transfers

I'm staying here in my beloved town of Stockton!!  I love it here!  BUT!  I get a new companion.  My MTC companion, Sister Sellers (shes the Deaf one)!  Its going to be a really....interesting transfer.  Especially since she is going to be teaching all the hearing investigators we have, but maybe she can help the Deaf work pick up down here!  I am very sad my baby Sister Oliphant is leaving me and going up to the Deaf branch, but I know it will be great for her.  I'm just a little stressed about having to interpret EVERYTHING we do.  Now I will have to sign all the hymns I sing, all of my companionship studies and all the district meetings.  I have to sign the correlations we have with the ward and the Wednesday night meetings.  I'm going to be signing all the time.  Which will be good for me, but really stressful.  Hopefully I can just keep getting better and better at ASL I guess!  

 You know what's crazy about Deaf people?  Lots of them dont understand anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They don't understand how to pray.  Most of them think that because Heavenly Father is "hearing," He doesn't know ASL, so He cant understand them!  We have to explain over and over that God knows and understands ALL languages, even ASL.  Its hard for them to comprehend since they can't SEE Him watching their sign language.  Most of the time we dont even get to the Restoration lessons because they mean nothing unless these people understand who God is and what He set up for the commandments and prayer.  Some Deaf people don't even know that Jesus was born of Mary, a virgin.  

I sang a musical number on Sunday.  The whole 3rd row clapped for me at the end.  oops.  Dominick, Mickey, Zina, and one of the less actives were all on that row.  I think the black people want to change our quiet LDS culture and spice our services up a bit.  It was definitely funny and I laughed for 10 minutes after I sat down.  I think it will be the only time I'll get applause during a sacrament musical number!  We went to the temple today.  Its the first time Ive been since December and I really miss it.  I think that's what I'll do when I get home.  I'll just go to the temple every day and catch up for lost time.  (lost time that is not really "lost" by any means! Totally worth it!!)  We took pictures of the four roommates for this transfer, so I'll send those.  

Ooooh!!!  One of our less actives owns a Book of Mormon that was a 3rd publication!  Its from 1891!!!  I got to hold it and take a picture of my favorite scripture!  Soo cool.  Speaking about the Book of Mormon, Kathy is really enjoying reading from it!  She's slowly progressing and she can recognize the peace and joy that comes from reading and learning with us!  Apparently, Wiccans and Mormons believe a lot of the same things!  (wierd?) but she agrees to most everything we teach and says "well yeah, I already knew that!"  Its amazing just to watch the gospel take root in her and to have it make sense.  She told us last week that she has basically never had anybody love her before.  Not even her own Mother.  In fact, on her Mom's death-bed letter, her first sentence was "Sorry I never loved you..."  Kathy thinks that we have a "glow" about us and she says our auras are bright.  Man, I wish I could see auras.  Its trippy to think about, though, but hey!  Whatever floats her boat and keeps her learning, I'm fine with it.   

Love you all!!

Sister Wilson

 
We taught a super drunk guy named Craig last week.  He hasnt been sober for 30 years so we're gonna see if we can get him to come to the addict recovery class the church offers.  Drunk people are really funny.  

this is Ylang.  He is our deaf investigator and is learning how to pray.

 This is temple day with my roomies (sister missionaries)