Freezing Cold!

This week was a super good one.  Sister Jones and I have been praying extra hard for new investigators and people to teach.  Our Mission President promised us that if we studied chapters 8 and 9 in Preach My Gospel, our numbers would double.  Well, we saw just that this week.  And it was incredible.
This weeks weather was a little on the FREEZING COLD side and we have some ice warnings coming up later in the week.  But that didn't stop us from going out and tracting for an hour per day.  We had a lot of success doing this and I have found that I actually enjoy tracting!

Yes, our faces are frozen, haha!

I haven't really ever done it on my mission- and Sister Jones said this has been the most she has tracted on her mission as well.  I have a few stories from it that I know you'll enjoy:)

We hit up one trailer park and stayed there the whole time, it seemed to be working out well for us! At one trailer two little girls opened the door and said they would go get there mom.  Enough time passed by that we contemplated on leaving because we thought their mom told them to just ignore us.  Well then this woman comes to the door in a robe and sees that we are missionaries.  She told us that she had just gotten out of the bath to come to the door - we immediately apologized for disturbing her and hoped we hadn't upset her.  She laughed and was actually really sweet.  She thanked us for what we were doing and said they already went to a church and they were Baptist and happy with where they were at.  So we said goodbye and continued on our way.  At the next trailer a man opened the door and we introduced ourselves.  The conversation went as follows, "Hi sir!  How are you doing today?  You're smart to be staying inside, it is freezing out."
Man: "Well, I'm not the owner, I'm just a friend.  I'm here looking after my friend's cat.  She just had kittens."  *Thrusts open the door to reveal a box of squirming furry bundles*
Us:  "Oh! That is so nice of you.  What a great way to help out your friend.  We are the missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we are out serving for 18 months because we love our Savior.  We want to help everyone we come in contact with grow closer to Jesus Christ.  Do you feel like you have a personal relationship with Him?"
Man: "Well...I...I actually believe in Aliens."  *Looks at us with squinty eyes*
Us: *oh crap. what the heck*  "Oh wow!  What led you to believe in that?"
Man: "Well I still read the Bible and stuff..."
At this point in time my companion flipped to the scripture that talks about how everything denotes that there is a God.  She asks to read it and the man backs up and says he really isn't interested.  We persisted to see if he would change his mind and he goes, "Listen ladies, I have a show on I'm watching.  I can't miss it.  It's playing in the back over there."  We said it would only take a minute but he wasn't feeling it.  So he replies, "I am watching the Titanic right now, so I just am gonna give you a donation for your church and then finish watching it."  We declined the money which shocked him- and then said goodbye.  Haha!
The next trailer was the one where we found 6 new investigators.  It is a family who is all living together for now.  The grandparent, parents, and then their kids.  The ones who were home though were the kids.  The daughter was 17, had an 8 month old, was newly pregnant and was with her fiance.  The other kids ran in after a bit and are all aged between 9-12.  They asked us a lot of questions about church, and primary and scouts, and sacrament, and when we asked them if they wanted to come this week they said YES!  We will have a sleepover and go to church together!  It was cute.  They asked us to come back on Tuesday next week, so we will see how that goes!  But that was a tender mercy because sister Jones and I had set a goal to find 7 New Investigators, and only had 1 so far.  We had a day left to find the other 6.  Well, right there in that trailer park, the Lord delivered.

We went on another exchange this week!  And I was really excited because I got to go serve with Sister Alldredge in Hampstead who was in my MTC district and we got really close.  We did a lot of talking and catching up and had a great time.  She has turned into an amazing missionary and I have learned so much from her.  We did a ton in Hampstead that day.  Found some new investigators, met with a few potentials and former investigators, and saw a few less actives, recent converts and members.  We were successful and had a blast :)

Friday was the day we did weekly planning.  So we stayed inside all day. Planned, sat, and planned some more.  We took a break to go and visit a few of the old ladies in the ward that live down the street which ended up being a good idea.  Because the one invited us over for dinner which was a blessing because we didn't have dinner for that night and we didn't want to stay in our apartment any longer than we had to.  She was so cute and made us Pork chops, asparagus, applesauce, rolls, rice and gravy, salad, and then blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. 

She went all out and it was really good.  Then she pulled out two wrapped boxes of assorted chocolates and gave it to us for Valentines Day.  She said that we had made her feel loved, and wanted to make us feel loved in return since the next day was Valentines Day.  How sweet was that!

On Valentines Day we made heart cookies and went around to all of our less active families and couples and handed them out.  It was fun and they let us come in and share a message with them.  I have really come to love everyone in my area!  And they have come to love us as they get to know us better!  That night since it was Valentines, we headed over to a young wife's home in our ward and had dinner with her and one other girl.  Both of their husbands are deployed so they were going to be alone for the day.  We set up the 'date' and made it happen because there is no way they needed to be alone for Valentines day!  We made chicken fajitas and salad and watched the movie The Restoration (since that is one of the only movies we can watch, haha).  It was a blast.  And getting the young wives to meet each other is one of our goals so that they can have friends in church and want to come.

Sunday was a great day as well.  I have come to really look forward to the 3 hours of 'rest' I get when going to church.  It is a little bit of 'me' time and we get to listen to other people teach.  After church we went out and tracted a little bit which wasn't the most fun thing ever.  That was because it was super windy and that made it even more cold.  We filled up our water bottles with boiling water from the church and stuck them in our coat pockets to keep our hands warm!  Haha. Everyone we talked with told us they weren't interested, but that is okay!  Someone has to meet them and plant those seeds before anything else can happen, right?? Right.  For dinner that night this sweet family in our ward had us over.  They ended up making one of my favorite dinners from home because they had messaged my mom and asked for the recipe!  I teared up a little bit when she told me that:) I really enjoyed it though.

Wish us luck this week!  We are hearing about ice and freezing temperatures and we are supposed to drive the 2.5 hours to Raleigh to see Elder Christofferson on the 20th!

I love you so much and pray for you every day:)  Take care of each other and know that I am doing well.
Thank you for all your love and support <3 I am so grateful for a family like you!
- Mallory