Week 51 - Soooo Yeah

This week's been voondabar..just voondabar. (okay okay. I seriously don't even know what that word means)

Some interesting MIRACLES happened this week y'all. The first began with us walking down the street and a guy on his porch calling us over. We walked over, Book of Mormon ready, and he told us that he needed to get a ride for his friend who needed to get to the hospital but didn't have any money. Well while Sister Cox was on the phone, just trying to figure some things out for a ride for her (the friend,) a  60 year old Hispanic man came rolling out the door. He was covered from head to foot in leather...odd. He was drunk as all get out everyone. He stared at me for a few moments then slurred out "Are you a mormom"? "Yes sir"!! was the reply. He then proceeded to get down on a knee super fast in front of me, grab my hand, and started kissing it.

!!BLLAAAAAH!! Eewy. We started walking away really fast and he followed us for a bit but we got to the car and all was well! (The lady got a cab by the way) We've got a couple of wierdy's in Lawton here.

So yeah. Fine. That wasn't a neat miracle..but we got away so yes. Lords hand was in it. :)

An actually really neat miracle happened a few days ago. So bear with me as I tell the tale. Sister Cox and I rode our bikes up to a Part Member/Less active families little house. Our brilliant scheme was to knock on the door and begin teaching the children and mother (the non members). Well, it turns out this mother is super nice but EXTREMEMLY shy. We didn't really know how to make it comfortable and allow the spirit to be there..... because she needs to be comfortable with us! Well anyways, the Lord heard our concerns and blessed us as usual. They have dog named Oreo who's pretty big. Well as we were opening the gate we tried to be careful,  but, he got out past Sister Cox. There was a second gate after that and we thought we were safe and kind of smiled at each other, "We got this." Well, that darn dog proceeded to hop the second like it was no big deal. I swear, it probably looked like  we were straight out of a cartoon. We blinked a few times, slightly dumbfounded, and then bolted into action, chasing him. We got him a few times in our arms but he jumped out every time. (he also peed all over my shoe. Needless to say my tights were rather wet the rest of the day but hey. The work goes on!) Finally giving up we ran back to the house to confess what we'd done and help to get him back. She opened the door and was a super good sport about it and then we went running around the neighborhood to get Oreo. Good news, we got him, even BETTER news (and here's the miracle) we were talking and laughing with her the entire time while chasing him around. As we were walking back to her house, she then suggested that we come by and start teaching her daughter, Gabriella. Guess what we started doing the very next day...(*hint. Taught Gabriella)

And there you go folks. The Lord works in mysterious ways I tell you. (Don't worry mom, I washed the tights today)

Juan came to church today with almost his entire family! It was wonderful. And if you would all please pray for the Rodriguez family, that would be wonderful. Sister Rodriguez loves him but she's not sure if she really wants to marry him but then if she still loves him and she's not ready to just break it off and have him move out. BAH! It's rather hard and she needs to do a lot of trusting in the Lord right now. The family came to church yesterday though and we're just getting the ward more and more involved with them. We have faith in them. They are prepared, it's just such a scary step of faith for them and we're trying our best to help. 

I love y'all, every single one of ya.

Sister Call

PS. I'm SO glad to hear that Grandpa is doing better! really :) Love you Grandma and Grandpa!

1)This is what you see riding down the streets of Lawton. some people can't afford any transportation, and so they, well, build their own. (the guy's name is Marty and he was telling us how he built all of it himself)

2) Here's one wonderful house with..well, bikes in the tree. *shrug* no big deal (that's normal for Lawton)

Priscilla and Buffalo?

Week 50- Baptisms

Here is a very quick e-mail we received yesterday, I mistakenly thought she would e-mail on Tuesday, the 19th, because of the Martin Luther King Jr.'s Holiday......So I didn't correspond with her...   :(  I was gone to piano with the other children..... 

Juan was baptized on Saturday!!!

Goodness, I love Baptisms. Sister Cox and I spoke and sang and the spirit was powerful. The best part hands down was seeing his huge smile the minute that he walked into the church. He wants to go to the temple pretty badly, and it crushed his heart and ours having to tell him he'll have to wait until September when he's 12 to go..

I sure love this here mission. I'm sorry that this is going to be so short, but just know that I am MORE than well and that I'm absolutely loving life.

1 Corinthians 2:9. Such a good scripture.

Love y'all!

Sister Call

Week 49- Progress progress..and progress. AKA; The Gospel

We are just seeing a little more progress every day in not only our effectiveness in our missionary efforts, but also in ourselves. I've realized something (and I might have shared this revelation before), so the mission is the last place that I want to have regrets about, right? Well how am I going to do that? Because quite frankly, the system is set up that you feel like there is ALWAYS something throughout the day that you could have done better on. So what's the answer? Well, goals. Having a vision of where and what you want to accomplish for yourself and others, set goals, and then allow the Savior to help you accomplish them. The weekly goals cannot be overwhelming, the need to be simple and attainable, so that you don't get to the end of the week, once again, frustrated with yourself because you didn't accomplish it once again. Well, that's what the Atonement is here for. To help us out. I'm sure grateful my Savior understands and loves me every day throughout all of this. He probably sighs and shakes his head a lot, but I sure know that He's always going to be here for me as I make these daily efforts to be better. 

