week 10

Dear all,

Being on a mission during the holidays can definitely be hard, but it is also such a blessing. Our whole purpose as missionaries is to invite and bring closer to Jesus Christ and during the holidays it is even easier to keep that focus. On Monday we went to a member's house with April. April is one of my favorite people. She is in her late 20's and comes to the Bethesda family ward instead of the singles ward. --speaking of singles wards...this past Sunday during stake conference they announced that because there are so many single adults here in DC they are forming a single adult stake-- anyways, the three of us went to a member's house named Brother Cook who lives by himself and is an older man. something I loved that we talked about was taking control of your own joy. A lot of times during the holidays it is easy to get caught up in the receiving end or what we want to get. When we do this we are putting our joy in the hands of someone else. When we don't get what we were hoping for we get disappointed and forget the whole meaning behind the season. But when we focus on what we can do to help others and serve them, we are in control of our own happiness and forget about ourselves. The new Christmas initiative that is up on Mormon.org is so great and makes missionary work even easier! It gives us step by step what we can do to turn outward and help others. We can share that light of Christ through our examples and service to others. Something that we have been focusing on in our area lately is the part member families in our ward. We have 52 part member families and have been getting to know them better. We stopped by one house this week and met Todd, who is the father of an active family in our ward but he is not a member. We found out that his in laws are missionaries at the visitors center that we absolutely adore and love so much. He was the only one home at the time so we couldn't go inside to teach him but he told us we were welcome back to talk more with him again when his family was home. On Wednesday we went to a referral that we had for a lady named Darlene. A man answered the door and he didn't look very happy that we were on his porch. He came outside and shut the door and asked why we were there. We told him that his wife had been interested in meeting with missionaries. He told us he wasn't too interested but appreciated the work we were doing. He asked us if we could pray with him which really caught me off guard, but we did and we asked if we could come back and take his leaves for him. He told us he would just blow them all off anyways but we persisted and he finally gave in. We showed up a couple days later at the time we told him we would be there and he was surprised that we actually remembered. The three of us all raked his front yard and we got to know him pretty well. He and his wife have done some amazing things and have traveled all over the world. He has grown up in the Catholic Church all his life but he said he struggles with it because there's a lot of things that he doesn't agree with. All of the issues that he told us about with his church, we were able to show him in the Book of Mormon where those exact issues are talked about and our stand on them. He really loved what we said about it all and we were able to teach the entire first lesson on the restoration with him. When we brought up the Book of Mormon he told us he really would like one before we could even ask and he told us he was going to read it. It was so amazing. We are going back this week to meet his wife, who originally was the one who wanted to learn more from the missionaries. For Thanksgiving we weren't able to proselyte so we went to April's house to help make Thanksgiving with her. She nannys for a Jewish family and they like when we come over so we got to answer lots of questions they had and were able to teach a little bit. April also had a friend from out of town that is not active in the church at all and is actually really against it. She told April she hates the missionaries so we were kinda nervous going over. We met her, her name is Carrie, and slowly she opened up to us. The next time we got to see her she gave us a hug and told us she was going to miss us. April said Carrie loved us and talked about us all day. I was so surprised at how fast she changed her mind! We didn't eat with April because another member had signed up to feed us that day, the Mermiets who live here in Bethesda but work at the VC with us. They have a son who isn't active and his wife and daughter aren't members. They had so many questions for us and we loved getting to know them better. We shared the story of the Jaredites and their journey across the sea. We explained how the only way they were able to get to their destination was by the stormy seas, the wind and the waves. A lot of times in our lives we just want smooth sailing, but really those trials and hard times in our lives are what help direct us here in life. I love how immediately when the Jaredite people arrive there, they thank Heavenly Father. Sometimes it's easy to forget to thank Heavenly Father for our trials, but they are really blessings to help us become what He wants us to be. Yesterday at church we were able to teach the young women in our ward. They were really quiet..but it was still fun to be back in young women's and teach them. This week the Festival of Lights start...things are starting to get crazy. Last night they tested out the lights for the first time and it is beautiful. This year they put over 850,00 lights around the temple parking lot and visitor center. I'll send lots of pictures next week! I hope you all had a great thanksgiving. Love you all! 

Love, Sister Haertling 

Top and middle pictures:  Lights at the temple and visitor center

Bottom:  Matching pjs and Christmas cheer