June 12th letter

Dear all, 

Well this week started off pretty crazy! So last Pday we moved into our new apartment, which took most of the day. We ran down to find wifi somewhere and wrote our weekly letters. Then we went back upstairs to get ready for the day and clean a little bit before 6 (when Pday ends). We ran back up to our apartment and I was just looking through boxes when Sister Rees goes, "geez I have this bump on my neck and it feels weird". I didn't really say much about it because we both thought it was a little pimple or something. Then she said something about it again, so I told her to flip her head over since it was in her hair. She leaned over and I saw a black bug that wouldn't move...so I stayed calm and told her I had to go get tweezers and not to move. Of course she started freaking out and I was too. Well I told her it was a tick and called our mission doctor to ask how I should pull it out, cause I didn't want to only get half of it out. I won't go into detail cause it was kinda gross, but I got it out and had it in my little tweezers. Meanwhile I was running around on the phone trying to find a baggie to put it in because our mission doctor wanted a picture of it. I hung up the phone, went to go ask sister Rees-who was still sitting down freaking out and not wanting to move- where she put the ziplock bags. She was brave enough finally and said she wanted to see what it looked like. I held out the tweezers to show her and realized the tick wasnt there anymore.... then we both started screaming walking around on our tippy toes trying to find this tick. After an hour of searching we still couldn't find him. We prayed pretty much the whole week that we would find Arnold (that's what we named him). We were so paranoid that we didn't sleep well for about 4 days because we kept worrying he was on us somewhere haha! We are pretty sure he either died or ran away somewhere. So that is how our week started off! Later that night after 6 we went out to a member's house because they had a group of older people staying with them from Taiwan. They grew up together as kids (the member's dad was one of those kids over 50 years ago in Taiwan) and none of them are members of the church. They all speak Chinese and since Sister Rees speaks Chinese and her mom is from Taiwan, it was perfect! The members own a huge golf course out in the country and have a little restaurant with a big area where you can dance and so they all performed music and dancing and plays for us and loved talking to sister Rees and I about our missions. Then they taught us all some fun line dances. It was such a fun night being surrounded by their culture. 

We have been working with a man named Andy recently! We met him while we were tracting and at first he wasn't too interested. But we invited him to read some of the Book of Mormon and when we came back he had read the chapter we gave him! That was exciting. We taught him the restoration out on his porch and he said it was a little bit hard to accept right now, but he could see himself believing in it if he found out for himself. Also we met an older couple, Australia and Herbert. We met them a couple of weeks ago but Herbert said to come back when his wife was home. So we stopped by a couple of days ago and asked if there was any service that we could do for them. She took us around to the back of her house and showed us her back patio that was in really bad condition. She said that she couldn't lift any of the furniture and it needed to be sprayed down and painted. So we are going back over tomorrow to do that for her! We are really excited for that. 

Another cool experience I've had since being here has to do with a recent convert that was baptized about a year ago. His name is Vince and he is an older man who is one of the nicest people ever! I knew he looked familiar when I got here but I didn't know where I knew him from. We were having a lesson with him last week with the Borens and the topic of patriarchal blessings got brought up because he just got his. I was sharing an experience and afterwards he comments, "you know I really appreciate you talking to me about patriarchal blessings at the visitors center back in December. You were the first person to tell me about them and I'm so grateful I got mine". I kind of sat there for a second and then I remembered how I knew him. He came into the visitors center one morning in December and I thought one of the sisters had already talked to him, but decided to go talk to him anyways. He told me about his conversion and that he was going through a rough time. I remember having a strong impression as we were standing next to the temple model to ask him if he had received his patriarchal blessing yet. He said that he hadn't, and that he didn't know what that was. I remember talking for a while with him. That's all I remember from it, but it was just so cool to see the effect of following a prompting! I'm so thankful that we have the Spirit to guide us. 

On Saturday we made a trip to Easton which is about 35 minutes from here. A couple members of the branch live there and also we had received names of 6 people who were wanting a free copy of the Bible or a missionary visit. So we were excited to go meet all of these people. It was the hottest day of the week, 97 degrees and high humidity, but we ended up talking to over 60 people that day, 7 of those people wanted us to come back into their home and we were able to give out 8 Book of Mormon's! We had been fasting that day and I love it because it seems like miracles always happen those days we fast even when it's hard. The people in Easton are so prepared and we are excited to meet with all of them this week. 

Something that I loveeee here are the fireflies! I've never seen so many of them. Last night when we were finishing up tracting they were everywhere. It's so cool catching them in your hands and seeing them light up. While we were driving home, we were driving past lots of fields and if you looked out you could see them glowing everywhere! 

So this week I was reading in 2 Nephi 19...which can be hard for me to understand sometimes, but I loved this quote by Elder Holland describing the Savior. 

"As noted by Isaiah, Christ is not only a mediator but also a judge. It is in that role of judge that we may find even greater meaning in Abinadi’s repeated expression that ‘God himself’ will come down to redeem his people. It is as if the judge in that great courtroom in heaven, unwilling to ask anyone but himself to bear the burdens of the guilty people standing in the dock, takes off his judicial robes and comes down to earth to bear their stripes personally. Christ as merciful judge is as beautiful and wonderful a concept as that of Christ as counselor, mediator, and advocate.

“‘Mighty God’ conveys something of the power of God, his strength, omnipotence, and unconquerable influence. Isaiah sees him as always able to overcome the effects of sin and transgression in his people and to triumph forever over the would-be oppressors of the children of Israel." 

I have so much to be grateful for because of the Savior and the sacrifice He gave for me to live and return back to our Heavenly Father. I love you all! 

Love, Sister Haertling