The top three things I have learned: Fasting works, Heavenly Father is aware of us, and BE SELFLESS!
Heavenly Father is so aware.
I know I say that a lot, but we just keep seeing His hand more and more every single day. At the beginning of last week, Sister Calamity and I decided to fast together to petition for Heavenly Father's help and guidance to truly find those people that He has prepared. There were SOOOOOOOOOO many miracles!!!!!
I will be honest, I started off the week just feeling bummed because I felt like nothing was happening and that our hard work wasn't shown by our outward results.
People who promise to come to church don't. People say they are comfortable and satisfied with the church they are going to. People tell us that they already have the gospel.
People literally quote a scripture from The Book of Mormon without knowing it. "A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible." (2 Nephi 29:7)
But ya know what? I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
They are all so faithful and love our Savior, Jesus Christ. How grateful I am to be serving in such a place as Alabama where the people are "few" who will truly listen. (Alma 21:12) "And they did preach the word unto many, and few believed on the words which they taught."
To give ya an example of how it is here: we invited 179 people this past week to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ (through tracting/contacting) and received 6 new investigators from it. Was it worth the hard work? OF COURSE!!!!!!!!! We were able to meet some pretty amazing people this past week and I know it's because of Heavenly Father.
Missionary work is SO HARD, but so worth it. We are serving in the Bible belt, not The Book of Mormon belt so we just have to accept how hard it is here and LOVE IT.
We really do just have to look at all the tiny miracles that happen and stop thinking of ourselves for things to start happening.
POINT YOUR ARROWS OUT. DON'T TURN INWARD.
In Preach My Gospel, there is an amazing quote that is one of my favorites about missionary work...I have read it hundreds of times on my mission, but it really stuck out to me this week after I prayed for guidance.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland states: "More important than speaking is listening. These people are not lifeless objects disguised as a baptismal statistic. They are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and they need what we have. Be genuine. Reach out sincerely. Ask these friends what matters most to them. What do THEY cherish, and what do THEY hold dear? And then listen... I promos you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more... If we listen with love, we won't need to wonder what to say."
During Companionship study, I shared this quote with Sister Calamity and we both decided to really really REALLY focus on the people we contact every day and truly focus on their needs more than ever before.
It was beautiful weather this whole past week and so we walked EVERYWHERE and met SO MANY amazing people. I will just make a list of some of the sweetest moments of this past week...
Destiny: We met Destiny while tracting and she let us right in. We got to know her and found out that she is struggling because her brother has cancer. We asked her what she thought her purpose was in life and she told us she had no idea. Our hearts sank for her. Ah. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was super strong. She told us that she knew that we were an answered prayer for her because she had been praying for direction in her life.
Paula: We met Paula outside and she acted like she knew us. She is 18 years old and told us that she met with missionaries for 6 months when she was living in Connecticut, but hadn't seen any more after she moved to Alabama. MIRACLE. She told us that she is still super interested in learning!!! We invited her to church, but she couldn't come, but promised she would come next week! We shall see!!! We are seeing her again tonight :)
Helen: Helen was taught by missionaries before and found her information in the Area Book. She attended a ward in another city for 6 months with her friend, but was never baptized. We decided to go try and see her again and she let us right in. We felt inspired to read 2 Nephi 31 with her and invited her to be baptized. She said, "you know what's weird? I was just thinking about how I need to be baptized again and start a new life. It is so crazy that y'all showed up."
SO COOL. She said she would come to church, but she didn't come yesterday and won't return our calls. :( ugh. We shall see if she is still interested!! It was still a great experience!
Charles: We were walking and tracting at night time and saw Charles going out of his home to check the mail. We stopped by and started talking with him. We asked him the typical questions that every missionary asks.. ("where are you originally from?" or "Have you lived here your whole life?") He told us that he had just moved there 4 years ago to take care of his 36 year old mom who was dying of cancer. We asked him how he got through the trial of losing his mom and tears started to well up in his eyes as he said, "I honestly still haven't been able to get through it. 4 years later and I'm still not over it." Talking with him flashed back memories to me of losing my dad and I started to cry as I heard Charles desperate call for comfort. We felt prompted to talk to him about the Spirit world. After we explained where his mother is, he said, "wow. I never thought of it like that, but that would be amazing if that was true." We testified to him that it was true and the spirit was very strong. Gah. This gospel is so amazing y'all!!!!
Dakota: Right after meeting Charles, we met Dakota!! A 17 year old boy who told us he was living with his grandparents. We got to know him and he told us that his dad died while fighting for our country 4 years ago and then his mom died from cancer just this past year. He told us that he holds a weekly Bible study class with his friends from high school and he has found great comfort from that. WOW. The people here truly AMAZE me. He wasn't too interested in what we had to say because he is "very happy with the church he goes to", but we were able to bear testimony to him and give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.
