Well this week was great and VERY HOT! See the picture below.
We had a lot a cool experiences this week. Tuesday was exchanges. I went to the Soundview area with Sister Horgeshimer. Exchanges were so great but weird in the sense that it didn't feel like an exchange. It felt completely normal. Super weird. Sister Horgeshimer is amazing. She's so loving and sweet. we had a blast. I learned a lot from her about silent but powerful statements. Sorry I can't explain that better.
Wednesday we had a lesson with a lady named Michelle. It was a very instructive lesson. Michelle is a nondenominational Christian who refuses to claim a religion because every church she's attended has missing pieces. Everything she was saying fit right into the message we share about the apostacy and the restoration. It was in this lesson I truly came to understand the feeling explained in Mosiah 28:3. I didn't tremble but I could feel my heart break everytime we saw her reject a piece of truth. I had the lesson reinforced to me that God is preparing each one of us to learn the truth but unless we're willing to see it we're blinding ourselves. From this lesson I learned a lot about the spirit and how even if the people we meet don't accept it we still need to share it with them so that we can gain a stronger understanding of the gospel.
Thursday we had a fun lesson with our investigator Lee who is on date for baptism Saturday! She is amazing. We taught her pretty much all the commandments and she just took them in faith telling us she knew they were of God. Then came the big one (other than word of wisdom, we'd taught that two weeks ago). We taught her about the law of chastity and it was the funniest moment of my mission! We taught her about how God has given us these bodies as a gift and how just like with the word of wisdom we have to take care of them in every aspect. We clearly stated that the Law of Chastity teaches about the sacredness of certain relationships and how they should remain within marriage only (of course we were more blunt than saying "certain relationships"). When we finished teaching it in what we thought was a very clear simple way we asked her if she could commit to living it. She said she'd try and of course we asked what'd hold her back. Her husband then explained to us in vague but at the same time too much detail what their concerns were. The whole time they hadn't caught the part about OUTSIDE of marriage so we quickly cleared that up trying not to laugh too hard the whole time. Most awkward law of chastity lesson for me yet! (Surprising I feel that's really the only awkward one I've had so far...) To make that all better Lee made us Korean food! Authentic Korean food. I can't remember the name of all the dishes she had made us but they were all delicious! I'm hooked on it!
Friday we did some service for an elderly couple, Billy and Jacque, they are just so precious! They are the cutest! They're in their late 80s and Billy forgot his email password so we were walking him through how to get it back. None of the traditional methods were working. We literally tried EVERYTHING. We asked him for every past password he'd used and tried them, contacted technical support, the whole shebang. 5 minutes before we have to leave we feel a very soft prompting to ask him again for previous passwords and the very first one he says is his email password! It was so cool! So we got him set up with some back ups for if he can't remember it and wrote it down for him. They're just so cute and I loved seeing how Heavenly Father even helped with something as simple as an email password. God truly loves us all!
Saturday was the coolest day! The day was wide open from 10 to 4 and we weren't completely sure what to do with it so we planned and moved forward in faith. We started by street contacting and after about 45 minutes we were heading back to our car and had decided to instead take a right turn (the opposite way of our car). We walked down this street and there was nobody there! Eventually we see a guy on the opposite side of the busy road. We shout across the 4 lanes and attempt to have a conversation (it wasn't working out very well but we sure were going to try). Next thing we know the street is empty of cars so we run across and proceed to walk with this guy having an amazingly powerful conversation. After 45 minutes my wonderfully spiritually in tune companion asks if the guy would be willing to walk to our church building (20ish+ minutes walk away) to take a tour. He agrees! So we walk with Maxamillian to our church building and quickly send out a ton of texts asking for some immediate fellowship so that we can go inside the building. Very quickly a sister responds and says she'll be there in 30. We arrive at the building minutes before JoAnna. What happened next will forever be one of my favorite memories. We walk into the foyer and Max starts shaking slightly. I thought he might be cold after having walking in the heat for so long. We then point out the picture of Jesus Christ praying in the garden of Gethsemane. No sooner do we say that this was all done in love then Max starts weeping. Of course trying to be a tough guy he says he doesn't know why he's crying. We give him a moment to compose himself as we talk about the spirit and how he works. We then teach him about how God won't leave His children in the dark and because of this He brought the gospel of Jesus Christ back to the Earth. This whole time Max is staring intently at the picture that depicts the first vision. Solid testimonies born about the restoration and what it means later we are in the chapel where we take a moment to let him reflect and invite him to sit and feel the peace of the spirit. We sit there for a long time as Max prays. After we ask him how he feels and he tells us "I want to know the truth." He proceeds to tell us he spent his whole prayer rattling questions off at God because he wants to know if this is the truth. By the end of the lesson Max wants so badly to know the truth. He's committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know the truth as well as act on the things we invite him to do. The next day he doesn't come to church but then at 6:59 during our traditional WA-TAC 5-7 knocking session we knock into Maxamillion (we didn't have his address)! It was so great and you could tell he was still seeking he'd had a situation come up that prevented him from coming but has committed to come. We've told him we'd introduce him to someone who had a very similar experience to him the first time this guy had walked into the truth. I love when we get to see God in action! That's what missionary work is! Amazing!
Well that's about all I have! I'm doing well in the heat staying hydrated and loving life. Though I must say I actually miss the snow. Getting a nice tan and growing a lot spiritually what more can I ask for?! I am so grateful to have this time to serve! Until next week! Take care!
Love!
No comments:
Post a Comment