Hejsan!!
Ya that's hello in Swedish if you were wondering. And to answer the next question, that's all I can really say, that and goodbye, but I'm learning. Haha only took me a transfer to learn hello and goodbye. This week has been fantastic! To share the fun adventure of the week, last Friday after emailing I went with Sister Desjourdy (Canada) and Sister Gearheart (USA) to Leatherbys for dinner and ice cream. Well the four of us have all only been there once and so we didn't really know where it was, so we had Guest Services, which is similar to West Gate, but they are the ones people call ahead of time to schedule tours and investigator lessons in advance, and they gave us directions on how to get there. It was suppose to be only a 25 min drive and we were only scheduled to have the car for 2 hours. Do you think you can guess at how long it took us to get there? An hour and a half. We were so lost and turned around it wasn't even funny. Well, actually it was really funny. We called guest
services twice and both times they supposedly gave us directions from where our current location was to the restaurant. I don't know what happened but we could not find it. We eventually had to pull over and ask for directions. We did find it, and was able to enjoy delicious ice cream without having to worry about getting back. The sweet FLEET team, the sisters in charge of the cars, allowed us to have one more hour since no one was scheduled for our car after us. But Dad, so you know, I was not driving. I was not the ones who got us lost. I'm not saying I would have gotten us there, I'm just glad I wasn't the one who got us lost.
Sunday was my first chance that I had to announce after Music and the Spoken Word, super scary! This was the first Sunday that it was back in the Tabernacle, which means the summer season is officially over. Anyways, announcing is just when a group of the sisters stand outside the Tab holding a sign with your language on it with a microphone and you take turns saying something involving, welcoming them to the square, explaining that we have tours and that we would love to give you one and some other stuff but you get the point. It was super fun, but really scary. There was a ton of people! And my sweet companion told me to not really expect anyone after to want a tour, sometimes there's a English tour and sometimes not. We had things to do
afterward so we actually planned on not giving one, but of course the second the presentation was over English speaking people flocked towards me for a tour. Of course I also couldn't find my companion so I might have panicked a little, but Sister Trusgillio (Italy) saved me, we
went on exchanges and she gave the tour with me. It was actually a super fun tour and I'm glad we did it. We had over 25 people in the tour and there's something about sharing your testimony with that many people that is just super cool. The individuals were super receptive as well with lots of good questions, we were actually thinking that a few of them might refer. Afterward a cute couple came up to me to thank me for the tour, they were members and they went on to tell me that their daughter was serving a mission and would be home in December, the Mom started to tear up as we talked about missions and her daughter. Got to give her a hug, I hope that helped her in some way and didn't just make her miss her daughter more. She did make my day though, I love missionary moms :D
Before I forget, I do need to share the 'Alyssa' moment of the week. Monday was a holiday if any of you were wondering, it was Labor Day. Well, living in the missionary world with you contact with the outside 'real' world I actually had no idea that it was a holiday. I barely realized it was September. So one sister made a comment to me in passing that the Humanitarian center was closed because of the holiday, I guess I just didn';t pay any attention to it. But anyways the square was super super busy with people. I just didn't understand why it was so busy because the last few days had been so dead since school has started. I finally asked a family while I was working the Temple Construction Desk. They were members so I felt a little less asking them, but I covered up my flag and I told them they were allowed to laugh at me but they needed to try to pretend that I wasn't from the States, and then I asked them if it was a holiday and if it was what holiday was it? Yes, everyone back home can laugh at the fact that I totally forgot all about Labor Day. Even though I wear a missionary nametag,
I guess I'm still the same ditzy, sometimes ridiculous Alyssa haha.
