This past week was loads of fun. Last P-day (Prep day for those of you who are unfamiliar) we went to the Stake Center with our district and even our Zone Leaders and played a crazy awesome game of capture the flag. We had tables and chairs set up as barriers and what not, and we played for a couple of hours. Needless to say, we were all terribly sore for a couple days. It took a lot of effort to get out of the car every time.
Saturday we went to a Young Women's Camp fundraiser. The theme was an All Around the World Banquet, in which Grandma Van Sciver, who is my New Jersey Italian grandmother, cooked all the food. There was food from America (Thanksgiving dinner), Poland (kielbasa and sauerkraut), Russia (beef stroganoff), Mexico (taco bar), and Italy (baked chicken tortellini). It was so good! Then at the end they had a dessert auction. I've never seen people get so competitive to buy a dessert. A trifle sold for $100, and a couple cakes sold for $80. We had two of our investigators come and we were able to have a fun time with them, and one of them even managed to buy a dessert! It was a lot of fun, with tons of good food. The best part was I was talking with Grandma Van Sciver and a woman who's being taught by the missionaries in another area (she visited for the night). The woman said: "I'm going to go get some carrot cake."
Me: "Carrot cake's my favorite!"
Grandma Van Sciver: "Everything's your favorite."
Me: "But it's my favorite favorite."
Well, moving on from the food... this week was the first week both Sister Meeks and I were chased by a dog. We were stopping by a really old address we had, and there was a cute white labradoodle on the front porch. Me, in my awesome knowledge of dogs said, "Oh labradoodles are really nice and friendly, let's just knock." I got up to the top step, and the dog just stared at me. I reached for the doorbell and was about two inches away when the dog jumped up, snarled, and started snapping at me. So naturally I screamed and started running. I passed Sister Meeks at one point, and so the dog went after her. It was hilarious. We knocked the door right next to that house and found a young woman who is a Quaker (I've never met a Quaker before, so that was pretty neat!), and we were able to chat with her and invite her to come to church. We're looking forward to meeting with her again, because she had such a genuine charity about her and she wanted to learn more.
Another great moment was when we were heading to the Moorestown library. We stopped and talked to a man outside about the Book of Mormon. His response was surprising when he said, "It makes sense that there's more scripture, because there were other people who kept records too." We asked him if we could come teach him a little more sometime and we were able to set up an appointment. Miracles! Exciting ones, too.
So guess what? This week is supposed to be Shawn's baptism! He is SO AWESOME. He's the one who decided to quit drinking before we even taught him the Word of Wisdom. He is just so prepared to follow Christ, and I am super excited for him. I'll let you know more in next week's email, of course.
On Sunday Sister Meeks and I had a missionary fireside. We strayed from the norm of having a few people talk at the pulpit and decided, with the help of Brother Gale (our ward mission leader), to have individual break-out groups to discuss missionary work more. We had eight missionaries who had small groups of people to talk about what's holding people back from sharing the gospel with others, what fears we have about doing missionary work, what we can do to stop filtering the gospel out of our conversations, etc. It was pretty awesome. The whole purpose of the fireside was to help people "Overtly live the Gospel" and not be afraid to talk about gospel topics. Too often we filter out the gospel in conversation because we're worried what others might think, how another will respond, if we'll offend someone, or something of the sort. But the Lord has told us our purpose, "Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question-- unto what were ye ordained? To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth" (D&C 50:13-14). It's our responsibility to share the gospel. The Lord has given us this wonderful knowledge and gift, and we shouldn't be keeping it to ourselves. There is no comfort in our growth zone, and no growth in our comfort zone. Get out of your comfort zone and share the gospel! And even if you say, "But Sister Singleton, when I share the gospel, they don't respond at all." Well the Lord has promised that "no effort is wasted" (Preach My Gospel), and that every time someone learns more about the gospel, they come one step closer to Christ.
Thanks to my family (including Chris) for the awesome Valentine's cards. I was laughing so hard at Mark's, and now I can't fold Becca's up again...
I love you all so very much! Please keep praying and looking for miracles!
Love,
Sister Singleton.
PS- Elder Barker is being transferred this week. I forgot my card reader so I will hopefully show you pictures next week.
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