Clint: While trying to contact a referral from the Elders, we got lost and Sister Calamity and I both jokingly agreed that Heavenly Father was just leading us to someone else. Well, Heavenly Father totally did. Clint was just about to get into his car when we quickly shouted over to him and asked him if we could share a message. He agreed and said that he had just moved to Wetumpka and is looking for a church home. He just said all of the golden words that every missionary LOVES hearing. He said that he also is confused by all of the churches and just wants to know of perfect truth from God. Yup. We shared the Restoration with him and he was SO excited!!!! It was awesome! We handed him over to the elders and hopefully they will go and teach him again tonight!!!!!
Shannon: So we share the car with the elders, right? right. So we gave them the car basically all last week and decided to go on foot this past week. We had an hour left of the night and it is dark EVERYWHERE in this small town. We said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that we wanted to use His time wisely and asked Him to lead us because we had no idea where to go. He answered our prayer by meeting Shannon. Shannon is the sweetest woman ever. We met her outside as she was taking a break from her job. She doesn't live in our area, but works part time in Wetumpka. She told us her whole life story about her rough past and we were able to share some scriptures with her from The Book of Mormon. The whole time, I felt a HUGE prompting to give her The Book of Mormon and invite her to read it. We were able to give her one and as we walked away, Sister Calamity said, "I am so glad you gave her The Book of Mormon! I felt really strongly that we needed to give it to her!" Ah. So grateful for the spirit. :)
Sister Rhodes: We felt like we really needed to go see Sister Rhodes yesterday. She is a lady in our ward. We went over and she just started to bawl as she said, "Heavenly Father is so aware of me!!!! How did y'all know to come over?" After listening to her talk, we found out that yesterday was her and her husbands anniversary. Her husband died in 2004 and she is still grieving over it. She said, "I don't get how some people act like it's okay after they lose a loved one. I know the gospel is true and I know the plan of salvation, but it really doesn't make anything better!!!!" Seriously, Heavenly Father is SO SO SO AWARE!!!!!!! Sister Rhodes is so lonely and so it was a blessing to help her. Little did she know that she totally helped strengthen us!!!!!!
Sister Davis: Sister Davis is a less active member who just got put in the rehab center because she fell and broke her leg. It was crazy because we were wanting to go visit her, but the rehab center wouldn't pull up in our GPS and we had no clue where it was. WELL, Heavenly Father came to the rescue again and led us to it! We were just on our way to an appointment with an investigator and saw it as we drove by! Tender mercy! We were able to visit with her and she was so excited. We read some scriptures with her and she asked us to randomly open the Bible and point to a scripture and start reading. Sister Davis just loved it and totally applied it to her life and said it was the perfect scripture for her. So grand. :)
Sister Mann: Sister Mann is a recent convert of about 3 months. After she got baptized, she has dealt with a HUGE load of trials. She texted us this past week and told us to just pray for her family. We went over to her place and listened to her. We read Alma 36:27 with her and asked her cute son Hayden why he thought bad things happened to good people. Sister Mann got frustrated as she said, "well. I'd like to know that as well. Why am I going through so many hard times when I'm trying to do everything right?" We explained to her of Alma and Amulek's story of seeing the women and children burning in the fire and how they were imprisoned and smitten. The spirit was strong and man, the Book of Mormon is TRUE. It can answer ANY question!!!!!!!!
It was just a very powerful week and Sister Calamity and I learned a lot of life lessons. It was wonderful. I know that as we focus on the NEEDS of others and stop focusing on ourselves, Heavenly Father will bless us with people who are in need of this gospel. This gospel can literally help and change everyone if they are willing to let it. So, I would like to invite y'all to pray for a missionary experience this week and ask Heavenly Father to help you focus on the needs of others and point your arrows out!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO IT. DO IT RIGHT. DO IT RIGHT NOW. Remember, the amount of those who will truly accept are FEW, but that is okay. It will be worth it :)
In other news....
-We had a return appointment to see this family. As we were walking down the hill, the family was all sitting outside. when they saw us, they all SPRINTED inside their home and even the grandma sprinted inside. They locked the door and the next thing we heard was yelling from the mom as she said, "EVERYONE! THEY ARE HERE. GET TO THE BACK OF THE HOME RIGHT NOW. COME HERE RIGHT NOW!!!" She was clapping her hands to the beat of her voice and it was hilarious because we could totally hear everything they were saying. We decided it would be comical to knock anyway just to act oblivious. So we did. And no one answered. hahahahhahaha We could hear hushes of whispering the whole time. We kept walking along the street and saw a little boy from that home peep his head out of the door and yell back to his mom, "Hey momma! they be gone!!!!!" They then went back outside and we just laughed and laughed. WE HAVE THE PLAGUE.
