Missionary Love

Catching up with Sister Angela Ford:

From her weeks in the MTC...

The MTC is awesome!!  I absolutely love it here.  I really wIsh you could know what it's like here.  It's just so amazing, the sense of purpose & direction that everyone has?  I wish every place could have that.  I love it!  God lives and He shows us tender mercies every day. 

My week was awesome.  I have seen a lot of people I know here and am really growing close with my zone and district.  It’s so wonderful here.  Everyone is “Sister” or “Elder.”  I can see why people love the MTC.  To me it is a preview of what Heaven must be like, everyone knowing  each other & having direction.  I love it!

Easter was amazIng.  We had three General Authorities come.  President Packer, his son Allen F. Packer, and then another person from the 70.  The Packers spoke and it was pretty amazing.  We had the really special opportunity to have the Sacrament in that meeting too.  So everyone here was able to have the Sacrament with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.  Pretty neat, huh?

I have gotten some letters from the ward.  It was a nice surprise...

Yesterday for the fireside we had Elder M. Russell Ballard!  It was really powerful.  

...to the Massachussetts-Boston Mission.

On the flight from Salt Lake City, we talked to a young man going on his second tour in Afghanistan. He's from Preston, Idaho and is a member but not active in the Church.  He said he lost his faith in God after some of his unit was blown up right behind him.  Though he has found some of it again when a bullet stopped in the Bible he had in his front pocket.  He was a cool person to talk to.

My companion is Sister Caldwell from Payson.  We have gotten along great.  Our current area is Manchester, Connecticut.  We went tracting the first night and it was hard for me because I had no idea what I was doing and I was jet lagged.  But we went out again on Saturday and had a few awesome experiences.  We talked to these two guys about religion in general and about halfway through the one on the porch said "This is great! I feel all relaxed"  I should have jumped on the chance to talk about the Holy Ghost but alas, we did not.  We did, however, give them a copy of the Book of Mormon, so hopefully they will read it.  Speaking of, we've given away at least four copies of the Book of Mormon!  I know that's not a lot, but it's still awesome to me.  

So far I have had three meals with members, 1 real lesson with a potential investigator, a baptism (she was 8 and was waiting for her father to be worthy to baptize her), and a couple of less actives come to Church on Sunday.  Sister Caldwell says it's been a really great week.   

Tracting is hard.  Especially that first night when I was so overwhelmed with getting placed in Connecticut.  But it's gotten a little easier, especially since my confidence level in teaching is going up.  We still get a lot of "We're all set"” (a polite way to say buzz off) or "I'm happy with my religion" or even "GO AWAY!"  but I think as I get more comfortable with the idea that they aren't rejecting me specifically it's easier.  That and the thought you have to go through a lot of hay before you find the needle, which we may have found.  Her name is Kristianna and I'm pretty sure she's from Jamaica.  She seemed really interested in the first lesson and accepted to be baptized when she comes to know the truth for herself.  There isn't a date and hopefully she'll want to meet with us more, but I'm excited for her.

I'm studying “Diligence” in ch. 6 of Preach My Gospel.  It's helping a lot with calming down some of the overwhelmed feeling.  Now I just have to get used to talking to everyone and their cat.  Literally. Everyone here has one or they have a dog.  It's crazy.