# 14

This past week was another busy one...and it was super hard! We have been in the process of finding new investigators this week and were able to find three with families.

On Monday, we met with Sona and Melanya, two potential investigators. They are really interested in the church, but they rent rooms in their apartment and can't meet with us at their apartment unless the occupants leave. We were able to meet with them this week though. We talked to them about the Plan of Salvation and families. In our next lesson, we plan on talking about the restoration and tying in commandments (especially the Word of Wisdom because they both smoke). 

After that meeting, we met with Ashken at the mission home. Her mother, two sons and nephew were present. With the help of Sister Carter, we talked with them about the Plan of Salvation, families and temples. She seemed really receptive. It really helped that Sister Carter and Ashken's mother were there to testify of the importance of families. We are hoping to meet with her this week to try and involve her husband in the lessons. We think that she is worried about talking to him about the church and because of that she feels distanced from him. We want to include him in the process of learning about the gospel if he is willing. 

For Prep day, we went with Elders Zachary, Wood, Woolley and Kopsa to the zoo. It was pretty fun! I had to laugh because they had American deer as an exhibit haha...just like they did when I visited Australia! Sister Clove and I then went to a Georgian restaurant afterwards and had delicious food called spas and cheese bread and dolmas!!! So good!

On Tuesday at our district meeting we talked about miracles that come when we are obedient and unified. We also spent some time getting to know each other in our district and sharing our goals so that we can be unified in helping each other succeed. 

Tuesday was also Sister Jack's birthday. I am now the only 19 year old sister in the mission.

We also met with our Bishop and planned an activity on Family History. We want to invite the florist and his family to come to that and to come to a Family Home Evening with the Bishop and his family.

Marine called us on and wanted to meet. We planned on teaching her the Restoration again (just as a refresher and so that she understands it clearly). When we got there, she had questions about the Restoration already that went right along with our lesson. This was the first lesson that I have been in where questions that an investigator had went exactly along with the lesson that we had planned...in sequential order. It was a pretty neat experience and it got me excited to explain more of the Restoration to her. 

We also met with Arus this week. Hayk (ward member) was present. We meet with Arus a lot and we had planned on talking to her more about repentance and baptism, but lately when we meet she gets distracted really fast. We weren't able to get through all of the lesson and planned on teaching the rest to her later. We are wondering if she is really progressing because the next logical step for her is baptism but she keeps avoiding it. I am going to personally study for her this week and see if there is anything else we can do to help her be baptized. 

After the lesson, we walked Hayk home and we had him stop and talk to people just like we do as missionaries. It was funny to watch him try and OYM people...but then I thought about how that was probably what I looked like when I first got to the country haha.

Wednesday was a tough day. All of our meetings fell through and so we ended up OYMing most of the day. I like OYMing and talking to people, getting to know them and sharing a gospel principle with them. It was extra hard on Wednesday though...we talked to only a few people who seemed interested. In my interview with President Carter this week, I told him about how Sister Clove and I decided to memorize the sentence "Help me find a family ready to make covenants with God"...when we said it and turned the corner and ran into a really nice family! We shared a short message with them and left a pass along card with our number for them. That was such a tender mercy from the Lord on what seemed to be a very tough day.

On Thursday after planning, we met with Rita (street contact) and her family (daughter, daughter-in-law, grandson). We established our expectations and gave the How To Begin Teaching points. We also taught a short lesson on families and the temple. We have been using the temple kit frequently in almost every lesson, especially with new investigators or OYMing on the street. It has been a great help and blessing to our companionship.

We also visited with Rima (member), who had served a mini mission with Sister Clove. She needed help cleaning her house and wanted us to help her prepare lessons from Preach My Gospel to share with friends. We did service and helped her clean and then helped her think of ways to approach her friends about the gospel and set up a study plan for her.

On our way home, we stopped and bought candy for the florist's kids...we are trying to bribe them with love. haha just kidding!

On Friday, we met with Lala (a street contact). We met her husband and son and invited them to join in the lesson. We established expectations and talked about the the difference between our church and other churches. We shared a short message on the restoration and families and invited them to church. I kind of got the vibe that she was just trying to marry us off to her son though...they do that so that way they can come to America haha.

We also met with Lala (our investigator we have been meeting with for several weeks). We brought her a book cover for her Book of Mormon so that she can read at home without her family bothering her about other religions. (She said that was the main reason she hasn't been reading...her family doesn't want her to read the Book of Mormon.) We also challenged her to keep reading three chapters a day. We have been reading along with her. We talked about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She has been continuing to read and we are hoping to commit her to a baptismal date by the time she reaches Alma. 

