First Ohio letter!

Ohio Letter #1  - March 5 2012

Haley with Pres. & Sister Sorenson

Haley's Comp - Sis. Stephanie Mayer

Ok - so this last week and a half has been so busy and so tiring. I haven't written in my journal once since last Friday because by the time we're done planning and I'm ready for bed there's either no time to write in my journal or I'm just way too tired.

We arrived wed late afternoon and went straight to president’s house. We had a welcoming meeting, ate dinner (we were STARVED because we hadn't eaten anything all day and it was so nice to have food other than MTC food.  Sis. Sorensen's homemade rolls and honeybutter were soooo good!), then role played with the AP's while everyone was having their interviews with pres. I don't really remember my interview; it was only like 2 minutes long. The next day we got to go see the Kirtland temple and the Whitney store. The coolest part about our mini tour was in the school of the prophets. Pres asked all of us to take a few minutes in there and dedicate our missions to the Lord and tell Him the kind of missionaries we want to be, then at the end of our missions we go back and report our missions to Him. After the short tour we went to the transfer meeting and got our new companions and area we serve in. My companion is Sister Mayer and we're serving in Ravenna. My comp is really really nice and loving to everyone and is happy most of the time. She's really good at depending on the Lord for EVERYTHING.

So Ravenna is not exactly the place I wanted or expected to start in because it's mostly proselyting. I was expecting being at the visitors center about half my time but Ravenna is one of the 2 areas that only goes once a week and then once a week for a few hours to the Johnson Farm. We also found out almost immediately that our area was just combined with another so really we have 2 areas AND we also have a singles branch, so we have a lot of ground to cover. THEN  I found out that we would be shot gunning the area which means that both missionaries are brand new to the area and don't know anyone or anything about it so we have to start from scratch! Normally at least one missionary in a comp stays in the area and the other is transferred so one person will know everything about the area... Considering all this and the fact that I'm brand new to all this and have no idea what the heck I'm doing, my first week has been overwhelming for both of us to say the least. We're supposed to spend like 3 hours on Friday's weekly planning but ours took like 5 hours and we still spent 3 more hours on Saturday doing it. It was sooooo frustrating to me because I felt like we were wasting so much time and I felt like my comp didn't really know what she was doing and wasn't being effective with our time. I wanted to do something to be more effective but I was helpless because I still have no idea what I'm doing. I had to repent for being so negative about it because turns out, that's just what needed to happen.

Saturday during our planning we went through a lot of the old progress records of less actives in both areas and we found one girl, XXXX, that got baptized 2 years ago but has had a lot of issues the past year (like drug busts at the house she was living at and for some unknown reason she ended up in the hospital after that and then in a women’s shelter) and hasn't been to church in a long time. I really felt like we needed to text her and let her know that sisters were in the area now and we're excited to meet her. She texted us back immediately, which was weird because as missionaries not many people answer our calls or texts, especially immediately, and we set up a time to see her later that night.

Throughout the time we were there she told us she's been trying to stop smoking again, she doesn't really feel God's love anymore; she doesn't trust that the Lord can help her. I shared Ether 12:27 with her (God strengthens us in our weaknesses), explained as she keeps the commandments and her baptismal covenant that she will feel Gods presence again, as she prays she'll trust him again, etc. She told us one way she knew she could get help with WoW was fasting, so we brought up (of course) the fact that the next day was fast and testimony meeting at church, she said she didn't want to go back to church, we explained importance of taking the sacrament, then she told us that another sister missionary told her she couldn't take the sacrament anymore which is why she got scared off from church. I couldn't believe that someone had told her that because that is NOT our job. We have no right to tell someone else if they can or can't take the sacrament, that is between ourselves, the Lord, and our bishops. We explained all this to her, told her we were sooo sorry, etc. We told her we wanted to help her get through this struggle, that we would be here every step of the way, and that we would dedicate our fasts to her and by the end of our lesson she agreed to fasting and coming to church tomorrow! I think one of the main things that got her though was when I explained patriarchal blessings and the real guidance we receive from them and how we can see our own great potential through them.

This was all great but the best part comes next... right as we were leaving she told us how crazy this all was because she really had no desire to see the missionaries again and she had been ditching them for awhile now but she had been talking to one of her old sister missionaries and they had made a bet that if Julie would talk to the missionaries again then this previous sister missionary would agree to do something in her singles ward.  It was only an hour later that we texted her about meeting her!!!!! The Lord had prepared the way for XXXX! If we hadn't taken all that extra time with our planning we would have sent the text too soon, she would have dodged it most likely and things just would not have worked out. The Lord is in this work and it's so cool to see it actually happen. She came to church with us, she fasted, and she already loves us and we love her!

Please keep her in your prayers because we can't even imagine how hard it is to overcome that addiction. She has soooo much potential to be such a blessing to other people in church and we need her back! There are more people I want to tell you about but I'm really running out of time.  

Please continue to keep me in your prayers too because I still struggle sometimes with having a desire to be out here all the time. Sometimes I really enjoy it and I know why I'm here but then other times I think about how much I miss being home with you guys and I can't imagine how I'm going to last a whole year and a half. Sometimes it seems too long but when I keep busy I don't think about it. I can't wait til I get to the point when I don't want to go home haha who knows how long that will take but hopefully not long.
   I love you all sooooo much, though, and can’t wait to hear from you again next week.

Sure love ya!