October 1, 2013

Hola familia y amigos--

 



We had several funny experiences this week, and tons of tender mercies!

 

One tender mercy:  A man came up to me at church and asked if I liked gluten free waffles (uh, yes!)  He then told me that he had bought about 50 boxes for his daughter when they were on sale but then she moved away, so he didn't know what to do with them and was wondering if I would like some.  Score!! He asked me how big my freezer was and how many boxes I wanted so I just said like ten...so he runs home and brings me two grocery bags full of them.  How amazing is that?!  And he said to let him know when I run low because he has tons more.

 

The other day we had an amazing experience when we were tracting through an apartment complex that is in our area.  We had met this lady and her daughter briefly before, and when we went by this time, she was in the process of boxing up everything and moving out.  When we asked her if we could help, she looked a little doubtful and asked "do you really want to?"  To which I said, "YES!"  So she let us come in and help her box up a couple of bedrooms.  While we were packing she told us that she had received a notice yesterday that she had to move out of her apartment within 3 days.  Yikes.  We talked to her more and she told us about how another woman was moving away from the apartments at the same time, who had moved there around the same time that she had.  She felt that that lady had been brought there just to help her.  She also said that there was a missionary couple who worked with an addiction program that were about to be released that she felt were placed there just for her as well-- and then now with us showing up to help her just when she needed it, she felt overwhelmed with how perfect timing all of these things had.  I shared with her how I, too, had experienced times in my life where I felt that God was really watching over me, and setting things in my path to help me just when I needed them most.  It was a truly amazing experience, and more than one tear was shed and testimony shared.

 

On a lighter note, one night my companion and I had a few minutes before heading to dinner so we decided to knock a few random doors.  Background info, my companion is terrified of dogs and cats.  So I generally distract the dogs/cats while we talk to people.  Anyways, we walked up this driveway and were trying to figure out where the front door was when this big, mean dog runs around the corner, barking at us like crazy.  For half a second I contemplated whether I should stay and protect my companion, but quickly I decided that a better course of action would be to turn around and, well, get outta there!  So I turn and run like crazy, and my companion was just absolutely petrified so she was clenching on to my arm as I turned to run and took another half second before her wits came to her and she started running like mad out of there too!  We just ran around the corner into the street, and when we stopped I started cracking up.  It was just so funny! Oh gosh.  That will be a story for her to tell later-- "One day, this huge man-killing dog came to attack me, and my trainer just turned and booked it, leaving me to fend for myself!"  Haha not really, she was only a second behind me.  But you know what they say:  there is no need to fear dogs on your mission, as long as you know that you can run faster than your companion!

 

Another slightly less funny experience we had just yesterday--we had a lady come pick us up from our dinner appointment and drive us around for the rest of the night, then drop us off at the vc afterward (we didn't have the car yesterday).  I guess it all started when I called her earlier in the day to confirm with her.  I told her that we had an appointment at 6, and then after that we were just going to contact some referrals.  She offered that if we needed to we could come back to her house to contact the referrals, but I told her that we were doing visits, not calls.  Anyways, so she picks us up and we had an amazing lesson with Ha..... (we taught her the Restoration and put her on date for Nov. 2nd!).  The contacting went great; two of the people were home who we hadn't been able to catch yet!

 

Anyways, when we were done she said, "Well would you like to come to my house before we head back?"  I just figured that maybe she needed to pick something up to take down to St. George with her, so I said it was okay if we did that.  As we headed to her house I started to realize the real purpose for stopping by there.  She started rambling about how she had two sons still living at home--one was 25 with down syndrome, and the other one was 39 who had never found the right woman to marry.  Oh gosh.

 

So we get to the house and go in, and she tells us that we can wait there in the living room while she goes to get her family to come out and meet us.  While she was gone her 39 year old son, A...., comes in from the backyard and starts talking to us.  She came back and saw he was there, and then somehow disappeared again... after about 10 minutes she comes back with a family calendar so that we could "see pictures of the family," after which I said that we probably needed to be heading back.  Before we headed out, she turned to A..... and said, "A........, would you like to accompany us to St. George?"  To his credit, he looked a little confused and ended up saying he could just stay home with his brother.  Oh gosh!  This lady was totally trying to set us up with her son!  Oh gosh!  One, we are sister missionaries.  Two, he is almost twice our age.  Three, we are sister missionaries!

 

Oh goodness, I guess she is just a little desperate for her son to get married.  He looks more like 25 than 39 though, so I'm sure he will eventually.  But hopefully not to a sister missionary!

 

Anyways, I am grateful that there have been lots of tender mercies and funny experiences lately.  

 

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Burner