-Tracted during the super bowl...#"whyareyouknockingonmydoorduringthegame???" ***SLAM****
-There was an annoying dog named Rocky who followed us for 2 MILES. He would come up to all the doors with us and at first it was cute, but then it got really really frustrating. He would chase after all of the cars on the road and everyone would honk and think we were dumb for not watching "our dog". WE COULDN'T get rid of him!!! Finally, we ran around a corner and he couldn't see us because he got tired of running after cars. BOOYAH. Success.
-Old man who answered the door: "come back next year!"
me: "I won't be here next year!!!"
Old man: "neither will I!!!"
Sister Calamity: "where will you be?"
Old man: ***Points up towards heaven**** "with the good Lord"
hahahahhahahahah
I love y'all so much! have a great week and go share the gospel with EVERYONE!!!!
MYKY,
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland states: "More important than speaking is listening. These people are not lifeless objects disguised as a baptismal statistic. They are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and they need what we have. Be genuine. Reach out sincerely. Ask these friends what matters most to them. What do THEY cherish, and what do THEY hold dear? And then listen... I promos you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more... If we listen with love, we won't need to wonder what to say."
During Companionship study, I shared this quote with Sister Calamity and we both decided to really really REALLY focus on the people we contact every day and truly focus on their needs more than ever before.
It was beautiful weather this whole past week and so we walked EVERYWHERE and met SO MANY amazing people. I will just make a list of some of the sweetest moments of this past week...
Destiny: We met Destiny while tracting and she let us right in. We got to know her and found out that she is struggling because her brother has cancer. We asked her what she thought her purpose was in life and she told us she had no idea. Our hearts sank for her. Ah. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was super strong. She told us that she knew that we were an answered prayer for her because she had been praying for direction in her life.
Paula: We met Paula outside and she acted like she knew us. She is 18 years old and told us that she met with missionaries for 6 months when she was living in Connecticut, but hadn't seen any more after she moved to Alabama. MIRACLE. She told us that she is still super interested in learning!!! We invited her to church, but she couldn't come, but promised she would come next week! We shall see!!! We are seeing her again tonight :)
Helen: Helen was taught by missionaries before and found her information in the Area Book. She attended a ward in another city for 6 months with her friend, but was never baptized. We decided to go try and see her again and she let us right in. We felt inspired to read 2 Nephi 31 with her and invited her to be baptized. She said, "you know what's weird? I was just thinking about how I need to be baptized again and start a new life. It is so crazy that y'all showed up."
SO COOL. She said she would come to church, but she didn't come yesterday and won't return our calls. :( ugh. We shall see if she is still interested!! It was still a great experience!
Charles: We were walking and tracting at night time and saw Charles going out of his home to check the mail. We stopped by and started talking with him. We asked him the typical questions that every missionary asks.. ("where are you originally from?" or "Have you lived here your whole life?") He told us that he had just moved there 4 years ago to take care of his 36 year old mom who was dying of cancer. We asked him how he got through the trial of losing his mom and tears started to well up in his eyes as he said, "I honestly still haven't been able to get through it. 4 years later and I'm still not over it." Talking with him flashed back memories to me of losing my dad and I started to cry as I heard Charles desperate call for comfort. We felt prompted to talk to him about the Spirit world. After we explained where his mother is, he said, "wow. I never thought of it like that, but that would be amazing if that was true." We testified to him that it was true and the spirit was very strong. Gah. This gospel is so amazing y'all!!!!
Dakota: Right after meeting Charles, we met Dakota!! A 17 year old boy who told us he was living with his grandparents. We got to know him and he told us that his dad died while fighting for our country 4 years ago and then his mom died from cancer just this past year. He told us that he holds a weekly Bible study class with his friends from high school and he has found great comfort from that. WOW. The people here truly AMAZE me. He wasn't too interested in what we had to say because he is "very happy with the church he goes to", but we were able to bear testimony to him and give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.
Clint: While trying to contact a referral from the Elders, we got lost and Sister Calamity and I both jokingly agreed that Heavenly Father was just leading us to someone else. Well, Heavenly Father totally did. Clint was just about to get into his car when we quickly shouted over to him and asked him if we could share a message. He agreed and said that he had just moved to Wetumpka and is looking for a church home. He just said all of the golden words that every missionary LOVES hearing. He said that he also is confused by all of the churches and just wants to know of perfect truth from God. Yup. We shared the Restoration with him and he was SO excited!!!! It was awesome! We handed him over to the elders and hopefully they will go and teach him again tonight!!!!!
