Dear Family, April
21, 2014
Say hello to Utah for
me! There are times when I miss that place. I never thought I would ever miss
Utah but I kind of do. I'm glad you're able to take full advantage of the week.
You all really need a break.
WHAT A WEEK! I love
love LOVE being busy! As a companionship, we have been trying to implement a
new way of planning (rather, planning as suggested in "Preach My
Gospel") and we have had a MUCH better week because of it. Our days are a
lot more full and we have better plans. Instead of getting to the end of the
week and realizing we haven't visited 8 of the 10 people we wanted visit that
week, we use weekly planning to schedule specific times on specific days to see
less active members, potential investigators and times to door knock. There
have been several times this past week when I have said to Sister Mortensen,
"Why weren't we doing this last transfer?" You would think the
Brethren were inspired or something when they wrote "Preach My
Gospel"....
(Volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House)
Are you ready for the
best news of the week?? WE HAVE TWO INVESTIGATORS!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! :D :D :D
This is the best thing to ever happen to me thus far on my mission! We have
been so blessed by the prayers of our district, the members and our families!
We know that it is not just our faith working miracles! We met with Larry last
night and he's reading the Book of Mormon. AGAIN. I think that Spirit is
working with him and I can really see him accepting the gospel this time. He
and his wife are truly amazing and we love them already! The other investigator
we have is a lady named Sherisse (pronounced like "Charice"). We met
Sherisse when we were meeting with a less active member and Sherisse came over
to pick up a child for a play date. Jodi (our less active member) just blurted
out, "Hey! Want to learn more from the sister missionaries?" Awkward?
Yes. But a miracle? Yes, definitely yes. We taught a lesson to her yesterday
which was really entertaining. We got lessons mixed up and what started as the
first lesson didn't finish as the first lesson. The whole time I was praying
that she would just feel the Spirit because even if we didn't make sense,
hopefully the Spirit did. We have a return appointment with her so maybe it
wasn't all bad? The moral of the story is communication with your companions is
key.
Probably one of the
harder things of the week was our "breakup". We have been trying our
darnedest to work with a part member family. Sister Mortensen and Sister
Anderton found them the transfer before I got here and they were able to teach
a lesson to their family who showed interest in learning more. It has been a
goose chase for the past three months. We finally got the members of our ward
involved and we were sure that this was going to start really progressing but
when we went over to their house this last Thursday, the news came out: the
church was not for them. Missionary work is one of the most heart breaking
things you will ever do. You spend months pouring your heart out in prayer and
doing your hardest work to help people accept the Gospel and then they use
their agency to reject something that you KNOW FOR A FACT will bless their
family in ways they can't comprehend. People don't understand what they're
turning down. Our experience with this family reminds me of Jeffery R. Holland's
talk from this past General Conference: "Sadly enough, my youngfriends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much,comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, thentell us to run along and pick marigolds."
Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires people to work hard. It requires us
to sacrifice. It requires us to be better than what we naturally are as humans.
But it is SO. WORTH IT. Why can't more people see that? We bore our testimonies
to him and walked away with heavy hearts. Sister Mortensen and I were really
bummed the rest of the night. But do you know what? God doesn't close one door
without opening compensating doors. (See "Trust in the Lord" Richard
G. Scott, October 1995) There must be some great miracles ahead!
I have felt nothing
but gratitude this morning: gratitude that I didn't have to wear a coat
yesterday or today; Gratitude for my Savior; Gratitude to be a missionary in
the best mission on earth; Gratitude to have the Holy Ghost as my companion in
addition to my two amazing companions; Gratitude for the difficult things
Heavenly Father asks me to do; Gratitude for charity; Gratitude for the
sunshine. I am seeing that there are a lot of things to be thankful for. What
have you been thankful for recently?
(An object lesson gone awry, and awfully cute!)
I love receiving
emails from all of you every week. I always read my "business" emails
first and save the best emails for last. I savor each one and I am grateful for
your love and support. I have the best family ever. I love you all so much!
I hope you all have a
fantastic week in Utah. Please stay safe!
Go forth with faith!
Go forth with faith!
The Michiganary
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