All right, I'm done. I just really felt like sharing that because it's certainly something that I've been working on lately. 

So in other words, JUAN CAMARILLO IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!

He is THE most prepared 11 year old anyone will ever meet. He's part black, part native American, and probably the most polite thing ever. "Yes ma'am. No Sir" BAH! Talk about future children mannerisms. He has the most simple, pure testimony of his Heavenly Father and his Savior. You ask him why he wants to get baptized and he'll tell you "Because I know this is true and I love Jesus and so I'm just ready to really show Him that, obey Him, and just be happy!" I'll for sure send pictures next week. Brother and Sister Green came to our lesson with him yesterday. It was a great lesson and Brother Green and Juan really clicked, it was cute. It was at the end of the lesson and we were talking about who was going to baptize him (because no men in his family are active, just his grandma and his mom is a returning LA- I think this might mean Less Active) and the Spirit hit Sister Cox and I that Brother Green possibly should. We asked Juan if he would like that, he got a huge grin and nodded vigorously, looking at Brother Green. We then asked Brother Green (yes, rather putting him on the spot) and Brother Green was slightly surprised but as he looked at Juan the spirit was very sweet and he smiled, saying that he would be honored. 

I love this work!!

Well, the Rodriguez families situation is a tad crazy. He is still living on and off with her and they didn't come to church on Sunday. BAH. RODRIGUEZs! Why do people justify not going to church and not even living this gospel? I feel like I understand..but at the same time...not really! We love them though and the ward's involved and we're just making sure to do our best. 

We're hitting the streets on our bikes a lot more and booooy does it feel wonderful! In all honesty, knocking has not ever been my favorite, especially ever since I've humbled myself and realized that it really isn't that effective. Probably one of my all time favorite things to do though is stopping that there bike you're riding in front of a perfect stranger who's also a wonderful child of God, and happily and excitedly tell him about this Gospel that just simply brings so much happiness!! And it can and will to him. I know that and it's makes things so much more wonderful because you really are excited about it, it's changed you, and they can't help but just feel it as well. 

Welp, once again that time is up. Love you all and it sounds so hollow, but I'm nothing but blessed every day to be a part of this work. 

-Sister Call

Pic1) My dear sketchy Lawton

Pic2) Sister Tahkofer (a LA) with her 40 year old BOM and Indian club her son made her. yeah, it gets real in Lawton :) (she's cherokee pretty sure by the way. so many tribes!)

Pic 3) Oh you know, just a random BEAUTIFUL mural done on the side of a building. no big deal in ok

Week 48- Crazy Holidays on el Mission

Familia,

goodness gracious, I'm so happy the holidays are over!!

Okay okay, so I know that that's not what you're supposed to hear a good missionary say, and I really did enjoy Christmas on the mission...but boy oh boy. Is it going to feel good to be able to get back into the jazzy groove of 'regular' missionary work. 

We've seen a ton of wonderful miracles this week. The AP's all committed us at Christmas conference to not allow a transfer to go by without having at least one baptism....!!!!...

Okay. So just letting you know now, that's a pretty big deal in Oklahoma. I don't really have anywhere else to compare it too (except for Brazil), but that's not a normal baptismal rate for us. 

For the most part, everyone is taking it VERY well. Instead of getting discouraged, we're all rising to the challenge. That commitment was spirit led and so of COURSE if we really submit our wills to His from here on out...it's going to happen. 

Well, Sister Cox and I have been praying VERY hard these past two weeks. A baptism wasn't looking too great on our horizon and we knew it was going to take a lot of faith and listening to the Lord on our part. Well..it happened. 

Juan, and 11 year old who is the son of a less active who REALLY wants to get baptized, his whole family came to church yesterday! He gets a ride with his active grandma but we were needing to see some effort from the family before he was baptized and huzZAH. There they all were. 

The next thing was how it turns out that the Rodriguez's might be able to get baptized in less than two weeks now..!! It is a super long/sad story..but with a good ending! It turns out Brother Rodriguez was pretty abusive and Sister Rodriguez was needing to leave him except she didn't know how too because she was scared to death of him. Well we had her talk to Bishop about it and Bishop immediately recruited us to run around the building with less than 5 minutes to round up all of their kids and then to get them all out of there before Brother Rodriguez came out of Priesthood with the Elders (it's all good they distracted him for us.) So basically, it's a super sad, crazy miracle, but now we don't have to wait for them to get married for her and the kids to get baptized!! I know, it's really bitter sweet and to be honest, rather scary (we were scared), but positive thinking.

So basically, the end of this story is that I know that this gospel is true. Heavenly Father lives and is AWARE of us. Sister Cox and I just really did our best and through it He was able to use us as His instruments.

I'm sorry I need to go, but I love you :)

SIster Call