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| Our Modesto home |
I
love the neighborhood we're living in. Brother and Sister Grimes are
so nice. The branch members are so kind too. Sister Crandall and I's
area is super huge. Our stake/area covers 5-6 wards. In those
boundaries, we have it all but pick out those spanish individuals.
Elder Blake and Elder Goettman are the only 2 spanish Elders serving
with Hermana Crandall and I. So they take the West side, we take the
East. It's very scary here but very safe. Police cars and sirens go
off pretty much 24/7. Everytime we hear them, I say to Hermana Crandall "Good morning
Modesto!"
I
spoke in Sacrament yesterday (luckily I just had to introduce myself and
bear testimony), but I also had to play the Piano too. It was
intimidating playing in front of the whole branch, but I realized no one
knows if I make a mistake because they all don't know how to read music
very well. Sunday's here make me laugh because they are just SO
different from church meetings in Utah. It doesn't matter if you were
jeans, tanks, flip-flops, mini skirts, etc. It's very rowdy. And
everyone sits in the back. But I love the people here. I'm actually
more scared contacting white/American people. They are so mean! I got
my first door slamming this week. Sure I've had people reject us, but
they "kindly" say they don't want us. Well this week I knocked on the
door and began saying "We're representatives of Jesus Christ and......."
the lady then replies "crap!" and slams the door. It hurt but it's no
longer my concern. We tried, and she'll be shown it's the true church
eventually.
This week has been a little easier getting use to things, but also
very hard. We realized we really don't have any progressing
investigators. We're teaching lots of lessons, but they are just not
keeping their commitments and we've been slacking on getting after
them. So that's our goal this week. We also are starting to visit more
with the members. Sister's aren't really allowed much in the evenings
when appointments fall through. So we decided to start visiting those
members we don't know. We picked a name and drove to this house. Her
name is Lidia. She was baptized August 2011. She hasn't been to church
in awhile. Talking with her though, we knew God picked her name for us
to visit that night. Her landlords are pocketing her payments and not
sending them through to the bank. So the bank is kicking her out of her
apartment. She has been so stressed trying to find a new apartment.
We talked about the different areas she could choose. Long story short,
we'll be helping her pack in the next couple weeks. And we got her to
committ to coming to church Sunday. :)
Another miracle this week was Josie Mendoza. We were doing HB's in
Empire and went to this apartment complex. The first door we knocked
on was hers. She just looked at us with such confusion. We left a
blessing and she still was just so astonished at why we were at her
door. She told us she's a single mom of 5 and is looking for a job.
Just seconds before our visit, she was praying to God to help her know
what to do in life and to give her the strength to continue. Right when
she said Amen, we were at her door. I can see now why she was so
shocked! Ha ha.. We've been checking in with her a lot. She just needs
friends to talk to so we are there to listen. We were suppose to teach
her and her family tonight but she had something come up so we'll stop
by later this week. The Lord definitely knows who needs us and where to
place us. It's crazy to see the Lord's hand in everyone's lives.
Thank you for all your prayers and love. - hermana Sorensen
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