The Week of all Weeks.....

SO. WELL. This week. This week though. This week has been super duper insane.

Lets see how this all played out. So Monday I TRIPPED over FLAT GROUND while we were playing sports and totally busted up my ankle. (But don't worry, I'm 95% sure it isn't broken). And we also met with this awesome family that we found last week. Tuesday we had  to go to an early breakfast meeting with one of the leaders of our mission, and learn how to help our ward better by changing our mindset and using the Temple Progress Report that we keep. Then after that we went to district meeting, had lunch and then had another training meeting. We also had a lesson with this AWESOME lady named Dawn, and she is on date to be baptized April 14! She is a wonderful miracle. 

Actually lets talk about Dawn for a minute. She had heard about Mormons like a year ago and requested missionaries and a Book of Mormon and stuff like that. But then stuff happened and she moved or something and the elders in our district met her and started teaching her. But then she said that she wanted to meet with Sister missionaries instead of elders, so they sent her to us. So we kept calling and attempting to set up an appointment with her, but she seemed like she wasn't really interested, but then we dropped by unexpectedly one Sunday, and she is so awesome! She let us in, and we got to know her, and she is a hilarious, beautiful, black lady with some kids that hopefully we will be able to teach soon, and so the second time we met with her, we set her on date for April 14th! So anyways, we are SUPER excited about this blessing Heavenly Father has given us. 

ANYWAYS! So that was Tuesday. On Wednesday, Sister Hale had a mission training meeting and went with another sister in our district. So I went on exchange with the Sister Wood. She is the sweetest missionary in the history of missionaries. So that lasted until like 4:30, then right after Sister Hale got back, we drove to go on ANOTHER exchange with the Sister Training Leaders. 

BUT! So here is a funny story. We had called our district leader the night before to ask him who was staying in the area, and who was going to the other area for exchange, and he said, "I don't remember. I wrote it on a piece of paper somewhere, but then I think I lost the piece of paper... So I don't quote me on this, but I think it was Sister Hale who is staying, and Sister Baine who is going. -_- So cool, I thought I was going to go speak Spanish for a day. But when we were nearly there, I realized that I had forgotten all  of the stuff for my exchange because we hadn't had time to go back to the house. I had no clothes to take, no makeup, no deodorant, nothing hahhaha. Just kidding it is not funny. So we texted the STLs, and they called us and were really confused, and said that they thought that it was Sister Hale who was supposed to be going and me who was supposed to be staying. And we were like what? So we called our district leader, and he said that he had accidentally told us wrong, and that it was switched. So neither of us had anything to go on exchange. But it all worked out. Sister Hale just smelled kind of bad the next day. Just kidding. 

ANYWAYS! The next day we met with a guy who we found out was Muslim.... We are not allowed to officially teach people who are Muslim because of the complications that they have with changing into the Christian religion. The member that we brought with us was like what...? So that was kind of awkward, but really cool, because he wasn't defensive at all and we were able to have a really good discussion about the Restoration and the similarities we have. When we gave him a Book of Mormon at the end and told him to read the introduction though, he gave us a copy of the Quaran (I don't know if that is how you spell it.) and told us to read the first section.... So that was awkward too, so when we got out of the lesson, we just let the member keep it haha. 

Then that evening we had another appointment with a lady named Maria who had requested a Bible, but when we went to drop it off said she already had one. We were super confused, so we met with her later and found out that she was a former investigator who was taught EVERYTHING but had never gotten baptized! She is awesome, and we told her that we knew that God had sent us to her again because He wants her to start working towards baptism again, and she said that she believed that. She has some concerns and fears, but we helped her to see that she had faith in Jesus Christ, and that He was strong enough to help her with those. We are meeting with her again tonight, and I am so excited! 

So our mission has been doing something called the Consecration Challenge, where each zone has to be perfectly obedient to these rules that President Taggart lines out for a month, and the zone who makes it through the month without any companionship messing up more than once gets to go to the temple. Well guess who made it to the temple!!! It was actually really easy, because we were already doing all those things to be obedient anyways. So on Friday our zone got to take an extra trip to the Manhattan temple, and it was SO WONDERFUL!!!! I am so thankful for that blessing, because I really needed that. Heavenly Father really has blessed me with a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation. 

Saturday we did a lot of planning and following up with people, and then on Sunday we spent from 8am to nearly 2pm in church meetings and councils and everything, so that was fun. But then we realized that we had forgotten on Saturday to put more gas in the car, so we walked like 2 miles to try to get to a dinner appointment, but then it was still like 6 miles away, so we had the other sister companionship pick us up... So that was fun. Plus my ankle is still swollen. But I'm not complaining because thats the fun of missionary life!!!!! 

Well, I think I have about written a novel. I am so thankful for all of you, and the wonderful examples that you are to me. Heavenly Father has blessed me to be born into the covenant and into this loving family that is working together to be eternal. I love you all so much, and Ican never thank God enough for blessing me so much. Easter is approaching, and President Taggart has given all of New Jersey a challenge. He said that he wants us to get every single member of the church in NJ to share the new Easter Video that the Church made with 20 people with a personal note attatched. It doesn't matter if you use the cards, or facebook or anything. But I invite you to at least watch the new Easter video and share it with anyone that comes to mind. I love you all SO mucho. 

Sister Baine

Sorry i look like a ghost in that one..... But that last pic is right outisde the door to our apartment. Yes we live above a nail place /barber shop haha. But it is fun, and we meet a lot of cool people. :)