Happy Mothers Day and 1 month down!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope all of you had a wonderful week this week and that your Mother's day went well! It was so good to be able to talk to my family after a month on Skype. The family in my ward, the Sabourins, were nice enough to let my companion and I come over for dinner and Skype our family. I made sure I thanked them a lot! This week was kind of crazy and we had a lot go on. Tuesday we had a lesson with Cathy, she is an investigator that the Spanish Elders referred to us. She lives in sort of a group home for older disabled people and so sometimes it is hard to have a discussion with her when there are a lot of other people walking around and asking who you are and what you are doing there, but the lessons are going well and she seems interested in it all. She is really nice and loves Christ and loves talking about religion, but for now she keeps saying she just wants to be educated about our religion so we pray that her heart will change soon as we continue to teach her. Then we had a district meeting and it was about an hour drive so we had to make our lesson with her short. The meeting went well and we just made new goals for this week. After we got home we had another lesson with Anna (investigator). She is the one that goes to the Pentecostal church so it has been interesting to teach her. She is a sweet girl and really wants to serve a mission like we do, but we keep reminding her that she needs to be baptized and read the Book of Mormon first. So that is the biggest challenge we have right now with her. She won't even touch the Book of Mormon because she says she will get a bad feeling about it. We just keep praying that she will learn to listen to the Holy Ghost and not whatever else she is hearing. The one thing that was kind of scary but funny was she brought up the Gift of Tongues...oh boy was that weird haha luckily she didn't start doing some voodoo tribal thing and we were able to get back on track with our lesson about the Plan of Happiness. 

Wednesday we went and did our weekly service at the local Catholic thrift store. Sister Barnes and I just stay up at the front and ring people up. She does the cash register and I am the bagger. Brings back the very few memories I have working at Aeropostale lol Guess that was good for at least one thing. I know how to bag things really quick and say, "Thanks have a great day!" haha. and No I don't say would you like a BEG with that!!! After that we go visit a less active, Sister Watson. She kind of frustrates me because I feel like there is nothing more we can do for her. She still won't go to church because she has all her excuses so I feel that our visits are just a waste of time, but we still keep going anyway. She needs a lot of praying for her haha

We had another lesson with Anna and we attempted to finish the Plan of Happiness with her. I think we finished it. That went well but she still won't read the Book of Mormon. So we just keep praying for that and I think we will meet with her again soon.

Thursday we had a lesson with Judy (investigator). She is Catholic and a lady in our ward referred her to us because it is her mother. Things have been going well with Judy, our lessons end up going longer because she has a lot of questions. We can really see that things are kind of "clicking" to her as she will compare her religion and our religion and the Bible all together. The other day she asked about why Catholics don't have prophets but in the Bible there are prophets and the LDS church has them too...That was cool because it was like a big epiphany that just happened! So she is doing well. We are inviting her to be baptized sometime in June. 

Later that day we got a call from a less active member asking us to help them move. We thought it was a perfect opportunity to maybe help me want to come back to church. The elders and us all helped them, but it ended up taking the whole rest of the day and luckily we got everything in the moving truck before it started to rain. 

Friday we also go and do service for a non member helping her with her non profit business. She has an organization that helps welcome newcomers in Green Bay. We will just put the folders and information together. Then we went and visited a less active couple. The Augustines are probably in their 70's and they really aren't that inactive. They come to Sacrament meeting and Sunday school but then they will go home because they don't want to leave their cats home alone  for a long time...that is kind of frustrating. Brother Augustine still doesn't have the Melchizedek priesthood so that is why we still visit them. But Sister Barnes has told me that the whole time she has been there nothing has changed. Praying for them a lot. They have 3 cats...which is fine but it isn't my favorite house to go to because it really reaks...sorry but its true.

Robert and Samantha are our other investigators. They have been for about a year  I guess. They need to be married before they get baptized so we are helping them work on that. We have a baptismal date set for them in July.

Saturday was the worse and also the best day (besides Mothers day of course) this week. I woke up feeling really sick and so I stayed in bed until about 11. I felt really bad that we didn't stay on the study schedule, but Sister Barnes was nice and told me not to worry. She said it was fine and that I needed it. So we didn't get going until about 12:30. But once we got out things really picked up and I really got to feel the Holy Ghost with us as we did our best. We tracted down one street and were able to talk to many people. We met a cute little family that seemed interested in family history and then we also gained a new investigator and we will be returning to teach him more about the gospel. I was so surprised at how many people didn't just slam their doors on us. They acutually would let us speak after saying "We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". haha So that was a big blessing and it really pumped me up more as I didn't have the best beginning of the day.

Sunday was awesome and I am so glad I got to talk to most of my family! I was so happy to see Grandma Strebel. I wish I could have seen Bernie. Totallly forgot to ask about her haha oops. But so glad everyone is doing well! I love you all! I do have my countdown pictures for my 1 month down and for Cody's 8 months down! BUT sadly I left my camera at home this time so next week I will send out the pictures :) Thank you Rachel for distributing out my weekly emails and being such a great sister! I am sorry I didn't get to talk to you Adam and Le'a and Family but know I still love you all and miss you so much! Yay it is pouring outside :) :) Have a wonderful week everyone and pray for me and the people I teach! Teach the gospel any second you can and help the missionaries in your ward! It makes things a lot easier. Our members don't help us much so it is sad. Ok love you!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton