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| Pimped out the back of my nametag! Now I always have them close to my heart, literally :') |
Last Tuesday, we had an appointment to teach Jimmy. His wife is a member of the church and his daughter just recently got baptized, so we have been teaching him quite a bit. But right when we got to his house, he texted us and said that he was out running some errands so he wasn't home. We decided to knock some doors while we waited to leave for our next appointment. We got to a point in the sidewalk where we could either go left or straight...Sister Phillips pulled out her scriptures and said "Okay, I know this is ridiculous, but if it says 'behold' we will go straight, and if it says 'and it came to pass' we will go left. She opened her scriptures three different times, and each time neither came up. So I tried and literally the first words I see are 'and it came to pass'.
So we took a left. Down the road we saw these two guys sitting by a truck, drinking beers and smoking "something that shouldn't be lit in front of two young ladies". We talked to them for a little while, and had a good gospel discussion going. One of them, Tyson, said that we could come back the next day and teach him officially. He also told us that if anyone "tries to mess with us" to tell them that we know him. So watch out people of New Jersey, we know Tyson, so back off. Anyways, we come back the next day and of course, Tyson if no where to be found.
But the High School near by had just gotten out, so we talked to some teenagers walking by. We met these two siblings named Zaheer and Jessikiah, and showed them a video. They both really liked it, and gave us their address so we could come and teach them the next day.
The next day we arrive a little early, so we start talking to this guy who was just sitting in his garage. His name was Miguel, and he was making fun of my companion for being from Idaho. Lol. But he was SUPER cool and was asking us a bunch of questions. He said that he was Muslim and not really interested in our message, but we were still just able to talk for a second. Before we left, we asked if there was anyone he knew that could benefit from a message about Christ. He said that he actually did know someone, and pointed a few houses down to this older man outside washing his car. He explained to us that his sister had just recently passed away, and he could probably use some comfort right now.
We thanked Miguel, and walked toward the man. We talked for a moment and found out that his name was Alfred. He explained to us that he used to have cancer and the radiation from chemotherapy messed up his vocal chords, so he wasn't able to say much. So we just said "someone told us that you might enjoy this message", and read him Alma 40:11-12. It says, "Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow". After we read that to him, his eyes started to well up with tears. He explained what had happened with his sister, and thanked us for giving him that beautiful message of hope. He said that he had really been struggling, and thanked us over and over for taking the time to talk to him and comfort him. He said that he wanted to learn more, but is only in town for the funeral. So we got his information and passed it on to the lovely missionaries in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Finally we went to the address that the high schoolers gave us, and (shocker) no was one home. I was honestly a little disappointed at first, but then felt the strongest impression that this entire thing, all of these dropped appointments and seemingly random meetings, were all orchestrated in order to help Alfred in his time of need. Everything that had happened over these past few days, had lead to us meeting Alfred and telling him what he needed to hear. I felt so thankful that we were able to be where we needed to be, and that we could act as instruments in the Lord's hand to help someone else. I'm not sure if anything else will happen with Alfred, but I am so thankful that we were able to meet him.
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| Quick pic in between knocking doors. |
The second story, is kind of similar. Sister Phillips and I wanted to meet a former investigator, a woman named Danny. We drove to her house one night, but something came up so we had to leave. We tried again the next day, and it ended up being much better that we had come that day instead. We get out of our minivan, and were about to walk up to her front door when we hear these two guys across the street. They asked how we were doing and we said that we were doing fine. We asked them in return, and one of them said "I'm doing alright, but I would be doing much better if I had the company of two lovely ladies" and stretched out his arms towards us. Barf. Luckily it was dark enough that he couldn't see my epic eyeroll. So basically I wanted to leave because I just thought "we don't have time for this", but Sister Phillips had a different idea. She talked talking to them more and found out that they had just graduated from college in New York, but this was the house they grew up in. She asked, "Oh, so do you know Danny?" "Danny [last name]?" "Yeah, that's the one" "*laugh* Uh yeah, that's my mom". WHAT?!? I was seriously dying. SOOO he goes inside and gets his mom and says that we can go inside to talk to her. It was seriously the funniest thing.
So we go inside and talk to her for a little while, but it is pretty obvious that she is exhausted. She told us that she works a lot of hours and doesn't get Sundays off so that's why she stopped meeting with the missionaries, because she could never go to church. But she assured us that she loves the teachings and the Book of Mormon. We saw that she was really tired and didn't want to stay for too long, so we offered to help sweep or do the dishes for her, and she almost started to cry. She just said "you girls are so sweet and kind, if even only 10% of the world were like you girls, it would be a much better place". She was so sweet. We agreed that for every lesson we were able to teach her, we would wash her dishes. Afterward we left her house and waved goodbye to our new friends, Kinley and Savion.
Again, I got the strongest impression that if we hadn't first talked to Kinley, we wouldn't have been able to meet Danny. Meeting him first and having him talk to her avoided the (likely) possibility that she would be too tired to talk to us, and send us away. Because we made that first connection with Kinley, we were able to actually talk to her and hopefully lighten her load a little bit.
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| I was trying to take a picture of the foliage and some girl stepped in front of the camera......the audacity. |
Even throughout all the weird, disappointing, and hilarious moments, the Lord's hand is in it all. I am convinced that there is no such thing as coincidences, and I have especially been able to realize that since I have been a missionary. We are constantly being lead, we just need to be watchful, and follow the promptings!
There are so many more bizarre, hilarious, enlightening, and wonderful things to talk about, but I am running out of time. Plus, I feel like these emails are always way too long, so I'm just gonna wrap things up. But life in Maplewood is great, and I am so thankful that I get to dedicate this short time in my life to helping others come unto Christ. I love this gospel so much, and can't even begin to describe the pure joy that it has given me. I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support!
All my love,
Sister Yocum
(Which is apparently an "Asian sounding last name"??? I can't even tell you how many people have told me that lol)
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| Zone Conference!! Zone 5 is where it's at |
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| I met one of my older brothers roommates from college! Apparently most people are now calling him Elder Sullivan, instead of "Dirty Mike". lol |
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