Sister Duprey and I worked so hard this week! This area is progressing! We had so many miracles and God's hand is really in the work. I love it.
On Tuesday we were able to see L, who is 12. She is from a part-member family - Her great grandma is totally active in our ward, her grandma is a member but completely inactive, and her mom is not a member. They all live in the same house. L loves the church and she is so excited about us coming over! We did Personal Progress with her which was really fun, and she said that she has already completed quite a few experiences on her own time and she has been reading from the Book of Mormon! We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she got so excited and said yes! But we have to take it slowly because of her family situation. She came to church yesterday and stayed for Sunday School and Young Women, and Sister Duprey and I got to go to Young Women with her :) It was fun! I miss being a young woman....hmph. And Lena said she would come next week and stay for all 3 hours of church! She wanted to stay for sacrament yesterday but had something else she had to get to.
A week ago Sister Duprey and I went and saw a less-active lady who lives at a nursing home a couple blocks from where we live. As we were leaving, I saw a table with a puzzle on it and I said "Aww, I want to do a puzzle." (I'm kind of an old person at heart - I like doing puzzles and knitting. Yup, I'm cool). Then the brilliant idea came to me - we could do service at that place and do puzzles with old people! YES! So we have gone there a few times since then and we totally got to do part of a puzzle with this old guy named M and he was very cool. He was 91 years old! We also have started going to the more intensive care unit and just chatting with the people there. The ladies who work there are really excited about having us come. When we first came and asked if we could volunteer, they said "Umm....yes? We think so...no one ever asks if they can volunteer!!" and then they came up with a whole long list of people who need a visit and various ways we can help. They basically just told us to wander the halls and chat with people. I have discovered that I am really good with old people. They like me a lot. Sister Duprey thinks it's the dimples haha. We met this sweet 92 year old lady name K, from Texas. She was adorable, and we just sat and talked with her for like 45 minutes! She was soooo grateful for us coming by, and it just warmed my heart. I love hearing everyone's stories and I love when they talk about their youth. It's fascinating.
There aren't many places for us to do service around here, and we usually go to this donation place and sort food. But there are a ton of people that volunteer there and we do the same thing every time, which gets boring. Hanging out with old people is way better. :)
On Wednesday we saw S, our investigator from China. There is definitely a bit of a language barrier there, but she knows more English than she thinks! She's just self-conscious about it. Thankfully we have had this returned missionary from a neighboring stake who has so willingly come out with us to lessons, and he speaks Mandarin. It's really helpful! We gave her a Chinese Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago and she has already finished 2 Nephi, which is fantastic! She also came to church yesterday, and she came last week too. Last week she said she only understood one of the talks, but I didn't even really understand the other talk so whatever. :P
Yesterday I think she understood much more, and seemed to enjoy it a lot! Our translator came, but he really didn't need to do much. There were just a couple words she didn't know, like "thee" and some Mormon culture words. Her 7 year old son came as well, and I sat next to him and we drew pictures the whole time. He is a kick! Last week he was totally bored and I didn't want that again so I made an extra effort with him - and he was much less antsy and had a good time :) We will see them again on Tuesday and I'm really excited! She doesn't have a Christian background or anything, but she is very smart. We are trying to help her feel God's love for her -- I can feel it! I see her and her son and my heart just gets bigger, I swear. I never thought I could love people so much, it's unreal. Sadly her translator is headed off to school in a couple weeks, but I think we should be ok by then without him. Hopefully! The Spirit knows all languages, right? Maybe I should start praying for the gift of tongues....
Last night we had a really great miracle. A few weeks ago we tracted into this woman from India and she was so interested. She had been struggling and then we knocked on the door and just completely changed her life, apparently! We saw her a few days after that, but haven't been able to see her since. Sister Duprey and I were so worried about her but finally she did text us and said that her sister was in preterm labor and so she was just crazy busy dealing with all of that and that she was still interested in learning more when she had time. Last night we felt like we should see if she was home (we had stopped by sooooo many times and she was NEVER home) AND SHE WAS!!!!! She let us in and we got to teach her and watch The Restoration DVD with her. She and her son really liked it :) Sadly she hasn't been able to read from the Book of Mormon in a while because of all this crazy stuff that has been happening in her life (seriously, she told us everything, and it's a lot to deal with!) but she was just about to start reading it again when we knocked on her door :P We gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read before we come back next time, and her son had already started reading it before we left! They're the cutest. I love them! She went on and on about how we are her angels, and how she knows we were praying for her sister and the baby because everything worked out okay. And she said "Seriously, when you showed up on my porch that first day, you were like angels. I wasn't going to answer the door but I felt a push toward it and you were standing there, and I immediately felt peace. You are my real life angels." Aww :)
I love being a missionary! One thing that we've been doing lately which is really fun is having members come tracting with us. All of you should find your missionaries and ask if you can go tracting with them! I promise that you will see miracles, and it will be amazing! God is the best. Transfers are next Tuesday and I'm kind of nervous but I know the Lord will put me wherever I am needed! Whether that means staying in Lakewood or going somewhere else, it will be great.
Thank you for all the support you give me! It means so much to me! I wouldn't be able to do this without all of the love I get from all of you :)
Love,
Sister Koenig
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