Lightening Bugs!!!

Dear Family,

West Virginia is so awesome!! They have lightening bugs!!! In the evenings there are little sparks of light wherever there is grass. It’s so great! Sister Merrill and I went in our backyard and caught some. They are actually really ugly bugs, but it seriously looks like they have a glow stick attached to them. So COOL!!! I wish they had lightening bugs in the West!
It’s so humid here that my glasses are fogging up, no joke. Yesterday it was only about 72 degrees but it felt like 90. We went tracting for a good part of the day and we were so gross and sweaty after. Haha, so when we were tracting we talked to this one guy who told us he wasn’t Christian, he was Baptist! Ha ha. Actually he’s right. We go visit a member who is the nursing home, his name is Brother Kerekes. He is so great he is trying to convert everyone else in the nursing home. So far he has found 2 less actives that we didn’t know about. Anyways he asked us what a Christian is and we said well a believer in Christ. And he said you will not find that anywhere in the Bible, it says the word Christian 3 times. One of the places is in Acts and if you look for what a Christian is in there, a Christian is a member of Christ’s Church. So that guy was right!
So as missionaries we get all kinds of excuses from people for why they can’t meet with us. Well we got one this last week that tops them all. We tracted into this elderly lady who let us come in and talk with her. She seemed interested and said she would read the Book of Mormon, when we asked if we could come back next week, she said she didn’t know if she would be here. And we asked if she was going on vacation or something and she said no, she wouldn’t be here because she might die! Are you kidding me? That’s an awful excuse. We should have told her that was okay missionaries would take over in the Spirit World.
Okay so we have an awesome new investigator. The first time we taught her was last P-day. Her name is Martha, and she was a referral from the Bishop. She is going through some major health problems, I guess she has chronic gastritis (or something like that, it’s chronic anyways) and an inflamed pancreas. And she got divorced after being married for 28 years and she is very upset about that because she doesn’t believe in divorce and now her husband is living with someone else. Now she has to take care of herself financially. She works at Wal-mart, but since she is sick all the time she misses a lot of work, most of the time she goes, sick or not. And apparently Wal-mart is an awful employer, they are greedy, money grubbers with no compassion. (not her words she would never say anything awful about anyone) She lives in a two bed-room apartment which is actually very cute. She told us that most of her furniture is out of the garbage, which I could believe because it looks really good. So crazy thing though, Martha is only 55, but you would never guess that, she looks like she is 65-70. She is so wonderful!!!! Probably the best and easiest investigator ever! When we asked if we could leave her with a Book of Mormon, she almost cried and said “I was hoping you would.” And she read the chapter we left plus several other things. We didn’t have to invite her to church, she told us she would come (she didn’t end up coming because she was very sick). In Preach My Gospel it says you should contact your progressing investigators everyday, which is hard sometimes because you don’t want to be pushy or take a lot of their time. We don’t have to call her, she calls us! And she calls us and sets up appointments. She wants us to come over several times a week. We taught her again yesterday and we asked her to be baptized on July 11th and she accepted right away. Pretty much, she is the most golden golden investigator ever!
Oh so, Mom asked me about when Sister Hill is going home. She goes home at the end of this transfer so July 16th. Crazy!
We have talked to so many people who could really be blessed by the Gospel but they are just too lazy or too complacent to accept it. They miss out on all the wonderful blessings that could be theirs. We teach a lot of less actives, and many of them are like “yeah we need to get back to church” or they talk about how important the Gospel is, but their actions don’t match with their words, because they don’t come to church, read their scriptures, pay tithing, or say their prayers. By small and simple means are great things brought to pass. These small things will bring great blessings!!! As a missionary I have spent a lot of time studying about these commandments and the blessings that come from them so I can help people have a desire to live them. And the blessing promised in the scriptures are HUGE! We need those blessings!! I tell a lot of people that every problem we have can be solved by living the Gospel. But what a hypocrite I would be if I didn’t take my own advice. So I have really struggled to have energy on my mission and I have gained a little weight (not a ton, mind you). And I was reading in the Ensign this last month and they have a lot of articles on the Word of Wisdom and there were several stories about how people had decided to live the Word of Wisdom and the blessing they received. Most of those people didn’t have addictions or anything, they just decided to better apply the principles and the diet taught in the Word of Wisdom. I was thinking about it, some of the blessings I need like run and not be weary, receive knowledge and have the Spirit with you are promised if we live the Word of Wisdom. So I decided to better live it and this last week I have been trying to eat a more balanced diet and I have felt much better! It really works. Christ tells us many times that the wise man who built his house on the rock was the man who not only heard, but DID. We can’t receive those blessing until we go and DO.

Well I love you all. Have a fabulous week! Be a Hearer and a Doer!! (James 1:22-24, and Luke 6:46-49, Helaman 5:12)

Love, Sister Nicole Polatis