We then met with Arus again at Hayk and Hariknas' apartment. We finished our lesson on repentance and baptism, but she still has not committed to a date. I will continue to study for her and we will decide whether or not we will continue meeting with her. 

Hayk and his mom, Hariknas

On Saturday we found and caught our first cockroach in the apartment...exciting right? We called Elder Zachary because we didn't know what to do about it...but he basically just told us to suck it up (in a nice way) because they had caught five in his apartment just that very same day. In honor of all of his help, we named the cockroach Elder Zachary.

On Saturday, all of our lessons fell through again, but we were able to OYM and talk with a lot of people. We also stopped by the church to help the ward members clean and we helped the assistants get ready for a baptism they had that day.

Sister Clove and I on Colleen's baptism day with Rebecca.  

Lala (our new investigator) brought her grandchildren to church on Sunday. We met with them and introduced them to many ward members. We are going to meet with them again this week to follow up.

Marine was unable to make it to church. We are not sure why yet, but will be following up with her soon.

On Sunday we met with Jess, Lance, Joe and Rebecca after church. The brothers received the Melchizedek priesthood. We talked to them about the importance of the priesthood and we also talked about keeping all of the commandments and enduring to the end. 

We OYMed and met Tigron, a young father who knows English. He went to college in upstate NY and was interested in what we believed. We are going to follow up with him this week.

We also met with Nane (a member) and her family Sunday night. Anahit, her sister-in-law, is very interested in the gospel. We met with them and their family and talked to them about the importance of church and our belief that families can be together forever. While there, I felt like they were family! I really enjoyed their company and there was a sweet spirit in their home. They dad, Gjevorg, and his friend, Sarkis (from Greece), are super funny! They gave us a ride home with their girls and they kept cracking jokes. They kind of reminded me of fun uncles haha. We are going to meet with their family again this week. 

This week in personal study, I have been studying for each one of our investigators. I love it! It has helped me to better understand where they are coming from and how different aspects of the gospel can help them. I have also been studying the gospel of Christ and how it applies to everyone.

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to meet with President Carter this week. It is his last week in Armenia as my Mission President, so he wanted to meet with all of the missionaries. This week was a particularly hard week for me and I just felt refreshed and rejuvenated after meeting with him. I had just told Sister Clove I was thinking about asking him for a priesthood blessing this week when he called and invited us to come in for interviews. Perfect timing! We talked a lot about my purpose as a missionary and he promised me a lot of cool things in my blessing. Afterwards, he said that he normally sends missionaries home with a hug, but he wouldn't be around to send me home, so he and Sister Carter both gave me a hug. I love the Carters! Mom, you should see if you can contact them when they get home. They are great!

So how is the family doing? I got all of your dear elders last week...right after I had written my email home so I didn't get to tell you that I had gotten all of your letters. It takes about two weeks for the mail to get to Armenia. It takes about two months for packages to get here though...people have asked me about that so feel free to spread the word about how long it takes the mail/packages to get here (like Lisa, Aunt Cheryl). Mom, if you would send some CTR rings that would be great! I was going to ask you about that this week because I gave mine away to some kids on the street, so it is perfect timing that you asked that! 

So Asia, I heard you got a cute lacy white dress! I want one!! Seriously though...if you see one that's cute and you just happen to think of me... haha Anyway, I bet you rock it! Trev, how is the ACT studying coming along? And baseball? I heard the two of you threw a party this Friday at the house. How did that go? I miss all of you! I hope you are having a fun summer! Any fun family trips coming up? Is school out yet? I love you all!!

Love,

Misa

Funny/cool Armenian things:

They have orange (yes, ORANGE...Asia), pretzel, mint, and dark M&Ms in stock her at all of the stores.

They use tissues for napkins.

They eat really salty cheese...I'm pretty sure Asia wouldn't even like this kind of cheese.

They carry everything in plastic bags.

They sell 6.5% milk here...and people drink it. 

I'm pretty sure they have the most safe capital city ever. No one ever parties at night because it is shameful.

We still receive calls and texts from that boy who wants to date us. He won't leave us alone.

When Armenians feed you too much and you don't want anymore...they think it's super funny if you tell them you're going to explode haha.

Their rock, papers, scissors is "Ching, chang, cho" haha

A member of our ward is on an Armenian soap opera...he is also the most shy person I have met here so far.

There are random Russian words/food/songs everywhere...and three letters of the Armenian alphabet are actually Russian!

They hate turning on the air conditioning because they think they will catch a cold...even when it's about 100 degrees...