Izabele's Mission Washington D.C. South

President and Sister Caplin chose a handful of missionaries to be part of a secret training this week! Sister Minaker and I were one of the companionships lucky enough to go! Two brothers that work at the Provo MTC came to our mission. It was awesome. So many new ways to improve our missionary work. We have already seen miracles this weekend from implementing the training. Big news, Christmas trees are everywhere!! Happy December, y'all.    I've been getting the impression to study more about the apostles to better understand how to be a disciple of Christ. That led to me reading Peter this week. Peter says "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your ...

Thanksgiving goes down in history for the top 3 weirdest days of my life. And I hope my explanations will do it justice. (For all my HIMYM fans, it was a blitz day. Except neither of us were the blitz)  It all started with the metro. We have been trying to take the metro more to save miles and talk to more people! We split up on the metro car to talk with different people. I sat down on the front half and saw a man signing to his phone through face time. When his call was over I got real excited and whipped out my High school ASL skills. Long story short, the ASL elders are teaching him now!!  Once we arrived to king street we met a sir named Xavier. He was an interesting feller. He said he was planning on spending the holiday alone so we invited him join us for our meal!  Then we met Nathan. He was rolling a suit case so naturally we assume he is headed to the airport to visit family for the holiday. We quickly realize he is a homeless dude. (My favori...

Meanwhile in Gospel Principles class..  Tanner (teacher): Today we are going to talk about family responsibilities. What positive examples have you seen of mothers raising their children? America (member): My mom is everything to me because my dad was never really in the picture. Tyrell (our friend): Yeah, cuz like, in a sense, you can have a lot of different dads but only one mom. *pause Daquan/ Nyquan (our friend. He prefers to be called Nyquan because he likes to turn the lights out on people): Yeah, cuz she gave birth to you mhmm.  Thank you, Nyquan. Thank you.  Elder. Bennett (of the 70) came to our mission this week!!! Much inspiration he brought to us. One of the main themes I took away was 'this is the harvest!!' I think far too often thus far on my mission i've used "planting seeds" as an excuse not to try harder to listen or understand some people, especially in contacts. But the truth of it is, there have been seeds planted in th...

I love being a missionary. I might not ever come home. Seriously.  And I love Virginia.  And I just really love life.  I know, I know. Jon bellion released a new album. And i'll be completely honest, waiting a year to listen is the ultimate trial of faith.   Worth it for these miracles tho.   We decided to take public transportation this week. It was quite an adventure. The metro tunnels look like space mountain & I felt like I was in Disneyland.  Five of our friends came to church yesterday and it's amazing how the light of Christ is becoming more prominent in their eyes :') Best ever.   Elder Holland said in a talk he gave at the MTC in 2000 "When President Hinckley stands and talks about his mission, as he did with me when I had a chance to write an article on him for the Ensign when he was made the President of the Church. . . I had the wonderful privilege to write the article on him for the Church magaz...

Monday already? These weeks need to slow down.  Missionary work is a big game of hide and go seek.  Except no one knows you're playing. And you're always "it". Things that were supposed to happen this week: a steak dinner  Things that actually happened this week: whole foods gluten free frozen pupusas (still frozen) Things I learned this week:  1. Persistence  Couple months a go we met a man by the name of David. We had a pretty solid contact, he wanted to learn more, we got his information, then never saw him again. We kept trying, then giving up (then the spirit gets the best of ya) so we try again. We finally were able to have a video messenger lesson with him this week. He thanked us for never giving up on him because he has been figuring out his new job, house, getting sugary etc but really really cares and wants to learn more about the Church. 2. Personality  We met this sir named Hector. His parents were baptized thr...