When we went to his house yesterday it was about 95 degrees in there. He has like no body fat and is always cold, so he had his heater on and was wearing two shirts and a sweatshirt and a thick beanie, while the rest of us were DYING. Oh man it was so hot. We brought this girl from the ward with us to the lesson. She's going on her mission to Texas in a couple weeks! She was dying from the heat just as much as we were and we told her she's gonna have a rough time in the South haha. But she'll do great.
Lately we've seen this garter snake around our house that goes under our porch. It creeps us out a lot. On Sunday I almost stepped on it after church!!! AHHH. Then an hour or so later our neighbor who shares the townhouse with us saw ANOTHER snake by her door. So we freaked out and called the Elders to come kill the snakes (which didn't go well and caused some drama. Whoops! Let's just say they didn't come...and now our neighbor hates them) and then called a member to come. He came prepared with gloves and thick boots and a bucket. We walked around and looked for movement and tried to find the snakes, and he would snatch em and put them in the bucket. We found 5 snakes total and they were soooo gross. The member brought his two year old daughter who kept calling the snakes her friends and wanted to pet them haha. We're wimps.
Ew
Then yesterday I opened our front door and left the room for just a minute. When I came back to the room there was this horrible noise that sounded like a massive bee buzzing around and hitting something. I was freaked out.....but it was just a hummingbird! He was so cute and was stuck inside our house, hitting against the window over and over! Poor thing. Sister Patera and I formed a rescue party and got him out safely :) And of course we got a video, because duh. I have to preserve these kinds of things for my posterity so they know how COOL my life is.
On Friday the Spanish Elders texted us and told us they had a referral for us. They were tracting and met this woman who said she wasn't interested but her granddaughter M has been looking for missionaries for months now. They told us that and said the granddaughter would be home all day Saturday. We went on exchanges Friday night so I wasn't there, but Sister Patera and Hermana Bendorf went and tried this girl. She's 17, and SO AMAZING. Apparently a while back she was searching online to learn more about God and she came across mormon.org. She said that she loved everything she read and knew it was true! They taught her lesson one and she totally recognized the Spirit. She accepted the baptismal date of June 23rd and is really excited about it. At the end they asked her if she had any questions and she said "Yeah I just have one....where can I get one of those books that it talks about on the website?" As in the Book of Mormon. Yeah she's so solid.
While I was on exchanges I was totally blessed with the gift of tongues and I knew nearly everything that everyone was saying the whole day. I even taught part of the Restoration in Spanish! It was really cool. The Spanish Elders gave the Spanish Sisters a referral that day too. They told us they had just been tracting in these trailers and had just met a woman and done the survey with her and gave her a pamphlet and told us to try her the next week on Saturday. Well Sister Allison decided to try her right then, so we did, and it was incredible! Her name is B and she has the cutest little boys. We taught them the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong in there. She also accepted a baptismal date of June 1 and so did her son who is 8. They are really excited about it.
Last week at the library some weirdo in a pink shirt dropped a piece of paper on Sister Patera's keyboard as he walked by. It had his name and phone number on it hahahaha. Sister Patera freaked out and gave it to the Elders and told them it was a referral :P Then they guy came back in the library and kept staring at her!! Finally he left and about 20 minutes later we left too. Sister Patera jokingly peeked outside to make sure he wasn't waiting for her, but then when we went outside he TOTALLY WAS WAITING under this tree!!!!! Thankfully he was on his phone and we rushed out to the car while he stared.
Two days after that we had District Meeting and the Elders said "Sister Patera, we talked to your secret admirer. Although I guess he's not so secret." They had actually called him and told him that they were the missionaries and asked if he wanted to learn more. He freaked out and then said "Wait. Did a tall girl or a short girl give you my number?" I'm the short girl. Then he said he was Baptist and wasn't interested lol.
To update you all on Sister Patera, she is doing ok. We're working more, but still not full days. She's such a champ though, I probably would have given up way long ago. I'm so blessed to have her as a companion, serving in this area with these special people.
Next week I'll only have 20 weeks left on my mission and that is so crazy to me. I've been reflecting quite a bit lately on the Lord's hand in my life, leading me up to this point. I am so grateful to know that He really is in charge and that He has the best plan that will lead to ultimate happiness. This upcoming Sunday I'm speaking at church about the Atonement and how it has helped me with my missionary work. Well if it wasn't for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I definitely would not be here today and I certainly would not be as happy and blessed as I am.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you can see the Lord's hand in your life, leading and guiding you to where He knows you need to be.
Love,
Sister Koenig
keep being awesome! i always knew you could do it :)
ReplyDeletei love you Sister Koenig! I have always known you could be the stellar missionary you are so keep being awesome :)
ReplyDeletetake care...kisses and hugs from SAMOA ;)