July 17, 2017
Happy Monday!
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| Falling off my chair during planning |
I can't believe it's already been a week! This one FLEW by.
It's been yet another good week here in good ol' Gilbert! The miracles are just
falling from the sky--literally. We've had rain almost every single night so
this week has been pretty cool temperature wise...we're very grateful.
As with every other week on my
mission, my faith was tested. We had a massive heartbreak this week. Tuesday
morning we woke up to a text from M's roommate saying that M has a lot going on
right now and is too stressed to quit smoking, and would not be ready for
baptism July 22. She also told us that M couldn't have a lesson this week. I
was gutted. Our past few lessons with him he's made so much progress...and we
were so excited that he had decided to take the next step towards baptism. So
being told that he wasn't even going to try to quit was like being slugged in
the stomach. I was pretty down all of Tuesday morning, and I was upset because
the last lesson we'd had with M I had felt the Spirit so prominently and I had
such a strong conviction that M would be able to quit smoking this week...so it
was really discouraging. I kept hearing my own voice in my head promising M
that he would be able to quit, and I felt like maybe I hadn't followed the
Spirit in making that promise...because he wasn't able to quit this week.
However, it's cool to see how the Lord truly knows what we need. After district
meeting on Tuesday I was flipping through the scriptures and I came across
D&C 82:10, which reads, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say;
but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." And the Spirit
overcame me...I realized that I HAD followed the Spirit when making that
promise to M, the caveat though was that he needed to follow the program with
EXACTNESS. The promise was valid IF M had followed the program we had given
him, but since he hadn't followed it...he had no promise. The same applies to
obedience to the commandments that the Lord has given us. The graph between
obedience/blessings is not linear--you don't get 10% blessings for being 10%
obedient...the graph is exponential. You must be 100% obedient for the
blessings to come, and once they come they will keep on coming the longer you
keep being 100% obedient.
But anyway, continuing on...we went
out and worked Tuesday afternoon and it was amazing to see the blessings the
Lord poured out upon us because of our diligence despite our disappointment. We
had a member split that afternoon. One thing I've realized in the past few
weeks that we've been trying to take more and more members out with us is how
acclimated us missionaries truly are. I mean, I can be outside during the
hottest part of the day with one bottle of water and not be let in anywhere and
hardly bat an eye...but when we have a member with us they start dying after 20
minutes because they're not used to being outside haha! So we're with this
member and she didn't have any water and we hadn't gotten in anywhere and she
started dying...so Sister Rudd and I were debating just having her take us home
to get our car and then just going out the two of us...but we just felt really
strongly that we needed to keep this member with us. It was after this decision
that we saw probably one of the coolest miracles I've ever seen. Do you remember
F, the guy that Sister Ogawa and I gave water to on the street like two months
ago? We decided to stop by his house and see how he's doing. This woman
answered. She looked pretty ragged and distressed. She saw us and immediately
said "Oh girls. I know you have this book or something...but it's not a
good time. I can't talk right now." and went to close the door. In that
moment, I knew that for one reason or another, we needed to talk to her. So I
asked her name. Keep in mind; she's like closing the door, actively trying to
get us to go away. She tells us that her name is S. Our member spoke up and
said "That's my name! It's a good name!" S stopped trying to close
the door. That wouldn't have happened if that member hadn't been with us. We
asked her a few more questions, about her life, what she was doing...and S
started crying. She opened up to us and told us that her son is addicted to
drugs and she doesn't know how to help him. I said, "S, is your son F?"
and her eyes got huge. She started crying even harder and nodded. I then asked
her if I could tell her something, and she said yes. I told her the story about
Sister Ogawa and me finding F on the street, and how he didn't want to talk to
us but we kept talking to him; we wouldn't give up and finally we got him some
water and he left. I told her that Sister Ogawa and I had prayed for him for
weeks, prayed that we would get another opportunity to talk to him and help him
in any way that we could. At this point, S is sobbing, and she says "You
must be sent from God himself. Just like the Elders were." And after she
said that I'm like...what?? What Elders?? AND THEN...S goes "A few years
ago, some Elders used to come by and meet with us...and there was one day they
came and knocked on the door after F had a really bad drug spell, I wouldn't
let them in the house but they insisted they come in. And they gave all of us
blessings." Y'all...I about fell over. F...that same F that Sister Ogawa
and I felt so inspired to keep talking to...F and his entire FAMILY are FORMER
INVESTIGATORS. We don't have a teaching record in our area book...we didn't
even know they existed....but Heavenly Father does, and that's why He guided us
to them. He knows each of us so individually and so perfectly and knows what
each of us needs, better than we even know it. S invited us in and we met the
whole family--they're wonderful. We were able to talk to F and provide him with
some hope, and we're going to go back this week and start meeting with them
again.
This week we had interviews! I love
President and Sister Wheeler, their love and encouragement means the world to
me!
