The Miracle of the Atonement.

So this week was good.... in a weird way.

So, something that you all should know is that the Norwalk ward has a reputation for being full of crazy people! haha! And it definitely lives up to that reputation every Sunday! :) I love every second of it!

This past week we taught Monique twice, Danielle and Cecilia (Separately), but we didn't feel super great about the lessons we taught Danielle and Cecilia, they were kind of last minute and the things we had planned didn't work out.

There are 2 church buildings close to where we live, the stake center, and the Bloomfield building which is our building. But the stake center is closer, so often times we have lessons there. Anyways, so we had a last minute lesson with Danielle at the stake center and we were going to show her the Restoration dvd. We don't have a key to the library because it's not our building. So we called the other elders in our zone who's building it IS and they said they would come open it for us. We got to the building and went to find the elders... well they didn't tell us that they didn't actually have a key and theat they BREAK IN!!!! So they were in the process of breaking into the library when we brought our investigator in. They were using knives from the kitchen and when we told them that the girl with us was our investigator, the both froze and dropped what they were doing and said... "Well that's embarressing..." it was pretty hilarious. They didn't get it open and we didn't get to show her the DVD so we were kinda bummed. After that our lesson was just kinda thrown together and we didn't feel super good about it afterwards. Plus we were kind of off our games because of something that had happened the day before.

We have been working with this less active named Patrick. He is like 47 and hasn't been to church in years, plus he works on Sundays. So we have kind of been meeting with him and trying to help him get back on the right path a little bit. Well, the last time we met with him was like the week before Christmas and he texted us this past week and said he was sorry for avoiding us and that he wanted to meet this week. So we said ok and set up a time. We have to have someone with us because we can't be alone with him, but we couldn't find anyone to come with us to save our lives!!! So we met at the stake center outside so we were in public. He then proceeded to tell us that the reason that he had been avoiding us was because he had an "Impure thought" about us last time we met. Then continued and said that he was battling a "demon" in his head. He kept talking and flat out told us that he has a problem with pornography and that he objectifies women. Needless to say me and sister Lindsey were very disturbed and pretty much just ended the lesson right there and called our Zone Leaders. They met us at the church and gave us blessings. I felt so gross and I felt like the spirit had just left me!!!! The rest of that day and the next I still felt really gross!!! It was like the worst thing of my life!!!! I forget that there are creeps out there. We went ahead and passed him right along to the elders.... I think that would be for the best.

We had our lesson with Cecilia that same night, but we were both off of our game so we didn't feel like the lesson was that great. But she is continuing to read the Book of Mormon and told us that she felt peace when she reads it!  I think Cecilia is more interested than Danielle. Danielle told us that anyone who talks about God they let in their house. Danielle was meeting with J-Dubs not long ago. But Cecilia seems to have a real desire to know. We told her to pray before she reads and after she reads and she has! She's so great! The only thing that is hard is that she is SOOOO super busy it's so hard to meet with her. We don't see her nearly often enough.

Ok... story time!!!

So, the life of a missionary is ridiculous and we find the dumbest things funny... But the funniest things happened the other week so I thought I would share! :)

So like 2 and 1/2 weeks or so ago we were sitting outside our house in our crappy 2012 Chevy Malibu (or MaliBOAT as we call it...) and it started freaking out. the instruments all turned on and the lights started blinking and you seriously would have thought our car was possessed!!! So we turned it off and then it wouldn't start... so we did what any sister missionaries would do... and we called our zone leaders and told them to come fix our car. they are boys they are supposed to know how to do that stuff! They came over in their Shiny new 2013 Ford Fusion and started to boast about their car and how cool it was. (It is pretty cool...) Well they couldn't get our car fixed and so Elder Barlow, the vehicle coordinator came over the next morning and tried to fix it. He charged the battery and then took it into the dealership and got it working. But they said they wouldn't replace anything unless it happened again. (LAME!) so Elder Barlow decided that it would be best if we traded cars with the elders (the zone leaders) so that if it happened again, they would be stranded and not us. (Oh it's good to be a sister! :)!) Needless to say their boasting really made us happy that we got to switch cars with them. haha. They had our car for a week... not even a week. 4 days. And they couldn't handle it. So they went into the office last Monday and said they needed a new car.... oh my spoiled elders....

AND THEY GOT ONE!!!!

Can you believe that??? Ridiculous!!! haha it was pretty funny though! They got a brand new just off the lot 2014 Toyota Corolla. Back up camera and everything. Super nice!  But we are happy because we have a nice car that talks to us when we talk to it. And it has a Bluetooth phone system. It's nice! :) I also Loaded up my USB flash drive with music from LDS.org and we can plug that in and listen to it! It's great!!! (Hint go to the Youth page and go to music. It's a gold mine!)

K well that's it for this week! But I love all of you! Have a happy week!!!

Love Sister Bauer