Sister Lamb Joins the Watson Wagon and Uses her Sewing Skills

Dear Family,

Love you!

Apparently there is a quilt auction in Omaha to do with something or something and Elder Watson has decided that it would be a good idea for the Trail Center to make a couple of quilts to donate to the auction. So, this last Saturday, Sister Wright enlisted all of our help with one of the quilts. She is having us each embroider a square for the quilt. We were a little surprised that President Kunz was allowing this, but were all excited about it. We picked up our squares on Saturday morning and were all working on them in between tours all day. Between working at the Trail Center Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, mine is already finished. So that fun, although I will admit that sometimes I hoped that no one would come in to the Trail Center for a little bit so that I could work on it. But, now that it is done I guess that I don't have to worry about that any more.

This last week, Sister Proctor (1 transfer older than me, stays with us a lot because of Trail Center things, knows lots of the same people I do at the BYU, etc) had surgery because she had a hernia in her belly button. This meant that she and her companion, Sister Davis, have not been able to do a lot in the last week. They had expected that she would be up and ready to work within a couple of days, but that plan didn't end up working our for them. We ended up working two extra shifts at the Trail Center for them on Wednesday and Sunday so that Sister Proctor could rest. Then yesterday, they had a few appointments in the evening, so after our shift at the TC, Sister Bergeson and Sister Davis went to Bellevue to the appointments and Sister Proctor and I headed for their apartment. They live in the basement of a members home and Sister Proctor told me that she is sure that we will be companions next transfer. She has already started making plans for it, so we will see what happens. Ha ha.

On Sunday, it was Easter! We spent the morning at the Trail Center. Then, off to church. At the end of the block, Sister Young asked us if we could come over to her home for Easter dinner. The only problem was that dinner was not going to be ready until about 6, so we could not go unless there were investigators or potential investigators there as well. So, Sister Young told us that she would see what she could do and promptly went home to call all of her nonmember friends and get someone there to have dinner with us. By the time we got there, one of her neighbors and 14-yr old Clare's Jewish friend were there. So, everything was great. We had dinner and showed them the video "He is Risen" that is on lds.org, and then talked about Christ and the individuality of the atonement, that Christ did it for each of us individually. The gospel is an individual thing. We often pray as individuals, baptisms are performed undividually, we do home teaching and visiting teaching to make sure that each individual is taken care of. (Of course we have to rely on other people as well) But Christ performed the Atonement for each person, not all of us as a group and he cares about us individually. Today, we got a call from Sister Young. Clare's friend, Debbie, had been talking to Clare and said that she loved having dinner with us and listening to our message. She also said that she wishes that she was Mormon so that she could go on a mission.

Last week, we were talking to Elder Whidmer (our district leader) on Sunday evening. He asked what he could do to help us and we expressed our desire to find some new investigators. He promised us a blessing that if we would make an extra effort in our planning on Wednesday night, check on potentials from our area book, and then tract around them, we would find 5 new investigators. I knew that what he said was true because I knew that was what he was going to promise us before he said it. So, Thursday came and we did everything just like he had said. We prayed with faith and pleaded with the Lord, then spent the whole day tracting, talking to everyone we saw, trying our best to follow the spirit, and doing everything we could to find those 5 people. We refused to stop until we absolutely had to go in. By the end of the day, we had no new investigators, but we knew that we had done everything we could have. It was disappointing not to find those 5 people that day, but we both learned something very important. We felt what it is like to truly have given everything to the work. There was a feeling of peace and accomplishment because we knew that the Lord had accepted our effort for the day. We learned that at the end of the day, having that feeling is more important than having good numbers. You can have good numbers and still not feel like your effort was enough, but when you know that you have done everything you can, you just have to leave the rest to the Lord.

Today was day 1 of the "Watson Wagon". About once a month, the Watsons organize a field trip for the missionaries in Omaha to go to sites around Omaha to make sure that we get an opportunity to do some of the things that are available. Today, we took a trip over to the Kanesville Tabernacle. I have been there once, on the first day in Omaha, but really don’t remember anything they said, Elder Scott, a service missionary from Omaha, talked to us for several hours about the history of the Mormon Trail and then Elder Wright took us on a tour of the tabernacle. It was great! You may think that the Wrights are the only senior couple here because it seems like they are the only one I talk about, but there are actually 5 other senior couples and two service missionary couples as well.

Well, I love you! Have a great week!

Sister Melly