No Hablo Español Bien & If It's Not Sparkly, I Don't Want It!

Language barriers will continue to be the bane of my existence.

Greetings!

This week, I went on exchanges with the Hermanas to Columbia!  It was kind of difficult to not be able to understand everything but I was thankfully able to understand some parts of our conversations throughout the day.  Plus with the Hermana's translating for me, I was able to help teach a little, sometimes.  The gift of tongues is real!

On one of the evenings, we went to find a less active named Kurt.  We'd tried his home a number of times before but no one answered he door so this was the first time Sister Kronmiller and I were able to successfully meet the man.  I don't know what I was expecting but our experience was quite simply one of the most appalling yet greatest interaction I've ever had with a human being yet.  I have never met anyone who loves money and himself, more than Kurt.  Basically, the whole conversation was Kurt bragging about how much money he'd made that day selling cars and how nice his home is.  He pointed out the $1000 carpet under his motorcycle, the casinos in his home, his hired personal chef, his pedicure he'd gotten earlier that day...and his sparkle enhanced floor.  Literal quotes from him, said in all seriousness: "if it's not sparkly, I don't want it" and "everybody in Spring Hill knows me."  Man, the guy was beginning to give Tony Stark a run for his ego.  Through it all, though, I could sense that in spite of all of this, he wasn't truly happy.  I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what can bring people real and everlasting joy and peace.  In the past, I've personally thought about how nice it'd be to have a lot of money but after meeting Kurt and seeing him basking in all of his wealth, I know for sure that no amount of money or wealth will ever bring me more happiness than my Savior.

Isabella finally came to church on Sunday!  It was awesome.  Sister Kronmiller and I smiled all throughout church so much, my mouth hurt afterward haha.  We went over the baptismal questions with her this week and she seems pretty solid with it all.  The only thing left now, is helping her come to church another two times and making sure that she will want to continue coming to church after she is baptized.

Also on Sunday, the Elders had an investigator come to church who mainly spoke Chinese and unfortunately, there was nobody available to translate for her.  I walked by and said hello but I didn't know much more than that.  I don't think I've regretted not putting forth more effort before my mission to learn Chinese more than I did at that moment, even when I was in China.  Grrgh!  Language barriers! 

Anyhow, I'm doing well.  Spring Hill and Thompson Station are doing well.  We weren't able to meet with Jeff but we are hoping to find a different time to see him this week.

See y'all later!

Sister Ririe

  We had a zone p-day!

  exchanges with the STLs and their companions.

 We randomly saw Allison at Walmart whilst shopping for groceries today:)

 The Old School Cafe...literally one of the best places I've eaten at ever!!  And it's just right down the street from us.  It's an old school building that's been remodeled and turned into a cafe!

Finally had cheesy grits, tasted like nachos!

List Not and New Humans Found!

Another week gone by already?  It's hard to believe that I've been out for over 6 months...

Yesterday in my personal studies, I was reading Mosiah 2 which is the section where King Benjaman is addressing his people in a final sermon before he passes away.  In verse 32, he says, "But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit..."  I discovered the word "list" in that sentence and I knew that he wasn't talking about a grocery list, so I looked the word up in the dictionary to see what "list" is defined as.  What I discovered was really cool!  List means, "inclination; cause to lean to the side; move; tilt to one side; angle; slant; tip..."  The word "listeth" is found in future verses another three times and they all are in reference to which spirit or voice we hearten to during this life.  I found that to be really meaningful to me.  We are being counseled to not even lean or tilt toward anything evil or negatively influential.  It really emphasizes how narrow and straight the path of righteousness is!

This week we found found three new investigators! We've been in kind of a dry spot for the last few weeks and they are the first new investigators we've been able to find for a while!  We found them all while tracting, which is great because there were definitely some days where we didn't feel like going out knocking doors. One of them is comfortable where she is right now but we had a fantastic conversation with her...(she was so funny!) and while she isn't interested now, we walked away happy that planted a good seed with her.

Another one of them is a girl named Lexie, who said she'd heard of our church from one of her middle school teachers.  And when we asked her if she'd had the chance to read the Book of Mormon, she said, "I wish!" Haha we got so excited and eagerly gave her one, with a pamphlet in the front. We set up a time to see her again, which is actually later today!  I hope the meeting turns out well!

Another of our new investigators, Cameron, had played basketball with members before so he was curious to know more about us. We asked him if he'd read the Book of Mormon ("no") and if he'd like a copy. He gave a hesitant "...yeeeeesss..." and asked what he'd have to do to get one. We both were beaming outwardly and inwardly laughing with glee as we handed him one and told him, "Nothing! We have one for you right now!"  (We do not solicit these books, Sir!). We are excited to meet with his family his Saturday and see what their thoughts of the Book of Mormon are.

Many members from our ward left this weekend to help out with the flooding in Louisiana.

We were not able to see Jeff this week but we are planning on meeting with him this Tuesday!

Also this week, Allison texted us and asked to take us out to dinner.  We wet to Cracker Barrel again and it was delicious.  We had a super nice waitress, who is actually going to graduate school here in Tennessee for therapy.  Sister Kronmiller got super excited and wanted to know more because she is planning to come back to Tennessee for grad school in drug rehab therapy as well!  Afterward, the waitress thanked us to talking with her and cheering up her day.  Turns out, she'd pulled a muscle in her thigh and was not having a very good day so far.  You never know who you can influence!

What else did we do this week?  Oh yeah, we had zone meeting!  More changes are happening in the TNM.  Our President has shortened our list of weekly and daily goals to motivate us missionaries to simply our focuses and place an emphasis on finding new people to teach.  Also, he has asked us to do more service in our agendas so Sister Kronmiller and I went to the library to return a wifi router we checked out and while there, I asked about volunteer opportunities in the community.  We are thinking of maybe helping out in the food pantry sometime in the near future.  

Lots of appreciation for y'all reading this!

Sister Ririe