Missionary Adventures in Midland

This week Midland was an adventure and a half! We have been so blessed to see so many miracles especially with our investigator Jo. We met her through one of the recent converts in the area who lives with her and helps her with her kids. Jo has had a rough life but through determination has managed to pull herself and her family significantly up,  The problem in the past couple of months has been that Jo still smoked and so Anna, being in that environment practically 24/7 had picked up the habit again. When we taught her early this week we challenged her to stop smoking but she said that would be too hard to do cold turkey so we committed her to cut down from a pack to 2 cigarettes a day while reading and praying to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if she should get baptized on Feb 1. We returned a couple of days later to find that not only had she cut down her smoking, she went down to only 1 1/2 a day. She also banned smoking from in her house and as a result Anna has dropped the habit all together. The both of them also kicked drinking and coffee this week. It was a whole bunch of miracles wrapped up in one little home. 

That's not even the best part! We sat down to start teaching and she pulls out a little index card from her Book of Mormon. She tells us that she had written it after she had prayed and wanted to share it with us. She then continued to say that as she asked her Heavenly Father if Feb 1 was a good day, she was filled with a tingling warmth and knew that she was supposed to do it. Then she said when she asked the second question, if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and if the Book of Mormon was true she felt a light fill the room and her whole body felt full of love and she felt so good about both that she knew that it must be true! My companions and I just stared at her beaming, the spirit was practically tangible. It was such an amazing experience. We then explained to her that if since she had felt so strongly about such a near date, there wouldn't be time for her to ween herself off the cigarettes, she would have to quit right that minute. She looked up at us and told us that she knew she could do it because she had faith that the Lord would help her.  I can not even express the joy that comes from seeing her faith growing so strong so fast. She calls us Sunday morning to make sure that her ride will be on time so that she can be at church and she comes prepped with everything you could possibly need to keep here girls reverent. It is amazing to the see the gospel change lives and to see Jo's example have such a positive effect on all of those around her. She is just wonderful!

Time seems to just fly by and I can never remember what is this week and what is the next.  On Tuesday's we have what we like to call our chain smoker days. Basically we now have 4 set appointments with chain smokers every Tuesday which means we come out of the end of the day reeking something fierce. It is also one of the best days of the week though because of the people that we get to see. Brandon is a fun story; we met him door knocking and from minute one he just caught us off guard. We had tried to invite him to learn at his door but he was pretty adamant about us needing to leave because he had company coming. We asked if we could come back and he gave us the usual, non committal answer but then as we were saying goodbye he set his own return appointment and we walked away like  "What just happened." So Tuesday we return at the time that he set and as we are driving down the street to his house we see him leaving, literally running away from the house toward us. We get his attention through the window and he looks so surprised to see us. He then apologizes to us and says, "I know this is a terrible reason to leave you hanging but I have to run to the corner store, I just need a drink." After a little convincing we decide that we will just wait for him while he goes and then teach him after. While he is gone, we are just sitting there thinking cool, this lesson will be sure filled with the spirit as he sips on a beer .. but first lesson learned, don't judge or jump to conclusions. 

Luckily for us, he comes back around the corner about 15 minutes later with a monster in his hand. We were so relieved, high energy is much easier to teach then alcoholic. So anyways, we all headed up the ice rink that is his driveway, into the house. We taught him a lesson about the Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; during which he shows us some of his sweet kung fu moves and speaks in tongues for us. Then we introduced the Book of Mormon and with that we finally had his full attention. He told us that the book has an aura of goodness and that he has been waiting a long time for a chance to read it. Despite all of the random weird things during his lesson, we can tell he is serious about learning and really wants to be closer to God. We are pretty excited to continue teaching him, especially once we get him to kick the smoking and we can breath again.

 

Here is a comical, completely non spiritual story about the life of the Midland 2 sisters. We teach a less accountable couple whose names I won't share. They are some of the kindest people you will ever meet. On Tuesday while we were teaching the wife would interrupt us randomly to tell us things like 'I have no teeth' (which we knew) or 'I have lived in Michigan my whole life.' She also told us, 'I wear depends,' which we later found out was a lie. Thursday we went back to teach them and the wife offered us all pop and then got up to get some. While we are talking to her husband, she makes her way back to the living room area. Sister Empey and I hear her say "whoops." and thinking maybe she spilled or something we turn around to see her standing there, glass in each hand, pants on the floor, and DEFINITELY not wearing depends or anything for that matter. It took everything and I mean everything we had to not DIE laughing from our own embarrassment and the sheer silliness of the situation.  She just pulled them right back up and continued to ask questions about the Atonement. Needless to say, there is never a dull moment when serving in Midland. 

