At the start of my mission I was introduced to an older woman, Billie, who had almost been baptised a year previous, but due to circumstances with her father she choose not too. Her father hated missionaries! Over a dozen have stopped by Billies house and taught her, trying to bring her to the waters of baptism, but no progress was being made with her father.
When I met Billie, I KNEW one thing; I loved her and I felt an immediate connection with her dad!
I thought about him constantly and urged my companions to visit him, but all Billie ever told us was that we NEVER should go over there!
There was a Block between Billie and her father Fred, they just didn't get along.
While sitting in zone confrence one day a thought came to me. You have to meet Fred!
I thought about it all day, I thought about it all night, and for weeks we tried to visit, but it seemed the days slipped by and we never did.
Finally after many days of asking my companion to go over there, we decided to just do it.
We cut out hearts and wrote little notes on them. We pre taped the hearts and got on our bikes. We peddled over to his house and stopped in our tracks when we saw his front door was wide open!
How would we heart attack his door in secret if his door was open? We waited a good 10 minutes talking about what we would do before an idea came to me.
Heart attack his truck!
We slipped off our bikes and snuck over to his yard. Being careful and quiet we stuck the hearts all over his truck and before we could be seen we ran, jumped on our bikes, and road away.
We visited a few other people around Texas City before making our way back to the appartment.
We would pass Fred's house on our way home.
As we passed him I watched as Fred was pulling the hearts off of his truck.
My heart ached! He was probably furious at us for covering his truck in small pieces of paper.
We got home and I felt defeated. I had thought for sure heart attacking him would lift his spirit.
Later that night we got a call from Billie. She sounded so exited!
"GIRLS!" She said "he loved it!"
She went on to tell how her father has called her up and told her something was all over his truck.
Billie went over to her father's house and just started laughing. She told him the sisters had got him!
He was chuckling!!!
She said that he took the hearts off his truck and brought them inside. He was going to throw them away, but Billie told him he needed to read them first.
He read them, and then walked to the China cupboard and placed them carefully inside.
He told Billie he was going to keep them!!
We were so exited! We had made Billies dad, a "cold hearted" mean old man, chuckle!!!
Maybe he wasn't so horrible as Every one says.
With a new found determination we tried everything to meet Fred. We brought him mini pies from Wal-Mart (his favorite treat). When fall rolled around we stuck leaves all over his door. And finally we met him in person!
Fred told us he had no problems with our church. He said he had even visited temple square once and LOVED the temple. He urged us to come back and visit often!
Through all this effort we were able to see Billies love for her father begin to shine through. Soon Billie was telling us how much she loved Fred; she doesn't know what she would do without him.
One night after helping Billie organize some boxed into her garage she stopped to talk with us.
She told us that Fred had asked if it would be appropriate for him to take us out to dinner.
My heart spiked in excitement and I let loose a high pitched squeek!! I couldn't control how happy I was!!
The next week we picked up a deck of cards at the store and went to Billies. She helped us write something we love about her father on the back of each card. When we were done she wrapped it and we walked next door to give it to him.
He was so exited!! He pulled out the cards and read them one by one.
He was laughing and joking. He was SO happy!
When it was about time for us to leave I stood up and said my goodbye adding a simple but sencere "We love you Fred!"
His response melted my heart!
"I love you guys too."
The mission has taught me alot, but unconditional love for all God's children is something I will hold onto for the rest of my life.
As of now I don't know if Billie will get baptised, but I know that my love for Fred and Billie is only a small portion of the love our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ have for them. I have found pure JOY from working closely with God's children.
The other missionaries say it is a miracle, that we softened his heart, But I think all we did was come to love a precious child of God.
There is always room for more love!♡
I love you all!! I hope you had the BEST thanksgiving ever!!
Picture 1: sister Wilde and I preparing to hand out a bunch of book of Mormons this past week!! (We were having a BOM race with the district to see who could hand out the most. We reached 13 BOMS... we kindof slowed down after the first three days because we wanted someone else to win because we were buying the prize; we didn't want to buy the prize for ourselves.... we still won though...figures...
)
Picture 2: we made zukkini bread!!
Picture 3 and 4 : a lady in the ward had a baby and I wanted to hold it SO bad!!! (I didn't though) we just took fake pictures of me pretending to hold the baby girl
haha
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| Baking Zucchini Bread |
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| Handing out Copies of the Book of Mormon |
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| Pretending to hold a new baby |
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