Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: AMAZING WEEK!

Let's see...so to get started...Teresa has dropped us :(

I had mentioned last week that she helped us throw all her cigarettes away in the dumpster, and it was such a huge miracle! But then that night she walked to the store and bought a pack of cigarettes, and the next morning she texted us several times and basically told us that she wanted all her stuff back and that she didn't want to come to our church anymore. Well, knowing Teresa has some mental disabilities, we thought if we just went over to her apartment and talked to her a little bit we would be able to get her back to her senses...because she was obviously having some horrible withdrawals. So we went to her place that night (Monday) and she immediately told us to leave and that she didn't want to talk to us or see us ever again unless we brought all her stuff back...(She was smoking while we were there) We tried to tell her how sorry we were and that we weren't trying to hurt her or offend her in any way! We were just trying to help her to be happy and come closer to Jesus Christ. She wouldn't look at us in the eye, and most certainly didn't let us even give her a hug. When we tried, she yelled at us and told us not to touch her. She claims that we lied to her about where we put her stuff because she went and looked in her dumpster where we put her things and couldn't find them, so now she hates us... :( It broke our hearts. When we left her apartment we just started crying. It was so sad. And we haven't talked to her at all since then. We've been praying very hard that her heart will be softened and that she will forgive us, but we shall see.

Also, before we went to go see her, we went to the zoo! It was SUCH a blast! Most incredible zoo, and it was about the hottest day EVER! Good memories ;)

But anyways...Tuesday we went on exchanges and saw SO many miracles! By the way...when we go on exchanges we go full proselyting for the entire day. So no Trail Center. We got to see so many people! I'm getting a lot more familiar with my area. Really starting to memorize where everyone lives and all the street names and such. I've had to really learn how to use a map for the first time in my life ;) Some sisters have GPSs, but they're too expensive so we haven't gotten one. I'll just mention a couple of the people we got to see...we met with Paula Rohl who is another one of our investigators who is set for baptism. She has been having some really bad health problems. We didn't get to talk to her for very long because she was actually on her way out the door to see her doctor. She has found out that she most likely has internal bleeding :/ She came to church yesterday and received an amazing blessing from the bishop which was exactly what she needed. The bishop promised her blessings that we had just promised her this past week from living the Word of Wisdom. She smokes a bunch, but has been cutting back a lot! She lives in a small little hotel room for the time being and has no job because she's been so sick so she can't hold a job. Very unfortunate...and we always smell very strongly of smoke when we see her. It always gives me a headache! Gross. Anyways, we also were able to get 2 new investigators! One who's name is Alexis and we found her from just walking down the street since one of our appointments fell through. She's 21 and has a darling little 3 month old baby. She lives with her "fiance's" family who only speak spanish. Then we went to go try a less active older couple and ended up meeting their daughter who has 4 kids. 12, 9, and twin boys who are 10 months old. The lady's name is Pam and she is like SO prepared! Very exciting!

Wednesday was just District Meeting and Trail Center.

Thursday we had Trail Center in the morning and then had dinner with a member, and then tried to see a couple people, but the appointments fell through so ended up seeing a sweet old lady who's husband is divorcing her because he is dating some other woman...but she doesn't know that that's the reason he's divorcing her :/ This world is just crumbling it seems like. So sad.

Friday we had the fireside at the Trail Center and it was amazing! A member from our ward brought her friend who is now another new investigator that we got to bring around the gallery at the Trail Center after the fireside. We were able to teach him the whole first lesson and we now have an appointment with him this week!

Anyways, I gotta get going so I will talk to you all next week! Love you so much! Hope you're doing well!

Sister Ferrara :)