I'll share one funny story from Why I Believe about Pete and Pete's older brother. Pete has down syndrome and is in his late 20s. When he was 12 he wanted to pass the sacrament, but he wasn't baptized yet. (I guess they assumed since he had down syndrome they figured he wasn't held accountable to be baptized). Because of this, he needed to be baptized before he could pass the sacrament. His older brother was the one that baptized him. After the ordinance was done, Pete went up the stairs to get changed. But when the bishop called out to unplug the drain, Pete decided to do a cannon ball off the stairs! He managed to get 6 rows of little kids wet! Haha!Both the investigators that came seem to enjoy Why I Believe a lot! They were laughing and had good comments afterwards. I'm not sure if M is interested in learning more about the church since she is a strong Cathloic. Rose on the other hand seem to want to learn more. When I challenged her to meet with the missionaries, She said, "We will see where God directs me". It's funny because we actually ran into her again last Sunday night! When we tried to get an email address, since she didn't answer any of our calls from the last 1 1/2 months, she said no 😟. But she was still nice as ever. I just hope she will have a change of mind and answer our calls!
Funny story! On Wednesday we were checking up on less actives that the Relief Society President wanted us to visit. At one apartment we had to call in to be let in. When we called, a man answered the phone and we asked if this lady lived there. In reply he said yes and why we were asking. We kept telling him we were we missionaries, but he couldn't understand us. Sister Cosper finally shouts, "WE ARE THE MISH-ON-AIR-ES". Then he mumbles something and hangs up. We waited a good 5 min because we didn't know if he said he would come down to get us... But he never came. We gained enough courage and called the apartment again, but it went to voice male.... Sad face!
Friday was a fun day! Our appointment got canceled with meeting a deaf lady that is friends with one of our deaf members. We REALLY hope we get to meet her next week! So instead of meeting with them, Sister Cosper and I decided to ride the train down to Gallaudet University. Wow that was an adventure! We met this super nice lady while waiting for our train that ended up being 30 min late. Once on the train Sister Cosper stayed with the he lady while I found another spot on the train to talk with someone else. A few stops in I decided to move closer to Sister Cosper so that we could see each other better. I saw a lady with two bags and I knew she didn't want anyone to sit next to her.... And what did I do??? I asked, "Can I sit here" as I sit next to her. Then I waited a full 30 sec to ask, "Hi! How are you?" She turns to me and sees my badge. She then quickly says, "I'll go sit somewhere else" and she was gone in a flash! Haha. I have never had that happen to me on the metro! Then it started getting crowed again. All of the sudden 3 teenagers/young adults are yelling, "EXCUSE ME... PARDON ME" as they were heading on other side of the train where we were sitting at. I was praying hard that they would leave us alone. They luckily didn't bother me much, but Sister Cosper wasn't so lucky. One of them saw my name badge was like "SISTER PARKER?!?" And I was like, yep that's my name! Other than that they didn't say more to me. On the other hand they were trying to get our number from Sister Cosper, but declined obviously . It was so scary because they were being so loud and obnoxious. But they left soon after and we road in peace!
After Institute class at Gallaudet, we walked back to the metro. On our way back we saw a deaf man waiting to cross the street. We signed to him asking how was his day? And with that he went on and on about how he was and how he knew 11 sign languages around the world! It was hard for me to follow him because he was signing pretty fast and was using signs I didn't know. Sister Cosper said afterwards he was using foreign signs mixed in with ASL! Haha. But this is a fine example of true deaf culture here! If you ask a true deaf person how their day is.... Prepare for at least an hour conversation. On the other hand, in hearing cultures they say "how are you?" The person will quickly say "fine" or "good" and go on their way.Saturday was a fun day too! We spent a lot of time doing service at one of the members home. We helped put in linoleum flooring. It was like fake wood. It worked like puzzle pieces where it snaps in place. It was quite fun!!! We had a blast with the bishop and other members that came to help!
Sunday night was crazy! When we were on our way out to our car, we saw that our friend who works at the front desk was gone. We asked where she was and the two ladies that were there said she just left for the hospital. So Sister Cosper and I decided to help get things back in order until the replacement came. It was fun to talk to the two ladies while waiting and opening the doors for people coming in. We learned that one of the ladies at the front desk was moving in. To that, we insisted in helping her bring in her stuff from her car! That was a lot of fun!
As you can see, not to bad of a week! I'm excited to see what this week brings. I can tell you right now it will have lots of appointments and opportunities to talk with people! Well, I hope you are all doing well!
Much love,
Sister Parker
This is the view from our apartment!
No comments:
Post a Comment