Monday: We went back to the Shigoka family house to watch “the Testaments” with their daughter. We found out that Sr. Shigoka was hurt in a bad car accident a few years ago and is nearly deaf in both ears. She sits through sacrament meeting and all the church meetings every Sunday and can’t hear a thing. We are checking into a way to help her out. (smile) She is amazing. I would do anything for this family. So we watch the movie with their less active daughter who usually hates religion, but somehow we hit it off with her. By the end of the movie, she was crying. Hello “MIRACLE”!!!! We are meeting again with her this week.
Tuesday: We pretty much tracked all day. We met Mark. He is awesome. He agreed to take the lessons and baptism, right then and there! Whoa….
Then we went out with my favorite family that night, the Rogers’. We went to a member’s home. He is an engineer and designed his backyard. It has waterfalls, huge rocks, and a HORSE set-up. Hello HEAVEN!! It was spectacular. Ha ha Matthew, I expect this some day.
Wednesday: Sister training leader exchanges. This was the best day ever! Sister Randall, my training leader is a twin. So of course we hit if off instantly. She was so chill, teaching and tracking was a breeze. We laughed and smiled a ton. She is serving in Agoura Hills. We were talking about the rich and famous people in our wards and she told me she has the guy who wrote Despicable Me! She said he goes out with them weekly and he is hilarious. His name is Cinco and they have the red power ranger. Is this real life? Anyway, we met two amazing people while tracking. It was so exciting. Then we ate dinner, best tri-tip ever. The ward takes such good care of us!
Thursday: We met with Mike again. He asked a million questions. Basically, I should have listened in seminary a little more. He apologized for only reading 14 chapters in Nephi, ha ha. Then we met Caroline. She was diagnosed with a mental illness. A year ago, she lost everything, her kids, her husband and her home. She is doing better now and she is back in her home with her husband and kids. She lost all faith in God. She cried during our entire lesson and at the end, she said that she wants to believe again. She even committed to baptism. She is so strong. She said that people hear the term mental illness and are afraid. She knows she I a good person and a great Mom. She cares for and loves her kids so much. Something about her touched my heart. I want to help her so bad. She looks like she weighs and 85 pounds and is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. She wants to believe so bad and I know she wants to feel the peace of the gospel. Tonight we met with Mike again. Another Mike. Coolest ever but he can’t pass his drivers test. We are trying to find a member to help him study since we aren’t allowed to read the manual (lol). If he passes, then he won’t need a ride to work and then he can stay for all of the Sunday meetings.
Friday: Interviews! The sister training leaders gave us training on the atonement. I have always thought of the atonement as repenting of sin, but it covers so much more. Pain, sickness, sufferings, everything….. Then President Castro talked on trust. The training lasted 5 hours. Then we had interviews, President Castro is amazing. He talked to each of us a lot about how much thought and prayer went into the sisters he put in the area. In each of our interviews, he said, we were put together for a reason. We all went in this area because it was a hard, rich area, and we were the ones that might make a difference. This area hasn’t had sisters in forever, and a zone of all Elders needed strong sisters. We are setting the tone for all the future sisters in Simi Valley. WOW.!! I’m thankful for my companion teaching me such obedience. (Never thought I would say that, ha ha)
Saturday: The Lord has more than blessed us! It was a crazy day/week and we weren’t able to work as much as we had planned. In 2 hours, we were able to find 2 new investigators, 8 decs and 2 baptism invites. The Hermana’s (Spanish Sisters) and my companion are amazing. We are so blessed. It was a hard day; on the way home we stopped for gas. A lady got out of her car with a dog that looked exactly like my dog at home, Beaux, freckles and all! It made me so happy that I almost cried. (The tender mercies) Love.
Sunday: It has been miracle after miracle this week. My testimony of prayer and my trust in the Lord has hit a new all time high. We reached our goals this week. Ten, yes 10 new investigators and we hit the standard of excellence. I hate the numbers, but now that we are working together in love, we are achieving them. When we first got here, we barely had 2 investigators per week. Also, I get so anxious at night and knocking on doors late, that it scares the stink out of me. So selfishly, I have been praying at every prayer that we will have enough appointments each night that we don’t have to go knocking. Everyone laughs at my prayer and we kind of joke about it, but this week we just looked at our calendar and we are booked every night! I wish you could hear my sigh of relief and see my huge smile.
At church today, a man came up and handed each of us a gift card, then walked away. We had no idea who he was and he just seemed to disappear. It was $50 to the grocery store and then another one to Jamba Juice. Anyway, that evening our appointment cancelled so the RS president asked us if we wanted to go out with her. She said we were visiting a man that had lost his brother and aunt his week. We knocked and the man that gave us the gift card opened the door! This man is most selfless person I have ever met. He had my Dad's (and Uncle Jerry’s) smile! It melted my heart. He was so inspirational and cares so much about everyone else. (Reminds me of my Dad) The man does so much and cares so much for people, but doesn’t want anyone else to know about it. (Dad, I love you!)
All of Southern California fasted today for rain. Then at 7 pm tonight, it started raining and hasn’t stopped. What????? I love and miss everyone. Please write letters, I barely have time to read emails and sometimes they won’t even print.
Love, Sister Hancock
