Things are not always perfect when you are on a mission.

Time to post more about Sister Ahern

February 6, 2012 letter - Things are not always perfect when you are on a mission.

So, for the crazy day.  About a month ago we had one day where Heavenly Father was definitely giving us comic relief.  In the span of 24 hours: first, the son of one of our investigators was visiting his mom and he started off on his beliefs (about half of it was great; the other half was so far out in left field that it was out of the park) and would NOT let us get a word in.  Hna. Webb finally butted in and said, "I'd like to say something and do NOT interrupt me."  It was great.  2.  We went over to an apartment complex to look for one of  the less-active members on our ward list who didn't have a phone number listed.  The lady at the address we had said she moved about a  year ago, but that her daughter, Crystal, worked in the housing office of the complex.  We went over there and asked if Crystal was there, and the answer we were given to every question was, That's  confidential."  Hna. Webb even asked, "Is it confidential to ASK if she works here?"  "That's confidential."  The lady we were talking to was SO ticked at us.  I kind of wanted to cry by the time we left.  At the same time, though, being the daughter of Amy Ahern, I definitely had a very mean thought.  What I wanted to say (but did not) was, "Who took a stick and jammed it up your butt?"  3.  Unfortunately, I no longer remember what number 3 was.  Oops.  I do remember though that it was so awful it made us laught.  4.  We went by a man who we found on one of our potential investigator sheets.  He said he was busy then.  We asked if there was a better time.  He told us, "Manana.  A  las 8." (tomorrow at 8).  We already had an appointment scheduled for that time (sorry, but 24 hours notice is not enough time to get your pick of just whenever), and we told him that, but asked if there was another day or time we could come by.  His response?  "You don't have time for me; I don't have time for you."  Who knew so many crazy things could happen in one day?

The baptisms were awesome.  We're still teaching Juan the new member lessons and he still comes to church every Sunday (I don't think he's missed a single Sunday since he started coming the week before Christmas).  Although his dad still doesn't really want to do anything or believe what we're saying, he does stay for Sacrament Meeting every week (he gives Juan a ride to church).  Unfortunately, that means that Juan doesn't usually get to go to Primary : (

Names have been changed

Sister Ahern 02/05/12

It has been a while since I last posted anything regarding Sister Ahern.  She enjoyed a birthday by visiting the Aquarium (with mission approval).  The week prior to that, she watched while 2 of their investigators got babtized.  One of the investigators is the son of a family she is teaching.  She is working with the parensts and hopes that they will do the things necessary for them to get baptized.  The other is the granddaughter of some members.  The father was reluctant for her to be baptized but finally gave his approval.  This meant teaching all of the lessons in a week so she could be baptized before the family went to Mexico.  She did mention another investigator she is working with as follows:  We have a new investigator who is absolutely wonderful.  I was terrified because we walked into her house and, based on the picture of the Pope that they have, she's very Catholic, but we taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel anyway.  The Spirit was so strong, and she had no problem with anything we taught.  She actually agreed with everything, and when we taught about prophets, she thought we needed one today.  When we gave her the Book of Mormon she just took it to her chest and hugged it.  At the end of the lesson, she tried to give it back, and when we said it was hers to keep her face just lit up.  I've never seen someone so excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Before we left, we were going to try to set up a return appointment, but before we could even open our mouths, she asked, "When are you coming back?  You will come back, right?"  She also said yes when we invited her to be baptized, but she wouldn't commit to a date yet, because she wants to make sure she's ready.  She hasn't sent me a lot of news as the mission rules require the companions to stay together while using the computers to email letters home.  She has had a rough time finding 3 computers together.  She is really enjoying the work.  The members love her.  I got a note and a picture from one of the Sisters in the ward along with the picture posted in this blog.  In the note, the sister made comment about the strength and growth she has seen in Sister Ahern as well as the love that is felt for her.  I will send more when I get more.

Letter from 12/5/11

I asked Beth about her new companions and here is her response

 

Hermana Webb is from Hyrum, UT (I don't know if you know where that is, but it's apparently near Logan).  She's awesome!  The other day she was leaving a voicemail in Spanish for one of our investigators to try to confirm our appointment with them.  You know you've been a missionary too long when ... you end your phone call with "Decimos estas cosas..." (in English, that's "we say these things...")  Luckily she caught herself before she went any farther.  Needless to say, we were cracking up about that one for a solid 5 minutes (at least).

 

Hermana Alaalatoa is from Samoa.  This is actually her first time in the United States.  I'm just glad I only know 2 languages now (well, okay, sort of 2, since I'm still far from fluent in Spanish).  Hermana Alaalatoa's learning her 3rd.  She's fluent in both Samoan and English, and then they called her on a Spanish-speaking mission.  I would die! 

 

Here are a couple of things she mentioned that she thought you would all enjoy.

So, now for some other fun moments of the last few weeks.  First, a little over a week ago we were on our way back from lunch with a member and we were stopped at a stoplight.  This homeless man with a keyboard was crossing the street in front of us and when he got to the other corner he started blowing kisses at us.  I felt horrible because he was still looking at us, but as soon as it happened we all just died laughing.  We couldn't look at him because then it would be even harder to keep a straight face.  I finally risked it, because I wanted to see if he was gone yet and he started blowing kisses again.  It was great.  And the fact that he was carrying a keyboard made it that much better.

 

Going along with that, Hna. Alaalatoa has these strips of paper with really random "odd facts".  The best one is, "The average human will spend up to 2 weeks kissing in his or her lifetime."  That's just perfect for missionaries!

 

And, the thing that ties all of this together is that (one of the elders in Watsonville) sister (who's also on a mission right now) recently got proposed to by one of her investigators (she didn't do anything to encourage it either).  He had a ring and all.  Needless to say, she got transferred immediately! 

 

I asked her how things were going with her investigators and here are her answers.

 

Getting baptisms is like pulling teeth.  We finally got a baptismal date for one of our investigators for this coming up Saturday and then she decided no.  She still wants us to come and she wants to get baptized (and she's had all the lessons plenty of times and been to church many times, so she could get baptized tomorrow), but not yet.  We can't figure out what's holding her back.  She's the only one of her siblings who didn't get baptized when her parents returned from inactivity last year.  We do have a couple scheduled for January though.  Hopefully at least one of those will actually come to pass.  We also have a fairly new investigator and we're hoping to invite her to be baptized this week.  She's awesome!  Her parents are less active, but she called us a couple of weeks ago because she wanted to learn again and come to church.  When we went to teach her last Tuesday she said she had read 6 chapters of 1st Nephi in the past week!  She also went with us to the temple on Saturday to see the Christmas lights and a special dance performance they were doing about the birth and life of Christ.  She loved it!  I love Meghan!  She also wants to study marine biology (which of course makes me love her even more)!

 

Will let you know more after I hear from her tomorrow.

Sister Ahern and Sister Wirth with Investigators

Sister Ahern and Sister Wirth at the aquarium on P-Day

Sister Ahern and Companion

Sister Ahern with her first Companion

Sister Ahern with her MTC Travel Group

Sister Ahern with President and Sister Watkins