Subject: A missionary is someone who leaves their family
for a time so that others can be with theirs for eternity :)
June 9, 2014
Hey
it's me :)
Thanks
for the letter mom! It always makes me smile and feel very loved when I see the
time that you send those to me. You're the world's greatest! And the front yard
looks so pretty! You and Traci did a great job! Thanks for sending the pics.
It
is crazy how fast these weeks are flying by. I can hardly believe that this is week
4 of the transfer. And things are just picking up speed. This Wednesday we have
the 1 month follow up meeting for new missionaries in Lilburn. This will probably
be one of the last, if not the last, times that we get to see President and Sister
Wolfert. They did their goodbye to all of us at this last zone conference and it
was really sweet. They are awesome and I am going to miss them a lot. But yesterday
in sacrament meeting the brother of one of my favorite families in the ward was
visiting. He has been called as a new mission president in Argentina and he will
be in the MTC at the same time as our new mission president. I was asked to speak
in sacrament meeting yesterday and he came up to me after the meeting to introduce
himself and he told me that he wished he could have 50 missionaries just like me,
which made me feel really good :). I can't imagine what all of the new mission presidents
and their wives are going through as their entry date gets closer and closer. But
I am sure that President and Sister Benion will be awesome and are exactly who the
Lord needs here right now.
We
had a really good week here. The week after you have a baptism is always like alright
what and who is next. We were very blessed to find some new investigators to work
with who seem to have a lot of potential and we are really excited about helping
them move forward and progress. One of them is a couple named Mike and Julie. He
is an ordained minister in the Baptist church and they have worked with several
sets of missionaries. They are hilarious though! We had a blast talking to them
and they said that we are welcome to come back anytime. So we will see how that
goes haha :)
Another
cool experience that we had was on Saturday we were going tracting and we had picked
a neighborhood and as we were on our way there, I had the thought to go to a different
one but I ignored the thought and kept going to the original one we had picked.
We were there for about 20 minutes and not one person answered the door. I told
Heavenly Father that I got the hint and we went back to that other neighborhood
and at first we had no luck, but then just as we were getting ready to go, we knock
on one last door and the sweetest old southern couple opens up the door and they
invite us to come in and sit down. We ended up talking to them for about half an
hour, getting to know them and then they asked us to share a message with them and
we read 3 Nephi 11 with them. They were both really touched and had remembered that
their old neighbors were mormon and that there was something different about them
and as we were getting ready to go they asked us when we were coming back and gave
us their neighbor and told us to come back anytime. Their names are Joe and Mary
if you could keep them in your prayers. I am always so amazed at the Lord's willingness
to lead us to those who are ready to receive the message that we have to share.
Donna
is doing great! A few ward members have invited her to do things with them and she
went to the RS activity on Thursday night. She is just awesome :) And the awful
moss green paint in her house is gone!! It is now a light shade of gray and it looks
SO much better. We had a lot of fun helping her and it is cute to see her so excited
about all of these changes. I don't know if I ever told you about her dog, Blue.
She is an Australian shepherd and she was 14 years old. Donna says that she used
to be really nice and friendly but she has been getting really old and in a lot
of pain and this past week Donna had to put her down. It was really sad. But in
her last years of her life she had peed everywhere in Donna's house and that was
the main reason why it smelled so bad. So our next project is tearing up that nasty
carpet and putting in hardwood floor. It will be such an awesome transformation
in that house! I am so excited!! Probably almost more so than Donna is. :)
Donna
actually came with us to our lesson with the D's this week! It was such a great
lesson. The Spirit was really powerful in there and the whole family sat in with
us. We each shared different times in our lives when we have felt the closest to
God and then we read Ether 12:6 and talked about how most of those times were during
different trials in our lives. It was really cool. They told us that they have started going to 12
stone though but agreed to attend both services (ours and 12 stone) yesterday but
sadly they didn't show up. I was really sad but hopefully they will be able to make
it next Sunday!
Sam
is about the same story still. We did have a cool lesson with her about faith but
no change with her dad. Sister Castleton is very determined to make a break through
with him, but I am pretty skeptical, not going to lie. He really doesn't seem like
the reasonable type from what we have heard of him but we will see how it goes I
guess. We are probably going to have to push back her baptism again... I just have
to keep reminding myself that it will all come together in the Lord's timing and
not mine.
We
got back in with Shawn this week! We had another awesome lesson with her. A member
who used to live in our ward but moved next door to the Dacula ward who has been
with her from the beginning of her journey with the missionaries came with us and
it turned out really great. We read the talk, "spiritual traction" with
her from Elder Bednar's last conference address. Shawn, Bro Collins (the member)
and I were all just crying as we talked about how the Savior is so ready to receive
her into His arms and how the gift of the Holy Ghost will bless her so much. We
talked with her about getting baptized on June 21 and she is soft committed to that
date. She just really wants her family to be supportive of her decision. But so
far she still hasn't talked to them and didn't make it to church yesterday. I love
her so much but she is just breaking my heart that she isn't doing what she needs
to do. I really feel like she is one of the reasons that I am here and I just want
this so badly for her. Continued prayers in her behalf would be greatly appreciated.
Is there a way you could put her on the prayer roll in the temple? Her name is Shawn.
So
yesterday all 4 of the sister missionaries in our ward were asked to speak in sacrament
meeting. Sister Hulme (she is also training a new missionary) and I both gave talks
and then each of our companions bore their testimonies. It was a really powerful
meeting and lots of people told us what a great job we did. I was asked to teach
the story of Jonah and relate it to missionary work. I used the book, "The
power of everyday missionaries" a lot. I love that book! I just really hope
that we can start using the members to help us in finding as well as teaching. They
are so great and I was just praying that we would be able to teach them how to share
the gospel with their friends and acquaintances. Bishop Adams came up and shook
my hand after, gave me a big smile, and said "You nailed it!" I was really
happy with how it turned out :)
Well
I think that about wraps up the week. Happy Fathers Day on Sunday Dad!! A card should
be coming your way in a couple of days. I love you so much and I will be thinking
about you that day! Thank you so much for all the love, support, and prayers. I
truly can feel them and I couldn't do this without all of you!! I love you all so
much!!
xoxo
Love,
Sister
Bedke
PS
Humidity makes a HUGE difference in how hot it is!! My hair is on top of my head
every single day and the only make up I wear is mascara because you just sweat everything
else off. I bought several light cotton tshirt type shirts to stay cool which have
been a huge help. Hot-lanta is a real thing. :) But come what may and love it right?
:)
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