9 out of 9

Happy Belated Easter my fabulous friends and family members!

I am going to set a new record for fastest typing because I have soooooo many things that I have to tell y'all about!!!
So, remember how our mission president set up his new goal-accountability thing for our mission and new "standards of excellence"? Well, at the beginning of the week, Sister Woodard and I looked at each other and said, "This is the week where we are going to achieve 9 out of 9 goals, and exceed all of the standards of excellence." We almost always achieve or exceed the standards of excellence, but unless you get a baptism that week, you cannot achieve 9 out of 9 goals. And since he has implemented the new program, only two other companionships in the mission have achieved 9 out of 9 goals. So...... we worked hard all week to achieve these goals. What follows is how Heavenly Father provides a way for us to achieve our goals when we try OUR very hardest, and moments from one of the best weeks of my entire mission:

Monday:
-Y'all already know about the registering for classes struggle, but everything improved Monday night when we were able to teach H (who is married to a recently active member and drill instructor on Parris Island). And she is just sooo wonderful, and decided she wanted to get baptized this week! We set up her baptismal interview for Wednesday night, and were excited to help her prepare.

Tuesday:
-That awkward moment when a cop comes and finds you in the Chinese restaurant you are eating lunch at and tells you a "really old lady" just ran into your car. Darn it. We were slightly terrified when he initially asked us if the gray Toyota Corolla belonged to us and if we were with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister Woodard, although lovable, isn't the bestttt driver and I was sure that we were being ticketed for some traffic violation. Instead, we met the adorable 79 year old T, who told us that "we were the sweetest girls that she had ever met" and then invited us over for dinner.
-That evening, as we were visiting some potentials, we happened to run into a referral that we have been attempting to contact for weeks! And there he was, just standing on the sidewalk, and we have an appointment with him tonight. Thanks Heavenly Father!

Wednesday:
-That second awkward moment when you walk up to knock on someone's trailer and an old lady is lying there tanning on her front porch with no top on...... "Oh dear! We're so sorry ma'am! Didn't mean to disturb you... Bad time?" At least it wasn't the elders.
-That evening, H totally aced her baptismal interview and then asked us,"So.... J gets tomorrow off, and it's our anniversary... do you think I could get baptized tomorrow?" Um. Let's go ask the bishop! After an enthusiastic yes, we proceeded to quickly plan a baptism that would take place in less than 24 hours. During this process, we were showing H the baptismal font and inside was a lovely dead cockroach. Yum. We assured her that we would clean it out before the next day, and as we were leaving the font, M (H's 3 year old) yells, "Bye Bug!". Thank you M.
-K came to Book of Mormon class again and told us that ever since she met us, her life has been getting better and better! :)

Thursday
-Thursday was spent planning..... pretty much the whole day. We had decided to weekly plan this day anyway, because we had MLC the next day, which worked out perfectly because we kind of had a whole baptism to plan. Now normally, as a missionary, when you text/call people for assistance, it takes a while for anybody to respond (and that is IF they respond.) However, Heavenly Father was helping us BIG time, because in a matter of a few hours, we had a pianist, talks assigned, the amazing Sister Morgan creating our programs, Bishop conducting, and multiple people saying they could come and support. And it ended up being just wonderful. On April 2nd 2015, H was baptized by her husband J, so that in exactly one year, they can be sealed in the temple on their wedding anniversary. It doesn't get any better than that. I was the happiest of clams.

Friday
-Sister Woodard and I had MLC (missionary leadership council) in Macon at 10:00am. We woke up at 5:00, and had a lovely 3 and a half hour drive, with the company of friends= Sister de St. Jeor and Sister Miller! Although it was a long time spent in the car on Friday, it was wonderful to spend time with my trainee and the meeting was wonderful!

Saturday
-The bishopric had planned a "sunrise breakfast", with egg hunt and Easter video to boot! It was very fun and probably my favorite moment came from the 4 year old son of one of my favorite families, the N's. As he stood there counting his eggs with his twin brother, I overheard these words: "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..... I GOT ONE!!!" The cuteness. Please.
-General Conference (which occurs every six months, and is where leaders of our church talk about gospel topics, and we get listen to beautiful music) was absolutely WONDERFUL. I'm really not sure if conference keeps getting better and better or if I just appreciate it more and more, but it was over MUCH too quickly.
-In between conference sessions, we were able to teach T, and set a baptismal date for May 16th!
-L and D came to the afternoon session of conference and watched it with us. I love those two.

Sunday
-EASTER!
-So by Sunday morning, we had quite a bit left to do...
-We had a goal of 7 people at church for the week. On Sunday morning, we still needed 4 more people to attend church/conference for us to meet our goal. At Parris Island, 4 recruits came with their friends and asked us to teach them during the second hour of church. We had 4 more investigators at church.
-It normally takes us many attempts for us to contact referrals that we receive, and on Sunday we still needed to contact 2 more. As we stopped by to contact these two people, one trailer had all of their dogs inside the house (when they normally are outside and ready to eat us), and the other man was outside his house blowing leaves when we drove up. We had 2 more contacts.
-We had a lovely Easter lunch at Bishop Morgan's house with his family (I LOVE THEIR FAMILY). We went back to the church for the second session of general conference at church afterwards, and then visited the B family and taught a lesson about the resurrection using objects hidden inside of Easter eggs.
-At this point, all we needed to achieve our goals was one more person on date. Just one. It was 7:45pm. We had an hour and 15 minutes to find someone that wanted to be baptized. We needed a miracle. And so we prayed for one. We pleaded with Heavenly Father to give us a miracle, and to provide us with a way to accomplish our goals. And then we knocked on R's door. R was a potential investigator who I had never met, and that we had tried several times to contact. He answered the door, invited us inside, and we listened to the trials of R and his wife, C. We taught them the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and testified that this message would strengthen and bless their family. And we invited them to be baptized. Both R and C accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 16th. And they want us to come back and teach their whole family on Wednesday. And as we were leaving, C asked us if they had any "homework." A beautiful, golden family. Ready for change. Ready for the gospel.
-And that is the story of how Sister Woodard and I achieved 9 out of our 9 goals this week.

I love this gospel. I love my brother, Jesus Christ. And, particularly today, I am so grateful for the time that we were able to spend reflecting on His sacrifice for us this week. I know that He lives, and because He lives, I know that we ALL will live again.

I love you all SO much!

Sister Szilagyi