 All is well here in Midland 2. We are surviving the cold and the gospel is being spread abroad like crazy. I wish I had the time (and the memory ability) to tell you all about the missionary experiences that we have been having. I know that as we continue to press on and labor, we are able to see so many lives changed and families blessed for eternity. There is no greater gift. We are currently teaching a recent convert who is the perfect example of patient perseverance. She is a young single mom of three who joined the church in December. Since that time she has had to deal with finalizing her divorce, crazy people threatening her family, job hunting, raising her children, an unsupportive family and that's just to name a few things. Yet through it all she constantly remembers to turn to her Heavenly Father and be grateful for her blessings. It is amazing to me to watch her endure all of this with out even really complaining. The thing that she talked about most with us during our last lesson was her sadness. Not sadness because of the hard times she has been having but sadness because she is reaching out to share the gospel with those that she loves and they won't listen. What a great example to us, of the kind of mindset we should all have. No matter what is happening in life, we are blessed eternally to know this gospel. I invite you to think back to a time when you felt Heavenly Fathers love fill you life and then share that with someone who doesn't know, or maybe has forgotten about the gift that is offered to each and every one of us!

I love you as always! Keep in touch!

Love 

Sister Seagraves

PS I forgot to tell you! I taught a lesson in Portuguese this week, and it wasn't terrible! I think she even understood some of the things we taught haha! Brazil, if you ever accept me, you better look out. I'm on fire!

Week 2 from Lansing Michigan

Hello From Michigan everyone!
So week 2 of the mission in Michigan has been really just awesome.I am assigned to work in the St. Joseph area... which covers a lot of little towns that I don't know the name of yet. It it right on the shore of the lake and everyone says it is the prettiest area in the mission. It is very green and most of the houses in St. Jo are gorgeous, they look like they were just cut out of a magazine. Our area also has Benton Harbor which apparently is one of the more dangerous places in the nation. It is really segregated here, the only white people I have seen in Benton Harbor are my companions, its kind of weird because people say that in the 60s it was really intergrated but over time things just started to separate which is usually opposite of what you would assume. Since it is very dangerous, the Elders do the door knocking in Benton, but we still teach lessons out there, and then we door knock in St. Jo. We do have one investigator who is actually from Brazil! We went to go visit her the other day and I got to speak a little portuguese with her. She said I was good at it, but mostly I think she was being nice ha. Anyways we didn't get to teach her a lesson because she didn't have a lot of time. And she is going to Brazil with her husband for a couple of weeks so I won't get a chance to teach her until october.. I am really excited for them to get back. Also I found out that there are a lot of Brazilians that live around here because its one of the Whirlpool headquarters, another one is Brazil I guess and so a lot of the people move out here to work there. I need to find them all so I can teach them and keep up on the lessons!!

I am learning a lot about how much I have to learn! This ward is so great because everyone wants to feed us all the time! We have yet to go a day without dinner plans which is good for Sister Greene and me because it has given us a good chance to get to know the families in the ward. What is hard is that we haven't gotten very many referrals from the members, which means door knocking... I actually really enjoy door knocking, we always meet the most interesting people and everyone here is kind but it would be much more effective if we were teaching people that had been referrals because we don't get very many return appointments from door knocking. So if I have any advice or favors to ask from you it is to give your missionaries referrals! Do everything you can, PRAY as hard as you can for names of people to give to them, it helps move the work along so quickly. We all know people who are needing the comfort that the gospel can provide we just have to stop being chicken and invite them to learn! Anyways... we spent the first part of the week doing as much finding as we possibly can. A lot of people come to the doors and say that they are busy but they are too afraid to turn us completely away so they will tell us to come back later or a different day. That always makes me smile because you can tell they don't think we will and are usually surprised when we do.This is a very Catholic area.  We finally got an updated ward list and we were able to go through with the Relief society president to find names of less active and part member families that we can go teach, I am so excited to focus on that this next week. I can't wait to watch as the fire in their hearts is rekindled and to be able to help them come back and find strength in the gospel.

