Wonders at Walmart, Cats, and Transfer Week Has Come to Town

December 8, 2014

Merry Christmas, Y'all!!

Sadly and happily, transfer week has come to town yet again. Sister Bedke is leaving me, and Sister Porter, currently a Sister Training Leader in another zone, will be joining me in Athens! I've only met her a few times, but she's a happy, smiley sister so we should get along well. :) I am sad to see Sister Bedke go, but grateful to have had a transfer with her. She has one of the purest, most genuine hearts I've ever met. I've learned from her so much about looking for the good in people. I'm surrounded by dedicated, humble servants and simply loving souls. It's humbling that the Lord has allowed me to be one of the lucky sisters serving here.

The Lord, as President Bennion likes to say, has a flair for the dramatic, and we got a taste of that this week in a pretty miraculous way. In the hazy grey fog of Saturday afternoon, we had an appointment with a potential investigator in a trailer park, and it fell through. 

"There is a member here we haven't met yet. Maybe we could try them," Sister Bedke suggested. However, we had left our roster at home, so with neither a name nor address to contact them with, we left the trailer park.

We had planned to see a struggling family the next day who'd had a birthday, so we decided to use some of our dinner hour to swing by the closest Walmart and get cupcake ingredients. We were aiming to make it a five minute trip, so after we left the register we walked briskly towards the doors to leave. We passed a woman sitting on a bench with a quick hello, but as soon as we kept walking, both Sister Bedke and I had the distinct impression that we needed to talk to her. Neither of us knew the other had the same impression, but a few seconds after we passed her, I grabbed Sister Bedke's arm and said, "I need a drink." That gave us an excuse to double back towards the drinking fountain, which gave us another opportunity to talk to her when we passed by again.

"Hi! Are you waiting for someone?" we asked. The black woman in her sixties replied that she was waiting for her grandchildren to finish their Christmas shopping. As we offered her a card with a link to a Christmas video, she said, "Are you Mormons?" When we replied that yes, we were, she said, "I used to go to that church." 

We responded with the same question, "Are you Mormon?"

She replied that yes, she was! She told us that every month she receives a letter in the mail from her visiting teachers, and though she's never met those sisters, she deeply appreciated each kind note those sisters sent. She couldn't remember their names, but we wrote down hers, Gloria, and got her phone number. She accepted our offer to come visit her sometime, and we left the store thrilled that we'd found a member.

It doesn't end there. We came home to look her up in the roster to make sure she was in our ward, and what we found left us stunned. Not only was she in our boundaries, but she was the member who lived in the trailer park! She was the one we would have stopped by her home, twenty minutes earlier, if we had had her address with us! We sat there, dumb-founded, and all we could say was, "...Whoa."

A million dollars dropped on the doorstep would not have been as thrilling as that moment was. (Though there were cookies from a member hanging on our doorstep when we got home from Walmart. That was a plus.)

So:

Because our appointment fell through,

and we didn't have our roster,

and the family we planned to visit had a birthday,

and we went to the Walmart by our house,

and we both felt prompted to talk to Gloria,

and the Lord put the drinking fountain right where we needed it, 

and Gloria was there with her grandkids (and wouldn't have been at home had we stopped by earlier),

at the front,

on a bench,

where we were;

because of all those things, we found a member who is clearly being watched out for by our Heavenly Father. We called the Relief Society President (Relief Society is the women's organization for all women 18+ in the church), and she was excited to hear about such a miracle. She passed on the story to the visiting teachers who'd been writing those letters, and on Sunday they thanked us and exclaimed how wonderful it felt to know that their simple acts of faithful service were helping a sister they'd never met. The Lord knows how to orchestrate His work! How humbling and wonderful it is to be a part of it. 

We also taught Frank, the miracle referral from last week, on Tuesday. He accepted the invitation to baptism and is on date for December 27th! When we asked him how much of the Book of Mormon he had read, he said, "Oh, just about fifty pages or so." Well, okay. That's acceptable!  He's shy, about 34, and very smart (working on his second master's degree). We are happy to be teaching him.

We had a multi-zone choir practice for the Mission Christmas Choirside next week-- and I got to see Sister Hawkins, the sister I trained in Lawrenceville! I also got to see Sister Buhler, my trainer, and Sister Alvey. I love seeing familiar faces. :) Sister Buhler and I re-performed our "Missionary Christmas" parody from last year for Sister Bennion (the mission president's wife), as it was a hit and no one has forgotten it. :) Sister Bennion asked me and Sister Buhler, and another sister to sing O Holy Night together for the Choirside. Sister Bedke and I were asked to perform that for the ward Christmas party this saturday, but since she is getting transferred, I may also be performing that as a solo this weekend. O Holy Night it is! 

Funny moment before I wrap up. We (with our team-up Kelly Checketts) stopped a older lady, Rosa, on the street and talked to her about Jesus Christ. She was actually a former investigator of the elders in our area. As we walked away, we said, "We know that Christ loves you and this message can really help you in your life!" 

She promptly responded, "I love cats." 

Then she told us all about her cats, and how she keeps them in line with a flyswatter. 

Oh dear. At least no cats will go unloved this Christmas season!

The He is the Gift initiative has given us so many opportunities to contact and teach this week! We got a new investigator, Paul, through it by sharing the initiative with him while tracting. Hearts truly are softened and searching at this time of year, and the He is the Gift initiative speaks directly to the needs they're trying to fill. I love bearing a simple testimony of Jesus Christ. It has helped me feel the Christmas spirit in a way I never have before. It stems from gratitude for the Savior and the gift of his life. He truly is the gift.

Merry Christmas!

Sister Taylor