Fam! April
29, 2014
Things are a little crazy and I won't have much time for
anything
today... We are sacrificing a big chunk of our P-day to teach
the
bishop’s daughter’s best friend this afternoon. We are excited
to see
how it goes! It seems really promising. Please keep their
friend, Skye
in your prayers. If you will, pray that she will receive us well
and she will receive answers to her prayers!
This past week was a full-blown roller coaster ride of emotions.
It
was fun though because I got to go on exchanges with both Sister
Pitts and Sister Allred--two of my missionary best friends! Love
them! It was weird being with Sister Pitts...it was like we had
gone back
in time and were serving in Port Orange again! It was like I was
just waiting for an appointment to come that day to go teach Ed and Michele!
Haha! I miss them! Sister Allred was super fun too....but she got a serious
migraine in the middle of the day and threw up like 3-4 times...
:( I
felt so bad for her! She was super positive about the whole
thing
though and we were still able to have some laughter ;)
We had a huge miracle happen on Saturday. Sister Pugmire and I
were
walking down a street to find people to talk to and we walked up
to this man sitting outside on his front porch. We asked if we could share a
scripture with him. Long story short, we were able to teach him a really solid
first lesson on the restoration and commit himto be baptized on June 7th.
He was willing to read the Book of Mormon and come to church the next day!!! I
seriously was sooo happy. I love moments like that. I just knew that we had
been placed in his life. He talked about how he had been praying just the day
before for positive people and influences to come into his life and that he
wanted direction because he didn't want to make a wrong choice and “go to
hell.” He was super happy as well and text us later saying that he knew that we
were from God and that things were already starting to work out with a
struggling marriage and all this kind of
stuff.... Sister Pugmire and I were floating on a cloud! We were
so happy!!!
The next morning, Sam, (the man,) text us and said that he was
reading
what we assigned him before he came to church. Then he arrived
at church 15 minutes early! ... Seriously--the most solid investigator ever. We
had a really powerful testimony meeting and he really liked it as well.
Then we went into our Gospel Principles class. He was asking all
kinds
of great questions and making all these great comments... We
were so
happy!!! But....dun, dun,dun…the lesson ended up going way, way
too super deep than it should have on the Abrahamic covenant. Then the lesson
diverted to things such as the Word of Wisdom, pre-ordination, and onto
political topics, etc., etc. Sam was so flustered. As soon as the class
ended he booked it out to the parking lot. Sister Pugmire and I
chased after him. He was super frustrated and took all the deep stuff out of
context and thought that we were bigoted, arrogant people that are trying to
force our beliefs on other people.... Ugh! It was so bad! Sister Pugmire and I
tried our best to fix the damage but it was too late. Sam wouldn't listen to us
and was just super flustered. He literally kept backing away from us and
wouldn't let us get closer than 5 feet to him… like we were going to cast a
spell on him or something! It was soooo crushing! I've never felt so crushed by
seeing something like that. Anyway, we are keeping him in
our prayers, but I really think that he is gone.
On a happier note though, we are going to be seeing Skye tonight
for
the first time and she seems awesome :) The Goldenrod area is
really
hard but it's improving for sure. Sister Pugmire and I are
working
super hard. We keep our focus on the stake and mission goal of
teaching 20 lessons a week and WE ARE REACHING IT!!!!! This area
is a
tough area. The most lessons any missionaries had taught in a
week during the past year before this last transfer was 15…and that was rare. We
are working our tails off. Hopefully we will be able to find some solid
investigators.
I love this work so much! Missionary work brings seriously the greatest
joy I have ever felt but it also brings the most crushing blows. I've learned
the importance of agency and how hard it is to let people make such sad
decisions but that it's the way that God wants it so we all have the chance to
be happy. What a hard thing it must be for God to see His children make wrong choices
that pull us away from Him. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of this gospel
and that we have the opportunity to invite people to learn, pray and come to
know for themselves. There is no other way to find the truth!!! I love you!!!!
Love,
Sister Kirkham
P.S. (This was part of Katie’s handwritten letter that she wrote
later in on the same day.) The coolest thing happened when Sister Pugmire and I
went shopping at Walmart today. We were getting ready to have our groceries
rung up and this man came up to us and said that he was going to pay for our
groceries! He had a son who just came home from serving in Fiji. Sister Pugmire
and I were so shocked and overwhelmed that we both teared up and cried as we
were standing in line. Haha! It made my whole day…to know there are still good
people out I the world!!!!! It was kind of cool to be reminded of how good it
feels when others are kind and serve you. It just made we want to go out and
work that much harder to help others feel the way I did!! So cool!
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