We had our first zone training ever this week and it was the best experience of the week by far. We drove up to Kalamazoo for the meeting and I finally got to meet all the people in my zone and the sister training leaders, zone leaders, district leaders, all that goodness. We got a lot of great advice that really helped me find goals to focus on in these upcoming weeks and I am so excited to use some new door knocking approaches and see if anyone will listen to me. I wish I had time to write down all the things that I learned buuuuut I don't so I'll just put one thing that I loved.
Our zone leader talked a lot about having the faith in the Lord that He would lead us to find people to teach. We talked about the Armor of God (D&C 27:15-18 if you wanna read it, which you should, its great) and he told us how the shields that warriors use to carry when they went to battle weighed 60+ pounds. He made the analogy that our shield of faith will be like wise heavy. I loved that he said "Faith is heavy, it requires effort." It really made me think about how I need to be exercising my faith every single chance that I get so that when I go to put on my Armor of God, I will have the strength to lift it. Being faithful is not easy... especially when there are so many distractions around us in this world, but it is not supposed to be easy. It would not be as powerful and strong if it came with no effort.
After all of the training was done we set goals, as companionships for the number of people we would help bring to the gospel and help make and keep covenants before the end of the year. Our companion set a pretty high goal, if you were to compare it to the progress that has been made in the area but I know that if we are diligent and obedient it will be no problem. So here comes the coolest part.... We set our goals and then all headed out to drive back to our areas. After about 20 mins of driving we got a call from one of our investigators that we had almost dropped. We hadn't had contact with her in over a month and had tried calling and going over to visit her with no answer. When she called she asked if we could come see her, so of course we went right over as soon as we got to St Jo. She came out and we had a lesson and she was so excited about reading the Book of Mormon and so sincere in her desire to learn. We even were able to set a baptismal date for her and a return appointment. She was just so prepared that it was a huge testimony boost for me to see that if we put our faith in the Lord, he will guide our footsteps to where we need to be. Since friday, when we made our goals, we have been able to meet with 3 other people that we have had a hard time contacting or that have kept cancelling meetings. It is so exciting to see how quickly Heavenly Father rewards our efforts and I am so excited to continue meeting with them, and finding more and more people that are prepared and needing to accept the gospel into their lives! I hope all of your weeks are going well! Write me letters:)

Sister Seagraves
4419 Red Arrow Hwy Apt C2
Stevensville MI, 49127

Te amo! Ate mais

Sister Seagraves — in Lansing, MI.

Relocating to Lansing Michigan

Okay Err'body, 

The day has come! All my clothes are washed, bags are packed and my whole district has already left! Tomorrow I will be in Lansing Michigan, and I cannot wait. Last night I said goodbye to my companion and the rest of the district and it made me so stressed out for my departure tomorrow morning! What if I get up late? The travel office had given Sister Wilcox the wrong time to depart so we thought she was supposed to leave at 3:30, jokes on us, she was supposed to be there at 2:30..,. AM i might add. We had gotten up at 2:15 to see our Elders off and then gone back to our room and she was going to use that time to get ready. About 20 minutes later she gets a call from the front desk saying that the whole bus was waiting for her and that she was super late... SO its 2:50 and they tell her that the bus needs to be out of the parking lot at 3am and she needed to be there now. Sister Fehlman, Sister Sauer-Davis and I went crazy trying to get the rest of her things packed, dressing her, lugging her bags down the stairs and then sprinting to the bus with her bags while she went to the travel office to check out. We got her from the phone call, packed and dressed and  to the bus in four minutes flat... We should probably work on a runway or something, she is lucky we are pros. Anyways when we finally went back to sleep last night all I could dream about was missing my flight and them sending me home because I was a disgrace haha. No way I am gonna let that happen! I am waayy too excited about going to Michigan. 

This week, we finished with our last progressing investigators and then began practicing teaching in English one on one.. I did not like it! It was so much hard to teach the lessons in English, who'da thunk? Seriously there were times when I could think of what I wanted to say in Portuguese but then when I tried to make it work in English I couldn't. Also, in Portuguese it is okay to be extremely bold with your statements and in English some of the ways I would have said things would have come across really rude so I had to learn how to say things more nicely. I never would have guessed that it would be so difficult but I guess teaching in Portuguese is all I know.  ]

I am so excited to be going to teach in Michigan... I know I have less that 8 hours but I can hardly stand to wait!! Strange to think that this time tomorrow i will be finishing my first day as a real, in the field missionary! Today we spent most of the day getting everything together and I was weird because we literally have like no friends left here. Everyone left this morning and we just walk around and people say "hey aren't you supposed to be gone?" and that's rude lol. And our class is completely empty which is sad and lonely. 

Tonight we had devotional, as usual for Tuesdays, in the Marriott Center AND and APOSTLE spoke! Elder Neil L Andersen, so I guess you could say that we are pretty lucky for being the last ones here. They told us that 4167 missionaries were watching the broadcast live in there respective MTCs and that it was the largest MTC broadcast to date. When the devotional ended they had to hold the all of the missionaries in the building because it was storming so bad and after like 15 minutes we all had to make a run for it back to the MTC (which like a 5 minute walk or so ) and we all got SOAKED!! I guess its just a little taste of the mission life in Brazil, I really didn't mind the rain except that it was the first day in like 2 weeks that I wasn't wearing my crocs, go figure... and all of my clothes are packed and I was planning on wearing the clothes I had on the trip tomorrow but they are now drenched... Ahh well hope they dry fast, It was worth it. I'm not sure what else to write so I guess I will just say I love you all. Please pray for people to be prepared for me to teach... I hope the first week back to school and such went well. 

Eu amo voces!

Sister Seagraves

PS. I can't remember if I have answered everyone's letters or not but lets just call it a clean slate and I will answer new letters starting now ;) hah love ya