Hey Everyone!
How is everyone doing? What crazy awesome things have happened? As for me, this week was pretty great! But that is how it goes out in the field! Haha. So, shoutout to my Siter Steffani King (!) because she is feeling 22 today!!! Happy birthday Steff!!! I love you so much, and I hope you have a fantastic birthday! (aka write me about it!) I also love hand written letters! (hint hint haha) so I will include my address at the end of the email. Hopefully. If I remember, ha. But yeah! Back to this week. Time flies by so fast here. I feel like all I do is wake up and then go back to sleep. So my sense of time is a little off, ha.
A miracle we saw this week was being led to the door of a Less Active who isn't on our records! This happened once before in the transfer before I came, and we are currently teaching that LA and he will be a rescue once the Bishop meets with him, but a few days ago we found Nancy as well! We simply went to the wrong door for an appointment! It was so cool, and she wants to come back to church, she is from the Dominican Republic but she didn't know where any church buildings were, or even that they had one here! She didn't make it to church this Sunday, but we are meeting her this week to begin teaching her and I am so exited. She has a 12 year old son too, so we are hoping to bring him into the church as well!
We got a lot of referrals from other missionaries this week, and one had a really cool story. His name is Aquino Cabrera and Sister Rosario and I OYM'd him (open your mouth--we handed him a pass along card and invited him to go to the web page on the back to learn about Jesus Christ. We do that to practically everyone we see while walking) and later that day he accepted a prayer from one of our zone leaders and the elder he was on exchanges with. Aquino is super catholic and closed off to any other religion, but the night before he had a dream where he saw the picture of Christ on the pass along card we gave him and received a prayer by two missionaries. And so he accepted it the next day! Way cool, right? Sadly, we called him and he doesn't want to take the lessons or be baptized.. What do you do? We are planting seeds, though!
I love how much time we have in the mornings to study the scriptures and the gospel. In our mission, we have to read the BOM for 30 minutes in Personal Study, and the last 30 minutes can be whatever you want. I usually end up reading the BOM for 45 minutes because it is just so good! I LOVE the scriptures! They are just so cool! Something I learned in personal study just this morning was is 2 Ne 3:19. This is where Lehi is talking about Joseph of Egypt and how he saw the Restoration through Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. I love the last sentence in that verse, especially the last 5 words, where the Lord says, "And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust; for I know their faith." Ah! It was so awesome, because that is what I have grown up learning, that through the words of the Book of Mormon the Lord speaks to us! I know that He knows my faith, and that as I continue to exercise my faith in Him and work hard to bring back His lost sheep, I will see His hand in my life more and more, and be blessed with so many miracles! We have already seen so many, and I know that with exact obedience the miracles come. Sometimes it is hard to have obedient meal appointments(we've had two that were after 6 and there was no investigator because they couldn't come last minute...) but we are doing everything we can to be as obedient and work as hard as possible so that the Lord can see our efforts and trust us with His elect. I know that He knows exactly who and where they are, and that as we pray for those missionary opportunities and willing give our hearts and desires to Him, He will lead us to them and trust us to teach them! I love being a missionary and being set apart from the world in order to do this. It is the best think that I could be doing right now, and I encourage anyone who is thinking about serving a full time mission for the Lord, to DO IT! It is SO worth it! It is not always easy, but you receive so much help, guidance, and strength along the way.
I love you all so much, and I hope everyone has a great week! Always remember what is most important in life, and that it isn't work or money, or anything that this world could give us. It is family, friends, the love that we feel as we strive to live our lives more in harmony to God's will and do what He wants and needs us to do. That is when we will feel true and everlasting happiness, a fullness of joy. Bye everyone!
Hermana Stokes
5841 W 20th Ln
Hialeah, FL 33016
No comments:
Post a Comment