Shannon: So we share the car with the elders, right? right. So we gave them the car basically all last week and decided to go on foot this past week. We had an hour left of the night and it is dark EVERYWHERE in this small town. We said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that we wanted to use His time wisely and asked Him to lead us because we had no idea where to go. He answered our prayer by meeting Shannon. Shannon is the sweetest woman ever. We met her outside as she was taking a break from her job. She doesn't live in our area, but works part time in Wetumpka. She told us her whole life story about her rough past and we were able to share some scriptures with her from The Book of Mormon. The whole time, I felt a HUGE prompting to give her The Book of Mormon and invite her to read it. We were able to give her one and as we walked away, Sister Calamity said, "I am so glad you gave her The Book of Mormon! I felt really strongly that we needed to give it to her!" Ah. So grateful for the spirit. :)
Sister Rhodes: We felt like we really needed to go see Sister Rhodes yesterday. She is a lady in our ward. We went over and she just started to bawl as she said, "Heavenly Father is so aware of me!!!! How did y'all know to come over?" After listening to her talk, we found out that yesterday was her and her husbands anniversary. Her husband died in 2004 and she is still grieving over it. She said, "I don't get how some people act like it's okay after they lose a loved one. I know the gospel is true and I know the plan of salvation, but it really doesn't make anything better!!!!" Seriously, Heavenly Father is SO SO SO AWARE!!!!!!! Sister Rhodes is so lonely and so it was a blessing to help her. Little did she know that she totally helped strengthen us!!!!!!
Sister Davis: Sister Davis is a less active member who just got put in the rehab center because she fell and broke her leg. It was crazy because we were wanting to go visit her, but the rehab center wouldn't pull up in our GPS and we had no clue where it was. WELL, Heavenly Father came to the rescue again and led us to it! We were just on our way to an appointment with an investigator and saw it as we drove by! Tender mercy! We were able to visit with her and she was so excited. We read some scriptures with her and she asked us to randomly open the Bible and point to a scripture and start reading. Sister Davis just loved it and totally applied it to her life and said it was the perfect scripture for her. So grand. :)
Sister Mann: Sister Mann is a recent convert of about 3 months. After she got baptized, she has dealt with a HUGE load of trials. She texted us this past week and told us to just pray for her family. We went over to her place and listened to her. We read Alma 36:27 with her and asked her cute son Hayden why he thought bad things happened to good people. Sister Mann got frustrated as she said, "well. I'd like to know that as well. Why am I going through so many hard times when I'm trying to do everything right?" We explained to her of Alma and Amulek's story of seeing the women and children burning in the fire and how they were imprisoned and smitten. The spirit was strong and man, the Book of Mormon is TRUE. It can answer ANY question!!!!!!!!
It was just a very powerful week and Sister Calamity and I learned a lot of life lessons. It was wonderful. I know that as we focus on the NEEDS of others and stop focusing on ourselves, Heavenly Father will bless us with people who are in need of this gospel. This gospel can literally help and change everyone if they are willing to let it. So, I would like to invite y'all to pray for a missionary experience this week and ask Heavenly Father to help you focus on the needs of others and point your arrows out!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO IT. DO IT RIGHT. DO IT RIGHT NOW. Remember, the amount of those who will truly accept are FEW, but that is okay. It will be worth it :)
In other news....
-We had a return appointment to see this family. As we were walking down the hill, the family was all sitting outside. when they saw us, they all SPRINTED inside their home and even the grandma sprinted inside. They locked the door and the next thing we heard was yelling from the mom as she said, "EVERYONE! THEY ARE HERE. GET TO THE BACK OF THE HOME RIGHT NOW. COME HERE RIGHT NOW!!!" She was clapping her hands to the beat of her voice and it was hilarious because we could totally hear everything they were saying. We decided it would be comical to knock anyway just to act oblivious. So we did. And no one answered. hahahahhahaha We could hear hushes of whispering the whole time. We kept walking along the street and saw a little boy from that home peep his head out of the door and yell back to his mom, "Hey momma! they be gone!!!!!" They then went back outside and we just laughed and laughed. WE HAVE THE PLAGUE.
-Tracted during the super bowl...#"whyareyouknockingonmydoorduringthegame???" ***SLAM****
-There was an annoying dog named Rocky who followed us for 2 MILES. He would come up to all the doors with us and at first it was cute, but then it got really really frustrating. He would chase after all of the cars on the road and everyone would honk and think we were dumb for not watching "our dog". WE COULDN'T get rid of him!!! Finally, we ran around a corner and he couldn't see us because he got tired of running after cars. BOOYAH. Success.
-Old man who answered the door: "come back next year!"
me: "I won't be here next year!!!"
Old man: "neither will I!!!"
Sister Calamity: "where will you be?"
Old man: ***Points up towards heaven**** "with the good Lord"
hahahahhahahahah
I love y'all so much! have a great week and go share the gospel with EVERYONE!!!!
MYKY,
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