The rest of the week was still busy busy. It is weird now that summer is over. The square is so dead. I'm glad I came in the middle of summer though, hectic as it was. I think it helped me learn a lot
faster with so many different opportunities to talk with people and to give tours. Now it's like a race with the sisters to get a tour because the number is so much smaller day by day. I've been told it'll
be dead for the next 2 or 3 weeks and then it should pick back up for conference. I'm told for conference we have no assignments, like no TC time for the two days straight. Just square all day from 8am-9pm. I don't even think we have studies for those two days. We just talk to everyone we see and pray that our feet and legs don't fall off. But the cherry on the top of all this, is that the day after conference is all over I've been told we get to sleep in till like 8 or 9. Talk about the best mission in the world.
We got some new investigators this week which is always exciting. It's funny though, sometimes guys will talk to us on the square and I'll think they are interested in the gospel because they'll have really good questions about the church and missionary work and why we chose to become missionaries and things like that. But when the conversation is over Sister Bomgren just laughs and tells me that she thinks that the individual was just flirting with us. So not fair! And I don't even know how I don't notice. One time something good came of it though, the guy started off with flirting with us, again I couldn't tell, but then he ended up referring and asking if he could read the Book of Mormon. The Church is true everybody. I'm super glad that he referred because I had told Sister Bomgren that at some point something good would have to happen from us just bearing testimony
from someone who just came up to talk to us because they thought we were cute. Bam, it happened. Hopefully he'll answer when we call him next week though. I'll admit I now understand what it feels like to be a telemarketer. Lately no one answers their phones. I am so tired of hearing individuals voice mails. We had one investigator who we called a few weeks ago for the first time. We found her name,W, in our area book and just decided to give her a call. She answered and we learned that she had met with missionaries before, and that she knew the church was true. What every missionary wants to hear. We committed her to baptism and she said yes. I'm sure I've told you about her before. Anyway we have called W like a million times since we last talked to her and committed her to baptism and nothing. She hadn't even answered out text messages. We sent the local missionaries to her but because we couldn't get a hold of her we had no idea if the LM had even got in contact with her. I'll admit I was so worried. I was so happy that she wanted to be baptized and I loved her so much for her testimony but I was so scared that something had happened since we talked with her
that made her not want to join the church anymore and she was just too scared to tell us. Or even worse, she got in some car accident or something, yes now I understand how mom felt when we didn't answer our phones back home. Well to the miracle part. We were in TC earlier this week and we were just about to leave. We had a few minutes left and had already called everyone we had planned for and at the last minute Sister Bomgren had the idea to call W. So of course we were like what the heck, I mean we had already called her so many times. She answered! I almost cried when I heard her on the other line. We were so happy. She apologized for not getting back to us, she had been really busy with work and school. And I totally understood, going to school full time and having two jobs, yep I could relate. But it gets better, she then goes on the tell us that she'll be meeting with the LM the next evening! Prayers are answered. I don't know how to tell you how hard we have been praying for W to have her answer the phone and still have a desire to get baptized. We're calling her after church on Sunday to see how it all went. Hopefully if things continue to work out we'll have a baptism in the future. The closer I get to having to get off the computer the more things I remember I want to share with you, guess who gets to eat for free at the Lyon's House next week?! I do! haha, I passed of four tours, and the prize is a free meal there. I'm super excited. I'm not really sure the purpose to have to pass off now besides allowing the zone leaders to know exactly where I'm at. It used to be that you can't give tours until you pass it off but that's no longer how it is. So I've actually
been giving tours since my first day. But we get a free meal. We're planning on going with Sister Mahoney (Canada) and Sister Andre, (England) her trainer. I've been told it's delicious so I'm pretty
excited. To celebrate right after though Sister Bogmren took me to Nauvoo Cafe for dinner and then Far's for dessert. Delish.
Oh, and real quick. For everyone that has written me a letter recently, I am so sorry that I haven't written you back yet. P-Day's are super busy and they are the only days we can write letters. I
usually have time for maybe one or two each week. So just be patient with me please :) and continue to write me. Mail is the best! And is makes me smile.
Love you all lots! and Happy Labor Day ;)
XOXOXOXO
-Sister Fluckiger
No comments:
Post a Comment