May 28, 2013
Hey family!
Hahahahaha
I laughed out loud at Jace's little insert haha! That's awesome though bud! And
you were totally right that's exactly what I was thinking.
Wow oh wow
oh wow oh wow!! Amb!!! Geez louise! I'm so excited for you! And Kristen is going
on a mission?! That's awesome! Good for her! Keep me updated on that one for sure!
So Court what's
with this guy??? Are you ever going to write me woman?! This whole transfer I've
only gotten I think 3 letters total.... :(
Speaking of
transfers they are already next week! Holy smokes its gone by so fast! I really
hope Sister Clove and I both stay here but I really don't know what'll happen because
of what's happened the last 2 transfers with me only training for 6 weeks at a time...
I'm kinda thinking we'll both stay but I don't know.
In answer to
some of your questions... We don't usually call people to ask if we can come see
them if they're less active because most people here won't answer their phones or
they'll make up an excuse as to why you can't come. So we just skip the awkward
phone call and show up! For the most part people are really nice about it and usually
let us in. Most people do know why they joined the church but for one reason or
another they just don't come. Mainly due to laziness or they get offended, wow people
get offended so easy it's so annoying! A lot of people have issues with tithing
too... We have one cell phone between the 2 of us.
Man oh man
this week was stupendous!! We were BUSY the whole week which was awesome! We got
a baptismal commitment!!! :) :) :) :) For Kayli Wakefield on June 15th! She is so
excited and we were ecstatic! This could potentially be huge because Sister Wakefield
is one of 11 kids and really only 2 are active right now. Most of them live in our
ward boundaries but they're either less active or excommunicated but they're a tight
knit family so they'll probably all be there for the baptism. When we went by last
Thursday her brother who is active (but lives in middle Tennessee dang it...) was
there and he just got ordained an Elder so he was like I can baptize and confirm
Kayli! It was really a tender mercy that he was there for the lesson. Please keep
their family in y'all's prayers. Yes Kayli has been to church a few times but it’s
been a couple of years.
We also picked
up a new investigator who is 100% golden! His name is Billy McDaniel (17), he is
best friends with a kid in our ward and is practically a member of the family. I
guess he comes from a really rough family background and the Wests have taken him
in and made him part of the family. He just is eating up everything we tell him,
he does his reading assignments and listens so intently while we teach, which is
not an easy task because the West's have 4 boys, enough said. :) We're hoping to
get him with a baptismal date this week!
Cheryl is doing
great as well!! You know how she at first she was refusing to marry her boyfriend
Walter well that is not the case anymore! MIRACLE!!! She told us on Sunday that
she'd been talking to him and he said is this what you really want to do? (talking
about joining the church) and she said yes it is! WOOHOOO!!! She should have a date
this week too! The work is definitely moving forward here in Athens TN!!
Sister Smith
(Annie) is doing fantastic! She is loving relearning everything, holy cow she is
the sweetest lady ever! We went with her to see a less active sister who is in the
hospital who she was really good friends with 30+ years ago, so it was neat to be
a part of that reunion! I guess this sister that's in the hospital has been pretty
hostile towards the church the last little while but she was very nice to us and
really appreciated our visit. Another huge tender mercy. :)
Haha we also
babysat baby ducks for her overnight. There is a girl in our ward who raises them
and Sister Smith wanted some so we were the middle man and delivered them. I'll
send some pictures next week.
The Lord definitely
blessed us this last week! :) :)
Sister Clove
and I did a training for district meeting on finding which went really well I think.
We did the acronym find, F-faith. I-importance of members. N-no effort is wasted.
D-draw near to God.
All of us missionaries
also spoke in church on Sunday! I was asked to talk on relying on the spirit. We
were so busy all week that it wasn't really until Saturday that we had time to write
them and the library was closed! Soooo I really had to rely on the spirit and just
work with what few materials I had. I think it went alright though :)
We also sang
with all the youth in sacrament meeting which was so awesome!! We sang the EFY medley,
and we sounded pretty dang good if I do say so myself! It was kind of a last second
thing we'd been practicing on Wednesday nights with the youth that were there but
we'd never done it with all the YM/YW haha but it really went great! The youth in
this ward are incredible.
Well I think
that covers the highlights of the week. Thank you for all your love, support, and
prayers. I love and miss y'all!!!! Xoxoxoxoxo
Sister Bedke
:)