President
Hinckley's counsel of "forget yourself and go to work" is completely
true. We have been so busy and working so hard this week, and we have
definitely seen miracles because of it. We have been in one of those
cycling through times where the work just doesn't seem to be moving
forward even though we are putting so much effort in, and that's really
hard to face. BUT we are beginning to see the fruits of our efforts. We
have found so many new people to teach and some of them are truly
progressing! It is only the beginning of their journey, but they are
making changes in their live and we have faith! That is by far my
favorite part of being a missionary, helping people make changes in
their lives so they can feel the joy of living the gospel. It is truly
an amazing sight to see and humbling to be a part of.
Like
I said, we have been finding so many awesome new people, ready to hear
the gospel! The Lord definitely leads us where we need to be. On
Saturday alone we met three people who actually wanted to listen to us.
But even more than that, they asked us to tell them more so we did. We
had fantastic lessons with them right there on their porches. I don't
think I have ever seen people so grateful to receive the Book of Mormon.
They understood that the unique message we share is how they can come
closer to their Heavenly Father and know their Savior more fully. I love
being the bearer of this significant message!
Another
amazing experience is Lorenzo, because he found us! He had met with
missionaries in the past, and randomly one day he calls us out of the
blue and says "Sisters! When are you coming back?" We made an
appointment with him and looked up who he was later. He is now reading
the Book of Mormon and progressing, slowly but surely, in the gospel!
Probably
my favorite miracle from this week was Ed. We met him briefly about a
week ago, and it was a bad time so we made an appointment to come back.
We didn't feel like it was a very solid appointment, but he was there!
and we had a great lesson with him. Yesterday morning we texted him to
remind about church, and he let us know he would come except for he
didn't have a ride. We had no trouble finding him one and he came for
all three hours of church! He was all prepared and brought his Book of
Mormon with him. Our ward was wonderful, and welcoming and he had a
great time. He made mention to us at one point that he hadn't seen the
inside of a church in 30 years! We then realized that Ed coming to
church was more a miracle than we had originally thought. It made my day
to see him open up and see him smiling and simply full of light after
having come to church. This is why I am here.
I
would like to leave you with a profound message that President Stratford
shared with us at our Zone Conference this week. We talked about the
many things we might have sacrificed to come out on a mission: time,
money, family, education. And the list went on. We then discussed how
when Christ came he did away with blood sacrifices and then only
required a broken heart and a contrite spirit from his people. That
broken heart is our willingness to submit to God's will. Everything that
we have is our Father in Heaven's, the only thing that is truly ours to
give him is our will. There are many things we face in life that we
feel we are having to sacrifice for, especially when we are choosing to
do the right things. But the only real sacrifice, or offering, that we
can give our Father is submitting our will to be obedient and to have
faith and optimism through the things we face. Our lives are a lot
happier and successful when we give ourselves over and let our
omniscient Father take the lead.
Have a great week! Just keep smiling!
