Live Nativity

This week was awesome! It honestly just flew by.  Man time goes way too fast.  On Tuesday we met Grandma Dot.  She is a former investigator.  She's been taught about one lesson and we "randomly"(ahem, nothing is coincidence!) planned to go see her this week, knowing nothing about her.  We went around 5:30 at night and she immediately began lecturing us on how it is much too dark for young ladies such as ourselves to be out and about.  The lecture lasted quite some time and then she asked us if we would like some hot chocolate.  Sister Erickson said she didn't need any, and then I said, "Yes, please!"  I did not want hot chocolate.  And even if I did I would normally say no, but I figured if I said yes she would let us in and we could talk more so I said yes.  I'm getting tricky. :). So we went in and had a great conversation and learned a lot about her.  We showed her the video, "A Savior is Born" and she really liked it.Then we invited her to the Live Nativity that the Folsom stake put on this weekend.  More on that later.  She said she would come!  We were so excited.  She is just a sweetheart and it was fun talking with her.

We met Lisa on Wednesday.  She is really cool.  She is Catholic and not really interested in learning more right now but we keep visiting her because she introduces us to ALL her friends!  It's amazing, she is a gold mine for meeting non members.  While we were talking to her we met her neighbor and her husband.  She is also the woman that introduced the sisters to Billur at Thanksgiving.  Billur still hasn't responded to our calls or anything.  She really is busy though.  We are going to try dropping by tonight and see what we can set up. Thursday we did service at the Nativity.  So the Nativity was put together as a community event run by our church at the Mormon Center, which is the church right next door to the Sacramento temple.  They converted everything behind the church to look like a little Bethlehem.  Then you walk back there and they do a short reenactment of the story with an angel choir and everything.  We were not allowed to proselyte since it was meant to be a non-threatening community event but they wanted us there at a table nearby with pass along cards and things  so if people wanted to talk to us they could.  We were there and available to give chapel tours if anyone wanted them. Well...no one wanted a chapel tour so we didn't get to do much other than direct people to the bathroom but we heard amazing feedback about the nativity.  The whole thing was put together by Kristen King I guess (she is Amy's sister).  No surprise it turned out so well with her behind it.  It was really incredibly polished and well done, from the invitations to the set, music, and lighting.  Very impressive, especially for a first year event.  We had increasing numbers every night, including Sunday night which had pretty bad weather.  What was amazing is the forecast was for rain every night, but it always stopped right before the shows needed to start.  Heavenly Father wanted this activity to happen.  It was such a great missionary tool. The final count for the four nights was 7500.  We are estimating I think 25% as non members.  The number of people that talked to the
missionaries increased with each night as well.

Friday we tracted a lot of the day.  There is not a lot of tracting done in this mission.  Hardly any really, but there are not a lot of other options in this area because we can't really bike around and talk to people on the streets due to the hilly-ness, size of the area, and the fact that no one is out.  However, we talked to a LOT of people while tracting.  It was awesome.  No new investigators from it but at least we were talking to people! I was amazed at how many answered their doors.  And we did find a less active member that way. Hopefully we will be working with her.  That night we took Dot to the Nativity and boy did she enjoy it.  She really loved it a lot.  We took her on a chapel tour beforehand and answered a lot of her questions, then we saw the Nativity.  She loved it and kept saying how beautifully done it was and how she had never seen anything like it. It was just SO rewarding to take her because of how much she enjoyed it.  We took her on a temple tour afterward.  She was pretty beat after, I'm sure she slept well, but she sure loved it.  The way she was talking though, she doesn't have a lot of interest in learning more but she did enjoy her experience thoroughly and liked what she learned.  It was really a great night.  Such an awesome event to be part of, I am really thankful to have been here for this time. 

Saturday night was Oakridge's Christmas party.  It was Polar Express themed and these people know how to throw a party.  It was honestly incredible.  One member built a mini train (picture included), and the whole room was decorated in that theme.  The tables were made to look like train tracks with the front of a train taped to the head of the table.  There were windows around the room with snowflakes.  When people entered there was a ticket office and they had these fancy tickets.  Then you entered into a hallway that they made to look like you were in the Polar Express and had a conductor punch your ticket. Then you entered the dining room.  It was seriously hardcore.  There were some non members there that we were able to meet.  We filled the water cups so every single person there saw us.  It was a little too crazy to meet many people while doing it but at least they saw the missionaries there and serving.  It was a good place for us to be.

Sunday night was the last night of the nativity.  We were at the the table and got to talk to a lot of people.  Many of them were members but they grabbed pass along cards to share with people so that is exciting!  I also got to see some of my favorite members from El Dorado ward and that was so fun.  Turns out El Dorado Ward is being dissolved so that was a surprise.  They are being absorbed into nearby wards.  So one of the areas I served in no longer exists, which is weird.  It was so good to see them though.  We taught the Mia Maids class about hastening the work since that was their lesson this week. They were not terribly responsive but it went fairly well.  Hopefully it got them excited about missionary work a little. Something else cool this week is that the stake president and high councilor over missionary work in our stake came to our Zone Training this week.  It was pretty cool to have them there, it definitely improved the stake president's opinion of us missionaries and I think that made all the difference in his willingness to include us more in the nativity.  He trusts us more now, so that was pretty cool. 

Today on our way to the church we witnessed a car crash.  It was a little old lady that ran a red light because the sun was in her eyes.  Poor thing!  It was sad.  Pretty bad crash but no serious injuries,though both drivers will be quite sore.  Turns out I have no idea what to do if I witness an accident.  We ended up turning around and leaving them with our phone number in case they needed witnesses or something.

Anyway, overall a great week full of miracles and cool opportunities!  Dot kept asking us why her? Why did we put all that effort into taking her and helping her through the evening?  My first thought was just that she happened to answer her door and she was willing to come.  We didn't particularly choose her, but I believe Heavenly Father did.  I don't know why, but He does.  He wanted her to have that experience.  I know that He has a plan for each of us, down to the little details.  I know we are all in good hands with Him.  Love you all!

Sister Robinson

P.s. There will not be an email for lots of days, until Christmas because that is when the next pday will be.