Abbey's letter Aug. 19, 2014

This week has been a good one! Patrick and Kathleen and Grace, Kathleen's daughter were at church this Sunday. This is the first time since I have been here that Grace has been to church. So that was exciting. We asked Tieroll if he would let us teach him more about the gospel and he said that we could but we haven't been able to set up an appointment yet. He did come to the Family Home Evening though this week. He seems to get a long with all of the members really well. We had quite a few people there this week. Kathleen and Grace came. And Emeron, Chelsie's son is back from his vacation in Idaho where he stayed with his Grandma for a month. So we have primary again, we are excited about that. Yanedra has not been home when we have dropped by the last month or so and hasn't been calling us back so we decided to give her some space. But we saw her in town on Sunday night. She said that she had lost her phone, so we hope that she is still interested and that we can start teaching her. 

This week we had nothing to do Friday night so we decided to go into town and see if we could find any people to talk to. We ran into a man named Vincent who works across the street from the library and we had a good gospel conversation with him. He is very religious and believes in Baptism by immersion. We gave him a Book of Mormon. And he said that he would read it every day. We went and got some dinner at the stop and shop and sat down at a bench to eat it. The girls sitting across from us asked if we were the sister missionaries for the lds church and we said yes. Turns out she is a former investigator. She is in high school and met Alex the Milstead's son in school and wanted to learn more about the gospel. She loves the Book of Mormon but she had to giver her copy back because her parents are very anti Mormon and she was having to hide it from them. She was coming to church and Family Home Evening but was having to sneak out of her house to come so they decided it probably wasn't the best thing. Turns out her father is a less active on our ward list and he very much dislikes the church. She was telling us that all of her family lives back west and is active in the church. She wants to learn about it so bad. It made me really sad. I hope that she looks into after she turns 18 and moves away from home. We were able to talk to her and then we were walking around and no one really wanted to talk to us so we thought hey well just ride a bus and see what happens. So we got on the bus that goes out to Sconset and we sit down and this man named Lucky turns to us and says, "Why haven't you called me. I have been looking everywhere for you!" We said ah we didn't know we were supposed to call you. We had meet him at the beginning of June. We were challenged to give away a Book of Mormon a day and had given him one but we hadn't gotten his number. He said I remember your faces and every time I am at the bus station I look for you. We asked him we could get his number so we could call him:) And he said that we could start teaching him. We had an appointment for Sunday but he cancelled on us. Then on Monday we were supposed to have dinner with Chelsie but Ozni's family ended up coming over to the island so she had to cancel on us. And we had nothing to do. So we again went into town and we were sitting on a bench and Lucky calls us and says I am in town can we meet. So we met him at the bus station and taught him the first discussion there. It has been a long time since we have gotten to teach a lesson and it felt so good. He believes in modern day prophets and has a really good testimony of prayer. He wants to come to church. He has been to an lds church before and knows a lot about Joseph Smith. We have another appointment with him on Wednesday at our church building. We going to do a church tour even though it is just a little basement:) We also on the bus ride to town saw a family that we have wanted to share the gospel with but we haven't seen in a while. They invited us to a music making event at a park and so after we taught Lucky we dropped by. It was really fun just a lot of people beating on drums and shaking tambourines. We gained their trust a little more. We are hoping to get them to come to Family Home Evening. I am learning that God will give us opportunities as long as we put ourselves out there. Most of our success comes when we have nothing to do because things have fallen through and we are open to anything. Most of the time we have no idea what were going to do at the beginning of the day and somehow things work out. It is teaching me to really trust in God. And its OK that we have no idea what were doing. Sometimes its even better because it forces us to rely on him. 

We are seeing many miracles happen. I feel very blessed to be a missionary at this time. The Lord is truly hastening his Work. In so many ways that we have no idea about. And it is completely by him and not us that it is made possible. But we are blessed to be a part of it. I love this gospel and I know that it could bless every individuals life here on the earth. God is a very merciful God. I love you Family. I hope that you have a wonderful week. 

Love Sister Abbey Lou Rushton