Olympic Challenges

June 5, 2017

Dear Family and Friends

Let's see hmmm... This week our zone did a week-long challenge called “The Wichita Zone Olympics.” There were three teams, which are the Wellington team, the Valley Center team, and then the Zone leaders. There were two districts to a team... except for the zone leaders. They were a one companionship team. Each day the zone leader texted out the challenge for the day. Wednesday was “how many people can you talk to”, Thursday was “how many times can you share the first vision”, Friday was “how many people can you commit to coming to church”, Saturday was “how many missionary materials can you pass out (pass along cards, Book of Mormon, pamphlets etc)”, and Sunday was “how many people can you teach about sacrament.” It was all really fun! 

For the first challenge, Sister Lee and I went for it super hard talking to everyone we saw. By the end of the day we had talked to 21 new people! That was even after we had spent 3 hours of our day doing weekly planning and we didn't go out until about 3pm! But it was also a really challenging day for us as well because out of the 21 people we talked to, we had only found 1 potential investigator. Everyone rejected us and most in a very mean way, but we kept going and doing our best to stay positive and uplifted. The Lord was definitely giving us tender mercies throughout the day though and lifting our spirits with all kinds of things which helped.

This one door contact made me laugh so hard! I had felt like we needed to knock on this door so we did. This guy opens the door and the first thing he says was "Mormons!" My first thought was "oh no.." he went on to just spew all this anti Mormon information for like 10 minutes and Sister Lee was starting to fight back a little and that’s when I politely said that it was nice to meet him and then we left.

The reason it was so funny was because as he was talking about all this anti stuff he was like acting it all out like he was on stage or something...it took a lot not to laugh out loud because it was hilarious.

After that night was over we both were pretty exhausted and felt really down that no one would listen to us. I remember feeling so hurt and couldn't understand what we could have done wrong that no one would let us in or even let us talk, but then a remembered a talk that was given by Elder Holland where he expressed that it was never easy for Jesus Christ so it’s not going to be easy for us. 

Thursday, we shared The First Vision with three people. Sister Lee and I would role play in the car how we were going to share it in our door contacts so that we weren't going in blind because the Lord can only help if we are prepared. So, the first door Sister Lee was going to share and then the next one I was going to share it. We get to the door and Sister Lee was like, "nope can't do it" and before I could say anything the door opened. We talked to this lady and her daughter for about 8 min before I found a way to tie what she was talking about to The First Vision. I thought that it went sloppy but the lady and her daughter listened and then afterwards said that we could come back and continue to teach her and her family. I was shocked and excited at the same time it was pretty awesome! We set up an appointment for that Saturday.

For Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we had mostly a difficult time being able to accomplish the rest of the challenges but our team got second place! We almost got first but the Wellington district won the last challenge (“How many people can you teach about the sacrament”).  

Also, on Thursday, at like 7 pm, we were walking and suddenly “Kansas” thought it would be a good idea to start storming out of nowhere! The sun was out on one side and then SUPER dark clouds on the other side. The wind was crazy and it started pouring down rain like someone had turned on a shower full blast! Sister lee and I didn't have jackets and we had one small umbrella that broke after we opened it from the wind... then it started to hail pebble sized hail on us! we looked at each other and started laughing because it was just so random.

We continue to walk to where we were going. When we got to the house we were headed to, before we could even knock, the door swung open and this guy was like, "hurry come inside!" We did and he handed us a towel and told us that we were crazy. He said that we could stay until the storm passed and asked if it was ok if it was just him and his son at home because his wife was in Kansas City. We told him that we couldn't stay there without his wife present but thanked him for offering. He then got out this huge umbrella and said, "well at least take this. It will last better in the wind". We thanked him for the umbrella and ventured back out into the storm. It was a eventful half hour that’s for sure!

We also got “parked” on Saturday for three days because we went 72 miles over our 800 ... that sucked! (Missionaries can drive only so many miles per month. If they go over that, they must park their car and walk or find rides for the rest of that month). So, we rode our bikes all day in the rain on Saturday. I kept track of how many miles we went and it was about 20 miles total... let’s just say we couldn't walk when we got home... or the next day really.

That night Sister Lee found an Ice pack that was made for your muscles and could wrap around your back and legs and stuff. I wanted one too, so I went to the freezer to look for one but sadly I could only find ONE frozen water bottle... but I still used that and tied it to me leg with a towel... it worked a little.

Well that’s pretty much my whole week. Minus all the tiny details haha. Today we are going to the zoo with the whole zone! This will be my first time to the Sedgwick county zoo and I have heard its beautiful. I’ll take lots of pictures.

Love you!

Sister Magda