4th of July

Hello!!! Happy 4th of July (on Friday!!!) I hope you had a great time!! I know we had fun! (: Things are going well in Monongahela! Sister Jones and I are doing really well and this next week is going to be a challenge because we want to get members to all of our lessons!! Talk about difficult, but with the Lord anything is possible.

So Tuesday was a little strange because we made plans and then did something completely different from those plans. Pretty typical actually haha! We stopped in on Dena and Marcus and Dena asked us to come back and help them. Now, I was a little hesitant at first but Dena said she would make sure I'd stay away from windows d: So first we went to the Senior Center and we had a kinda cool experience there. When we showed up they were a little shocked (because it's Tuesday and we normally go on Thursday but it was Tuesday, Mother (;  ) So we ended up helping them with lunch and when we sat down to talk with some of the ladies, Ida, who is in her 90's, said that God answered her prayer. She didn't know how they were going to get everything done that day and we had shown up. She kept telling everyone that God had sent us to help. It was kinda awesome. Love those people!! So we went back to Dena and Marcus' after lunch and I DIDN'T BREAK ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! (: HURRAY!! It was a miracle! (: We helped them for 4 hours and their front porch now looks great and all put together. They are amazing. We are going to schedule an appointment with them so that we can sit down and have a good lesson with them....finally. We went to the Hoffman's after dinner and Brother Hoffman gave us an RLDS copy of the Book of Mormon. Talk about WEIRD. haha! It's pretty much the same...but not. They kinda left out Joseph Smith's testimony....a little important if you ask me.

Wednesday was totally awesome!! We went to the Braddy's and Sister Braddy committed to pray with her kids at night!! That was the first solid commitment we have gotten from her! And she prayed for us!! Even better!! A little of amazing things happened with this family and I'll talk a little bit more about it in a second. We saw Vi after that and her son is making her stay for all 3 hours now which is probably for the best. d: We were pretty excited about that too because she ALWAYS leaves after sacrament. For an old lady she is moves pretty fast! d: Next was Tim and Tanja's. By the end, we committed their 11 year old son, TJ to take the lessons!!! So we got a new investigator!! We were REALLY happy about that. He is a pretty typical 11 year old but you wouldn't guess that by looking at him. He wears size 13 shoes!!! That is HUGE!! haha! But we are pretty excited to start working with him! Our only attendee at the BOM class was Sister Crook, so we got a little off topic /: We also met with Bishop Paul after that and got his direction for the ward this transfer!

Thursday we picked up the Mckeesport Elders then headed off to Greentree!!! We then met President and Sister Johnson for the 1st time! They are super sweet. They are from Logan Utah and almost the complete opposite of the Tophams. So our mission will have some adjusting to do! But it looks like we are in great hands!! (: I am really excited to serve under them! I even got to see Sister Rock so that was pretty sweet! She is surviving her walk area...kinda haha! Then it was time to drive home and that literally took us 2 hours. We left at 11:45 and didn't get back to our apartment until 1:45 and we had an appointment at 2:30. We scarfed down some lunch then took off to Sue's to meet Rachel. We talked there for a little bit then headed out to Jackie's. Her father in law had a heart attack and she had an infection so we haven't been able to see her for the last few weeks. But we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went pretty well! She is learning so quickly!

Friday was the 4th so we had to be in by 6 if we didn't have an appointment /: We had weekly planning then talked with Cheran for a little bit. But we had an early dinner appointment at the Hammonds. They are amazing and had invited some of the Elders' investigators to their house for dinner. It was super great but they definitely have their work cut out for them with Sara!! haha! But she is really sweet and loves coming to church so that's pretty awesome. So then we came home and had to stay in. Fireworks are really loud....haha!

Saturday was still pretty good. We went to correlation and the Elders forgot....same time every week...not hard hahaha! But we came home after having a good discussion on our investigators and less actives. We found out that Eve is BACK in the hospital and she is as wiry as ever! d: She gave us some....ahem interesting advice...we'll let it stay there haha! Next was the Sullivans and they are doing better. Mark is doing better but he was on one for sure. haha! We talked about D&C 4 which was super awesome. Pretty epic section if you ask me! d: Next we went to Barbara's and taught the Plan of Salvation. We are working on her understanding. Next was our lesson with Tanner. He is still bossing it! We talked about scripture study as a formality haha! He is really good at it. Next we tried a lady named Michelle. We've tried her before and both times she wasn't available. We told the people who opened the door that we would be back and they said ok. So we show up and their is an envelope on the door that says 'Sister Missionaries'. So we take it down and it's a letter that basically says she doesn't want contact from the church at all and that we need to respect people's wishes. *sigh*. I try not to take things personally but sometimes it is REALLY hard. I just want everyone to want the gospel!!!

Sunday was another fast Sunday! The whole stake fasted to help us find new investigators! So at the start of sacrament meeting, I turned around to see who came. SISTER BRADDY WAS THERE!!!!!!! (: We were SO happy!! It was amazing!! We ended up spending our evening with some of the coolest people ever!! We saw Sister Honich and Sister Fitch. These ladies are SO awesome!!!! I love this area!!

So this week has been amazing and I have learned a lot. I love being a missionary and I love serving with Sister Jones!! Everything is going great, soooo bring on the trials right!?!? haha! Oh man. But everything is really great!! I hope you are having an awesome time too!!! (: I love you dearly!! Thank you for the letters!! They make my day!!!!!

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett