Week 3

This week was great! Most of our teaching has been with less active members and recent converts but we did get two new investigators this week! One is a man in his 80s and the funny thing is he's almost deaf so our first lesson with him was interesting haha.  I tried to ask him a question and I had to repeat it 4 times because he couldn't hear me.  And even though I was almost shouting in the end he still couldn't hear me so I just gave up and let my companion Sister Passey do the "talking":) We also have a few potential investigators.  One is a woman who is 94 and looks like she's 70.  She has so much energy! She immediately hugged us when we came to the door and proceeded to spend 30 minutes telling us all about her kids, grand children and great grandchildren.  She says she's very set in her ways but has invited us to come back and teach her.  Another is a man who was very stoned when we talked to him but he said he would read more from the pamphlets we gave him and we've set up a time to meet with him again this week. 

So we have a few drunks that we see regularly that have become our friends.  One of them is always telling us that we're good girls and to watch out and be careful of strange men.  They'll also tell us parts of town that are pretty dodgy that we shouldn't go to.  I think it's pretty funny and kind of ironic that a drunk man is telling us to watch out for other drunks!

It was Fast Sunday yesterday and we had an amazing sacrament meeting! I would say at least 90% of the ward are converts and have the strongest testimonies!  We also got to see a man we've been teaching who was just baptized a couple weeks ago, pass the Sacrament for the first time! It was really neat to see that.

We visited with a couple yesterday which was really interesting.  The man is from Pakistan and is Muslim and he was telling us all about his religin, Islam.  Although there definitely some differences between the two, it was cool to see all the similarities that it has with the LDS church. We're also meeting with a family from Czechoslovakia and it's been interesting to hear about their culture as well. 

We had dinner with a member a couple days ago.  I think I mentioned a little about her in my first email but she is the sweetest lady! She insists that all the missionaries call her "granny" because she says we're all her grandchildren.  She loves all the missionaries but she especially loves the elders.  She has them all take a picture with her and then she hangs them all up on her walls.  Also, on her wall are a ton of pictures of her two great loves in life--Elvis Presley and cats.  She has a shrine for Elvis on her wall I swear.  But she also loves Christ more than anyone I know and has many pictures of Him on her walls as well.  She says the phrase "silly cookie" all the time and tells us constantly, "Now you take care or I'll scalp your backside!" Haha she's hilarious.  She also has an amazing conversion story.  Her and her husband joined the Church soon after they got married but then her husband got offended by something and had his name removed from the records and forced her to do the same.  She wanted to be in the church so badly but had to wait 53 years until after he died about 10 years ago. She is probably the strongest member I've ever seen!

So I need to explain the picture I'm sending.  Almost every day we walk on this street called Martin Avenue.  And every day we see the same cat in front of the same house, on the same piece of sidewalk.  Every time! But it's kind of creepy because he's always watching us with this evil death glare on his face.  So we've named him Martin, the Devil Cat. 

We're going to Edinburgh tomorrow to have an All Scotland conference which will be really cool.  I'm excited to see all the missionaries in Scotland!

Thanks for everyone's love and support! I miss you all!

Sister Caryn Jackson