Hello everyone! Such a great week...I don't even know where to start. Heavenly Father has just blessed me immensely and I can't thank Him enough.
Ok, so last Tuesday we had a full day in our area, but we weren't on exchanges! We had to switch our exchange day, because the sisters we went with have district meetings on Tuesday, so we went on Friday instead. Anyways! We went out with bishop Ostler for a couple hours that day and we were really nervous because he is so intense and has very high expectations so we didn't really know what to expect. The previous Sunday, he had asked to meet with us because he was concerned with the work that's been done in our ward between us and the elders. Because at the beginning of the year, the ward mission plan was to have 24 baptisms. 12 for the elders, and 12 for the sisters. Well, it is now the end of June and we haven't had much success. So our bishop was kind of stressed out about it. He is such an amazing bishop and is so missionary minded, but he doesn't quite understand our schedule especially being the TC Leaders, but he doesn't ever give us much time to express ourselves. So on Tuesday we saw Grace Martin who has been in the hospital for a long time, and her daughter, Cathleen was there. Bishop kind of took over and taught them about the Restoration and it was good for them to get to know him better. Then we tried a bunch of other people who didn't answer and then we were able to just talk to him and explain our situation so he understands better. It turned out to be a tender mercy! After we left, we got to see Barb. Love her! Then saw Tammy who we haven't seen in forever. She told us that she really needed our visit and was so grateful we went over. I just love doing missionary work!
Wednesday we had district meeting, then served at the TC. We were on chat for some of the time, which wasn't very productive. Seems like chat has gone downhill since I first got here. We get so many trollers now. People who just get on to mess around and make fun or say dumb inappropriate things. Bummer, so hopefully Salt Lake will figure something out with that.
Thursday I was not feeling myself. I was just extremely exhausted and had a horrible headache. I had started taking a pill the night before for my back and the doctor told me it would make me really sleepy...no joke! I woke up that morning and felt like I hadn't slept at all, so Sister Brower had me lay down during our morning shift. Slept for probably 4 hours, and felt a lot better after that. Then I got up so we could go to the clinic that night.
Friday we went on exchanges with the Tranquility Park sisters. I went with Sister Savage in her area and boy was it a treat! Sister Brower and I were a little nervous about this exchanges because we have been having a lot of problems and drama with them. Let's just say they aren't the most obedient missionaries so they don't like us very much. It turned out great though! We had 4 appointments set up, but all of them cancelled on us. Again, seems to be a theme that I've been having on exchanges. Strange...I don't know! I have the funniest story though. We went to go try one of their investigators named Faith. Apparently she has 2 places that she stays at. One is her actual apartment, and the other one is the father of her child, and I guess they met Faith there at the father's apartment so that's where we went to try her. This little 10 year old black boy opens the door who's in his pjs still at 3 in the afternoon. Told us Faith didn't live there, so he went and got her grandma and told her that the church ladies were there. This older black woman comes to the door with this wild side pony tail with a comb sticking out of her hair. She was wearing some kind of African dress and didn't look too happy to see us. We introduced ourselves and tried to figure out where Faith was. She then interrupted us and told us we needed to pray because it was her praying time. She held out her hands so we could hold hands in a circle and Sister Savage began to pray. The woman had put a pen in her mouth, and then spit it out onto the floor during the pray. Then in the middle of the prayer, Joyce was her name, starts talking out loud and saying her own separate prayer so Sister Savage stops praying and doesn't really know what to do. And eventually just said amen! Then Joyce starts talking to us about how she died but God said "no, come back!" She didn't even know how old she was. She thought she was 45, but then her grandson said she was 64. She went on and on and on about all these crazy things and made us feel her hair and then lifted up her dress to show us her belly. Thank goodness she had shorts underneath. The whole situation was just crazy and then she let us in her house and we didn't really know what to do or say because she wouldn't stop talking and we didn't want to be rude and just leave. Anyways....she was obviously on some kind of drugs. She was crazy! Then this black man with this huge afro comes walking in and starts yelling at us and told us that we weren't ever allowed to go to his house and that we should never come back again. Told us we were so disrespectful and at this point, I just wanted to bust out laughing and knew we needed to get out of there. We had somehow given Joyce a Book of Mormon, so she was yelling at this man and said, "they gave me a BIBLE!" Then she came running after us and asked us if we were receivers, and of course we didn't understand what she was saying so she asked if we received the devil, and we were like "no, no we believe in God!" So she told us to write down our number and told us to come back. Sister Savage went rushing down the stairs, and I was still stuck talking to her because she would not shut up...eventually got out of there and I could not stop laughing. She was scared that the guy was gonna come out with a gun or something, but I felt just fine. I knew nothing was gonna happen. It was seriously just hilarious. Sister Savage gets so stressed SO easily and freaks out about everything, and I knew I just needed to laugh it off or she was gonna have a mental breakdown. Oh man....I love Nebraska! Best place on earth :) The rest of the day went well. I learned that missionaries can get free pizza at Papa Murphy's any day of the week, so we went and got some, then went to the TC fireside. One of the bishops in one of the wards here spoke who is a former Nebraska football player. It was awesome!
Saturday we were at the TC. Took some awesome tours this last week. Can't even count how many I've taken. I took this mid aged man and woman on tour who were from Mexico! The man has been here for 8 years, but the woman had just gotten here about a month ago so she didn't know very much english so the man would translate what I said into spanish so the woman could understand it. So cool! Another one I took were with these 2 older ladies who were sisters. They weren't members, but were the sweetest ladies ever! We talked about so many things and I got to know them really well. They have family members who are members, so they know a lot about our church. I was able to give them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and got their contact information so we can email each other still! One of the ladies asked me to write down my name in her Book of Mormon so she could always remember me. Such a great experience! I could on and on about each tour, but I should probably stop there. I'll tell you lots more stories when I get home. Not ever enough time to write it all down in an email though :) We got to see Christy that night. She's slowly progressing! Admitted to us that she's been looking around for wedding dresses, so her and Jimmie are finally talking about it more seriously so she can get baptized after they get married!
Sunday was so great! Still so exhausted from those pills I've been taking. Dozing off in every single meeting throughout the week. After sacrament meeting, we were asked to play piano in primary. Of course we said we would love to! This ward, well, a lot of wards here are very needy so we are asked to help lead the music in sacrament meeting and play the piano for everything! It's so great, but so different from Idaho or Utah. It was so fun to be in primary again :) Anyways, it was such a great week! I love you so much and hope you have a fun 4th of July!
Sister Ferrara :)
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