A Letter from Holly
(From Lady Lake, Florida on January 5, 2004)
Hi Everyone!
I wrote dad a longer email earlier, but I sort of just rambled and I don't know how much he will share. I just wanted to tell you about two really neat things that happened this last week. The first was on Saturday. We were going on exchanges with our zone leader & one of the assistants. For several days before we tried to call basically everyone and no one would set any appointments with us. After prayerfully looking at the map we decided to take them to do some follow-up work. (You go to the homes of people you've met before but never probably taught & just see if you can teach them.) After the first house we went to, I was really doubting my wisdom in choosing the street. But then we went to someone who I met with Sister Madsen; he had never been home when we'd tried back before. When we knocked he answered the door. He told us that he was selling his house & he had to get the house all clean & didn't have time to talk to us. One of the Elders spoke up and said we would just help him then. After some convincing he agreed to let us help him out. This was so fun. We got to rake huge piles of oak leaves. The Elders had to leave part way through but by the end he was talking with Sister Nelson & I and we get to go back and help him some more tomorrow. The neat thing is he told us several times we were the answer to his prayers. We know that we couldn't get appointments because we needed to help him out.
The second experience was on Sunday night. We hadn't got to teach Marian since before Christmas. We were trying to figure out how we could teach her because she said she was pretty busy until this next Thursday and we really didn't want to go that long. When she was talking about her plans for that evening she told us she was going for a walk after church. So the idea came into my head we should go with her. I told her we could all go for a walk and talk. It was one of the best discussions I've ever had with her. We got to teach her the plan of salvation while walking through the park and looking at the lakes and fountains and trees and things. You could not see how any of this world just 'happened' when you're out in the middle of it. This also showed me that you don't always have to be in a perfect 'discussion setting' to have the spirit & to get a testimony of the truthfulness of the things we share.
I love you all. Thank you so for all the prayers and letters.
All my love,
Sister Holly Neibaur
P.S. I am finding I have a real knack for analysis and stories!