She was like "umm.. what? To talk about God?" And we were like "Yeah, totally!!" And she was like "ummm nah, I'm good..." Anyway. Super awkward. And then she followed us up the stairs of the garage and locked the door behind us. Man, Heavenly Father knew we needed something to laugh about and was kind enough to give us a super awkward encounter with Ana :) Such good stuff!!

Anyway, other than that, we had some good lessons this week! We met with almost all our investigators (still working on that appointment with Sergio), met with some new investigators that were awesome and all kinds of fun stuff! I also did a musical number at a zone meeting with like 3 hours notice.. So happy I have some music :) I sang "The One" and I think it went well! I dunno. I was playing on a keyboard, which is never as great as a real piano.. But it reminded me of singing around the piano Sunday night with all you chickens and that made me happy :) 

Also I finished the Book of Mormon on Wednesday! Oh man, I love that book. I was reading it and highlighting examples of Christ-like attributes, and my book is SO colorful! I'm way excited to start another one. I think this time I'll focus on the Atonement and grace. I hope to end up having shelves and shelves of Books of Mormon with all kinds of topics highlighted :) 

I really learned so much from reading it this time through, though. I understand the story SO much better. There are amazing examples of faith and charity and obedience and everything in there! I would 100% encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon. That's pretty much all I do as a missionary: read the Book of Mormon and tell other people to. And also get pooped on. But anyway! Seriously. I love that book so much. It was written by REAL people for us! And Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God so we could have another testament of Jesus Christ. So we can grow to understand and love him more. I'm so thankful that we have the Book of Mormon, I know it's true. I've prayed about it and I felt the peace and love of the Holy Ghost every time I read it. It's a beautiful, powerful book. 

The other day I woke up and was feeling a little un-motivated and unsure what to study, so I said a little prayer and opened up randomly to Alma 57:27. I love what is says about the Army of Helaman having "firm minds." That kicked me into gear for sure! I wrote down the ways I can be of a firmer mind and a stronger heart as a missionary. Do not fret, I'm not getting discouraged, it was just 6:30 in the morning and I wasn't sure what to read :) 

Anyway, life is so good out here! It's not always easy, but I came to realize a little more this week that as long as I'm doing everything I can, the Lord will take care of the rest. This is in His hands--this is His work! I don't need to worry unnecessarily. Extra stress is NOT what will help me be a better missionary. Rather, tuning into the Spirit and doing my best to follow the promptings I receive. Doing my best to look outside myself and open my mouth. Doing my best to love EVERYONE and tell everyone the good news that we have: because of Jesus Christ, we can overcome all the heart-ache and guilt and sorrow that we will experience in this life. Having difficulties is part of God's plan for us, but He gives us them because He wants us to turn to Him. He knows we're stubborn and prideful and we need something to knock us down before we'll turn to Him sometimes. He's just so good. 

I love you, family! You're in my prayers always! 

Hermana Milberton