Hello family!
This has been one crazy week, but I think it has been the best one so far! Every Friday before transfers President Holm looks to see if we attained our visas and then he calls those that did. I think I was the only missionary in the state of South Carolina that didn't get their visa to Brazil! I'm secretly grateful. I just love South Carolina. I love my new area and I love my new companion. I think that God is keeping me here for a reason. Hopefully, I can discover just what that reason is! I think this will be my last transfer here though, because I got an email from Church Headquarters saying my visa is almost complete!
I don't even know where to start... Yesterday, we had planned to Jessica, James, and their family, but they were not home. We knew that God must have led us to their neighborhood for a reason. Sister Brown had already knocked every house on the street, but she asked me if there was one that I really felt inspired to visit again. I prayed and felt the impression to visit the house across the street. There was a kind, elderly man there who said that he believed in Christ and that he had already been saved. (This is a huge problem in the South. People do not understand "works" or "priesthood authority.") He was nice, but definitely not interested. As we were walking down the street towards the car, I kept feeling like we should go back and knock his house again! I kept brushing it off. I mean we had already knocked his housetwice and he wasn't interested either time. I tried so hard to ignore it, but it wouldn't go away. I voiced my concern to Sister Brown and she said that she was feeling the same way! We prayed to know what to do. We didn't want to give him a bad taste for Mormon missionaries, but the Spirit was rather forcefully telling us we should go back and talk to him. I think the Lord was really trying to make a point. He even put a huge dog in the middle of the road, blocking us from going anywhere but back towards his house! Taking it for a sign, we walked back. We stood outside his door for what seemed like an eternity. I was never more scared to do anything in my whole life! It took everything I had just to knock that door. I waited anxiously for him to come to the door and give us a barrage of verbal abuse, but he was really nice about it! I explained everything--how we felt that God wanted us to come back and even about that gigantic dog. I also shared a quick message about prophets being called today. He was really nice and seemed more open to us. He suggested that we go through his yard and take another street to get to our car. We did and guess what? We met the most amazing family! They are looking for a new church, since they just moved here. We would have never found them! We wouldn't have knocked that area again for a long time, but God wanted us to find the Walters. It was so amazing to see the hand of the Lord guiding this work, and I think I learned a powerful lesson. I think God was testing us to see if we would follow Him even if what He asked was hard. He did it with Abraham and his son, and I think--in a much smaller scale-- He did it with us. It was terrifying, but so rewarding at the same time!
I live in Latta now. It is a small town that reminds me a little of Salado. There is a total of three restaurants- none of which are known franchises. I am still mustering up the courage to check out "Little Tokyo." Somehow South Carolina and Japanese food do not seem to go together!
Oh, I almost forgot! We got stopped by the police!! We were knocking late at night and someone, I guess, thought we were prowlers. It was all very exciting. He asked to see our IDs and then called "headquarters" to check our records. He didn't bring out the handcuffs, which is really too bad. Think of the photo opportunities! We did end up sharing a message with him and giving him a pass-along card, which is admittably even better than a possible mug shot :)
Love you guys so much! I hope everything is going well.
Congratulate the boys for me on cross country! Looks like we got some demon dogs in the making :) Good luck with school and being Relief Society president and being a mom! Thanks so much for the poem, Pops! I love it!! I love that you are going on splits. We are in a branch and it is super hard to get members to come out with us, but it makes all the difference to the investigators.
Love,
Sister Daniels
Our house! Well, technically it is more of a trailer, but it is darn cute!
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