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| Exchanges and Basketball |
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| When you match the pot |
This week we had exchanges! I left
the area and went with Sister Norgrant, while Sister Rudd stayed here and led
out our area. I had a blast with Sister Norgrant, and I learned so much from
her. We are actually very similar people...it was crazy haha we went tracting
and before we went we prayed what street to tract and what section to
tract...and once we had decided we went knocking. Not too many people were
home, or interested, but we met this one girl named R. We were supposed to meet
her. She let us in to get some water and as we were talking with her she told
us that just the day before she had been on an airplane coming home from a
business trip and she was sitting next to a guy who was LDS who started talking
to her about our beliefs. She was like "It's so crazy that you two showed
up here just the day after I met that guy!" And we were like....weird how
that works lol not like God directed us or anything haha. But as we were
talking to her, she made some comment about her job that led me to realize that
her job is in marketing. So I asked her about it, and she started telling me
all this stuff and then she asked what I was studying. I told her I was
studying advertising and then out of nowhere Sister Norgrant was like
"what?? Me too?" Haha we had no idea! Turns out that Sister Norgrant
decided like last week to study advertising...and when she goes home she'll be
at BYU and she'll do her pre-reqs and probably start into the program like
Winter 2019...same as me! I'm so excited! But anyways, it was just cool that
the three of us (Sis Norgrant, R, and me) all had the same interests and all
ended up being in the same place at the same time because the Lord had provided
a way for us to be there. :)
This week the thing that I noticed
the most was how much I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord. When I think
about missionary work, I realize that it is truly amazing that the Lord is
sending 18/19 year old men and women to do His work. Think about it, He could
be sending angels in His place--He's done it before--but instead He's sending teenagers
fresh out of high school to do the work of salvation. He truly qualifies those who
He calls.
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| Helping P hang wire-can you see him? |
I noticed this the most on Saturday.
We planned to stop by a ton of potentials, many of whom we had never met
before. We knocked on this one door and this ancient man (at least 80 years
old) named P came outside. He goes "You're a God send!! I need your help,
follow me!" haha so we followed him to his backyard. Turns out he needed
our help hanging a short-range radio antenna in his tree. He handed me this
antenna, and then started climbing into this tree haha...I was so scared he was
going to fall! Haha so that's the story of how I ended up beneath a fruit tree
with a wire attached to the end of a fruit-picker, being directed by a
potential investigator in the tree as to where to hang the wire...definitely
one of the weirder things I've done on my mission. But the point is, the Lord
placed us in Ps path in the very hour he needed help. And hey, we got a return
appointment out of it! Score!
After P we felt prompted to stop by M's roommate. We had felt like she was
pretty down after telling us he hadn't quit smoking (relatable tbh) so we
decided to go visit her. She was so excited to see us. We talked with her about
trials and read with her portions of Mosiah 24, where the Lord promises to bear
our burdens. We asked her when she had felt this and she opened up to us and
told us her conversion story. She told us that she had never felt more love
than when the missionaries were meeting with her and she told us that the difference
she noticed in herself before her baptism vs after her baptism was night and
day, and then she said that M noticed it too...and one day he'll experience it
firsthand for himself. I think she really needed it, and honestly I think we
needed it as well. The Lord knew that!
Then, we received a text from a
woman in one of our wards. Her son went into the MTC the same day I did, and
her daughter is feeling like she should go on a mission but is struggling to
decide....haha so mix her two kids and you get me! So she's really grown
attached to me haha. Every time I see her she says "Oh giving you a hug is
just like giving my C a hug!!" I love her so much! But anyway, she texted
us probably the sweetest text message I've ever received, detailing how much
she appreciates us and how she's been thinking about us...and she also told us
that her son had a really hard week this week so she was just wondering if we
needed anything. We decided to stop by and pay her a visit, and we ended up
having an amazing spiritual discussion with her family. By the end of it, she
was crying and she expressed to us her gratitude for us taking the time to pay
her a visit, she told us that she needed it. A common theme? The Lord knew!
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| How I feel about AZ sunsets |
Anyway...now that this email is
ridiculously long...I guess I better sign off. But before I do, there's one
more thing I need to say. Tomorrow I will have been on my mission for six
months, 1/3 of my eighteen months are gone. I cannot believe it. These past six
months have been some of the most difficult and trying months of my life.
There's been a lot of heartache and stress, and many struggles. However, these
past six months have been some of the, if not THE, most special, spiritual, and
sacred months of my life. I've never been happier, and I've never seen the hand
of the Lord in so much abundance. God hears and answers our prayers, and His
hand is in each of our lives. There are miracles everywhere--if we just take
the time to look for them. This work is the Lord's work, and this is THE Church
of Jesus Christ, restored to the Earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith.
Jesus Christ is at the head of it and leads and guides the church through the
prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. The Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of
God and changes lives. The Doctrine of Christ APPLIED changes lives. It is not
enough to merely know about the stories in the Book of Mormon, or to know what
the Doctrine of Christ is...we must study and apply these things. Above all,
I've seen these two things change my life firsthand as I've studied them every
day on my mission. Most of all, these past six months I've come to know my
Savior, Jesus Christ, more than ever before. I know that He lives and that He
loves us. He bore our burdens so we wouldn't have to bear them alone. He
suffered so that we wouldn't have to. Because of His Atoning sacrifice, we can
be made clean and we can be made whole. I love my mission. I love being a
missionary. I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for me over the
next year!
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