August 26 2013
This
was one heck of a week. It was awesome. It was full of digging, cinder
blocks, sand, and heartfelt discussions of the gospel. Between the
service and the Olympic weight lifting I am constantly sore. I can see
the stretchmarks on my legs and my legs definitely fill every inch of
available space in my pants now. I'm still a good 185-190 lbs though.
We were able to teach S. twice this week. The first lesson
finished up the Plan of Salvation going from Christ's Atonement to the
Three Degrees of Glory in Heaven. Gigi was worried the entire time
though. She told us about her crazy childhood. I told her I wouldn't
tell people about a good chunk of it, but suffice it to say that she's
been on her own since she graduated high school when she was 15. She
later in life would become the first woman to umpire for a pack 12 men's
baseball game. Now she's reffing for volleyball and softball and
renting out her house to make money. She's an incredible lady with a lot
of faith. G. was worried about her kids though. The next day her ex
husband was going to be having the two daughters (S. and A.) be
babysat by someone she didn't trust at all. A member brought up that we
could give the kids a blessing. Shasta didn't want one, but after we
offered the second time A. wanted one. It was a short and simple
blessing, yet profound in it's promises. After that, we asked S.
again if she wanted one. She shook her very shy head very vigorously in
the affirmative.ha ha.That blessing was just different. I could feel it.
I didn't feel like I was searching for things to say. It was a much
more in depth blessing. And it really put G.'s mind at ease. A member
texted us that night who had been there for the blessing. She told us
that when I had acted as the voice for the blessing that she actually
heard two voices and mine was the second echoing the first. I asked who
she thought the first was and she said it was definitely the Holy Ghost.
At our next lesson with S. we talked about the Gospel of
Jesus Christ (Faith in Christ, Repentace, Making and keeping covenants
ie baptism, receiving the holy Ghost and enduring to the end) and Shasta
said her very first prayer out loud with her Mom's help. It was
amazing! We've been trying to help her feel comfortable with saying
prayers for the last month! It was a very good stepping stone. The best
part was that nothing happened to the girls while they were with the
shady baby sitter.
We also taught a lady named St. It was our second time
teaching her, but the first time was very brief. It was actually really
funny. I remember our conversation going a little like this:
"I consider Joseph Smith to be a false prophet."
"Oh, really? Why's that?" ( was flabbergasted that that was what she opened with)
"I
don't really believe in organized religion. I've experimented with all
the different religions. It's more of a spiritual thing for me than
anything else."
"Well that's the great thing about our church actually,
because we invite everybody to have a spiritual experience for
themselves. We don't want you to take the missionaries word for it.
There's actually a promise in the back of the Book of Mormon about how
we can know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. The promise was
given by the very last prophet who wrote in the record. His name was
Moroni. Go ahead an read Moroni 10:3-5." she read it and then we
explained what the book of mormon was. That is was a spiritual journal
per say of some of the people who traveled from Jerusalem to the
American continents just like the bible is a spiritual journal/record of
the Jews.
"Well that makes sense."
"Would you be willing to read a
little bit of the Book of Mormon and pray to have your own spiritual
experience to know if it's true?"
"Yeah, sure."
"If you do, I can promise that you will come to know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, cause he's
the one who translated the whole thing. If the Book of Mormon is an
actual record of an actual people and if Joseph Smith was a prophet then
this church is Christ's church restored on earth today. Mind if we come
back some other time and just talk about what you've read?
"Sure, next week."
So we did. She had read "a few
passages." She told us that it felt good. We then asked her if she'd be
okay with us sharing the first of 4 lessons that we teach and she said
sure. So we taught the first lesson. It went great. She ended up telling
us that she suffers from depression and she hasn't had a job in a long
time. She told us that it was during the lesson that she had felt the
best all week. (side note here: It's a peculiar thing how many people
just tell you their entire life stories when they first meet the
missionaries. I'd say it's weird, but it's not. When people feel the
spirit they just want to off load everything that's getting them down.
Happens every time) We told her if she felt good with us, it's ten times
better in church. She told us she couldn't make it this week, but she'd
try next week. It's really amazing getting to see people experience
happiness for the first time in a long time. You can see the instant
difference. It was really funny because St. hugged Elder Christensen
for praying for her at the end and he had no idea what to do. It was
funny. I've never seen a man more conflicted in my life.
Other than that we've been working on the Holmes's garden with
them. It involves digging every time! it's great. I sweat my guts out
every time. I try to follow D.'s and Travis's example by never
stopping until the job is done.
I love you guys. I know that this is the Lord's work and that
there is something that everyone can do to help it along, even if we
think we don't know anybody who isn't a member. You don't have to be
best friends with someone to share the gospel with them. All you have to
be is merely friendly. Mosiah
2:41 whether or not you want it, you're a missionary, a representative of this church just by the way you live. :)
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