 |
| Gainesville District
Elder Baldwin, Elder Young, Elder Anderson, Elder Tauoa,
Elder
Walgamott, Elder Sullivan (Zone Leader), Elder Clark (District Leader), Elder Lake, Elder Collins Sister Parshall, Sister Winkler, Sister Murray, Sister Martinez |
 |
| Sister Young, my driver to transfers. She was baptized in July |
 |
| Sister Murray with Sister Kloepfer, my new companion. |
 |
We spent part of Halloween evening with the Fresh
family. Then we
helped pass out candy with the ward mission leader's wife. |
I absolutely love being back in Arlington!!! And I love Sister Kloepfer (klep-fur)!!! She is from Burley Idaho, and her second cousin is Sara Balling--who I graduated high school with! She is super sweet and fun. She actually reminds me a lot of Sister Hale. She even says "Meh!" (Knew you'd appreciate that Sister Hale!) We have been having so much fun together! And we've been working really hard! It's the best!
I still can’t believe I’m really here
to stay--I feel like I’m back for a trade-off and soon I will go back to
wherever I’m supposed to be! Haha, but I also really feel that this is
where I need to be. I know there are people prepared for us to teach
here!!! I am also loving being a sister training leader! We have 4
sets of sisters that we work with in the zone. They are all amazing and I
love them so much! I truly believe God helps us feel his love for those
we serve.
We got to do service for Pete this
week. When I walked in he looked at me and said, "You look
different. Older. I know! You don't have a flower in your
hair!" Haha, good ol Pete! I also got to see Jake on Sunday
since he came to church with his Momma. It is amazing to see the
atonement take such a huge affect in someone’s life. Last year he had
been inactive for about 9 years and now he is completely active, addiction
free, going to the temple, and preparing for his patriarchal blessing. He
has completely change! The atonement is real!
More people in the ward remember me
than I thought would. I also find that the more I see people in Arlington the
more names I'm remembering!
On Saturday we had a rough day.
Things kept going wrong and we were freezing outside knocking doors! Our
last appointment for the night was a media referral named Trina. The
previous sisters had almost dropped her because they couldn’t get an
appointment with her, but they decided to try for one more and she agreed to
let us come. She is so prepared for the gospel! We taught the
restoration and she really felt the spirit! At one point we were talking
about the difference between finding peace and finding truth and she had a big
realization. We told her that the spirit had touched her and she had just
had an aha moment. She looked at us with huge eyes and said in awe,
"I just had an aha moment!" It was a priceless moment.
She has a baptism date for November 29th! She has four children between
the ages of 8 and 17. She was going to tell them what she had learned so
we are hoping to teach them all next time. We have been praying and
fasting to find a family to baptize this month and we know that God answers our
prayers!!!
Sunday evening we were able to have
two wonderful lessons with less active members. The first was the Gibbs
family. They just need some TLC and they are planning on coming to church
next week! They have one little dog and about 8 cats! Sister
Kloepfer doesn't like animals so much. Haha, you should have seen her
face when a cat ran right at her and under her chair. It's a good thing I
was an animal fanatic as a kid because those cats were all over me!
We also got to see a less active YSA
named Cameron who I had worked with a bit last year. We knocked on his
door and no one answered, but we could tell someone was home so Sister Kloepfer
yells, "Hellooo!" He immediately answered and we had an amazing
lesson! He wants us to come to YSA with him... oh how I would love to do
that Cameron! I heard from the YSA sisters that Kristen (one of the twins
I taught) has a baptism date for November 15th!!!!
It is getting cold here! Sister
Dains told us it was colder here than it is where her son is serving his
mission--in Alaska! So you can stop being jealous of the Florida sun ;)
I love all of you!
Happy fall y'all!
Sister Alyson Murray
PS We drove to transfers with Tina
Young. She was so sweet to drive us! The Elders took my bike since she
doesn’t have a bike rack. We were in Jacksonville when the Elders called
to say they had forgotten to bring my bike. I told them it was okay and
we would work it out. I guess they were hoping I would be more nervous
about it because then Elder Collins admitted they hadn’t forgotten it but they
had left it at a members house in the Arlington ward and I had to go find
it! I guessed it would be at Pete's or the Dains family's. I got
right at the Dains! I was able to pick it up on Friday when we went there
for lunch. Elder Baldwin mentioned
they left a surprise with it and I should be excited. Well their
definition of an exciting surprise must be different from mine. They had taken
my brakes off! Silly Elders... and the chain was off but apparently
that just happened on the ride over. Luckily it only took me a couple
minutes to get it all fixed. :) Should I be honored to have been
the subject of Elder Collin’s and Elder Baldwin’s last mission prank?
