Sister in Spokane: "Friendsgiving", and a Wind Storm

Hello family and friends!

So yeah we had that HUGE wind storm and power outage!!! President asked us not to drive on the roads so we stayed inside and studied for most of the day. The wind was CRAZY! We didn't have heat or power or hot water for three days so we moved into a member’s house this week for a bit. :) We moved back to our cottage when everything else came back on. We learned that two people died in Cheney from trees falling on them, but no missionaries were hurt. We heard about 200,000 people were without power! There were a lot of electrical fires as well, and all of Cheney and most of Spokane was without power or running water for several days. There are still about 35000 people without power today.

We had a lot of ups and downs this week. Hilda came to our lesson and told us that she didn’t want to meet for a while because she feels really overwhelmed with all of it. So she needs to figure things out for herself. We’ll check up on her in a couple weeks, but that was really hard for me because it was like all of a sudden her progression just stopped. :(

We had a “Friendsgiving”! It’s a big activity that the ward council and us have been planning for Thanksgiving to really rally behind the Lord and get investigators there with non-member friends. It was a huge success!! A ton of less actives were there and a lot of non-members. And we scheduled a church tour with a lot of them! The food was great and the Bishopric was really involved and brought their families!!

We met with Deneisha as well and had a lesson with her. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the comfort and healing that it can bring. She read the Book of Mormon and is keeping her commitments! I pray so hard for her. I love her to death and more than anything I want her to feel of Heavenly Fathers love for her!

This week we had James baptismal interview and I got to fill out his baptismal record. I’m so excited for him! Sister Huang and I will be teaching him the new member discussions, so that’s exciting.

Another miracle that happened today was that Andy’s parents gave their permission for him to be baptized. He is progressing so much, and his prayers have changed a ton too!

I went on exchanges with Sister Ireland this week. She was a sister that came out with me, and we are both still going through our training. I learned a lot from her this exchange! She taught me to slow down a bit and really let the spirit work. Sometimes I get so rushed with getting everything done that I forget to slow down. We went street contacting on campus today and found some potential investigators! It’s hard to schedule anything with them though because they are all going home for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I love street contacting, but it can sometimes be super awkward. I guess I’ll just be a pro at awkward situation by the time I finish my mission! :)

We called some former investigators this week too, and this one guy (clearly not interested) talked about how he believes that Jesus is God and how he believes in a different bible. I tried to gracefully hang up, but then he started praying for us! Yikes! He prayed that the sister missionaries eyes will be opened and we can know the truth. I think it’s funny when people pray for us to know the truth. We get a lot of bible bashing, deep doctrine, half-truths, etc. here in this area. It’s no wonder that people are so confused. I got such a creepy vibe while he was praying. That’s the difference. The feeling that the true message of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings is unlike anything else! :)

Sister Huang and I suggested in ward council that each Sunday we do a ward prayer at a member of the Bishopric’s home. Tonight was the first night and the turnout was amazing! James came and bore his testimony to everyone. I loved hearing that! It’s so cool to hear an investigators testimony!

Well I love you all! :) Thank you for all of your emails, letters. Take care, and happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Worthen