This past week has been amazing and filled with miracles
left and right. I am going to be short today because there are a lot of things
going through my mind right now and a lot of feelings. Plus we have interviews
with our Mission President today.
This past week we have worked a lot with
our members and finally were able to get one of them to set up an appointment
with their friend who has come to church for 5 or 6 weeks straight now. We had
2 lessons with him this past week. We felt we needed to teach the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to him as the first lesson and extend a baptismal date. It was
amazing! As we started by helping him to know how he can recognize the Spirit; to know of the things we were saying are true, he asked us "what's next!" He had already been feeling all these things and that was why he kept
coming back to church! We had to take a deep breath and tell him that we will
address the "what next" later in the lesson. In short, we got to baptism and the gift of
the Holy Ghost and after we helped him see the difference between the Power of
the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost it helped answer his question. At
the end we invited him to be baptized and he said YES! So, as of now, he has a
date for Sept. 28th. We have a lot to teach him and it will be hard because it
is very hard to meet with him with his work schedule and because he goes to
meetings every other day with a support group he has been with for almost 20
years, but we feel that he can be ready by then, so please pray for him.
On Friday night we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders again (because we are troubled missionaries lol... jk) and I stayed in our area with Elder Perkins while Elder Silva went to situate with Elder Lefthand. It was a blast! In the morning we met with Ivan, who was a referral and taught him the Restoration and extended a date to him for October 12th and he accepted as well. Then we took Chris out with us the rest of the day who is a less active kid we have been working with. A great kid, but a little rough around the edges. We had some great little moments with him. One moment was after he helped teach English Class with us we were in the car and apparently one of the games missionaries play sometimes now is where they roll up all the windows and crank the heat full blast.... Well, I don't see what is too fun about it. Anyway, we had a good little moment where we were able to talk for a little bit. I am worried about him though because he moved yesterday to Hartford, CT. It can be either a really good thing for him or a bad one depending on what he makes of it.
One of our most awesome members got her divorce papers in the mail that she has been waiting over a year for and so she can finally get married which will be this month on the 13th! We are all stoked for that.
This last P-day we went to the church building in Situate for zone O-day. It was a blast! They had a fire pit and everything you could want. We got permission to have a fire, smores, hot dogs and Elder Lefthand took his guitar, so we all had a good time singing along. We played ultimate Frisbee at the end and man it was a blast.
Yesterday we went up to the Temple in the morning because Elder Silva had someone he had taught that was doing baptisms for the dead for the first time. It was also the mission Temple day and Recent Convert Baptism day where our mission presidency goes and give a little talk before the new converts go and do their baptisms. It is suppose to be a very spiritual and uplifting experience for them. I and a few others had the opportunity to give service in the Temple while that was going on, so we did laundry, which was a blast! I love the Temple and the great peace that is there. After that we went into Chelsea to pick up some things I had left and borrowed some street clothes since we forgot ours and were going to be with a big group of missionaries. I was rocking in gym shorts, a short sleeve shirt, tall black socks and my church shoes all day, lol! We went into Boston and met up with Jack for a little bit. He got us food; we got to ride in the police car and just had a blast. We walked over to Mike's Pastry's and ran into Sister Romans, her new companion, Elder Cathcart and Treseder. We just roamed the streets of Boston with good friends and it was a good time. We got lost for a little bit and had a guy yell at us that we needed to repent once he found out we were Mormon missionaries and told us we were a cult and everything. It was a great P-Day.
As for me, I am doing great. I couldn't ask for a better place to be than right here in Central Falls. I love the people, the area and there is so much work to do. I had a dream last night about going back to Bridgeport to die, who knows what will happen lol.
The other day, once again, here I was telling people I had 5 months left and then I was corrected that it is actually 4 1/2 months! Time flies by way too fast! Even though the Lord doesn't work by time, necessarily, I am very grateful that He, in our very inadequate way of thinking and trying to plan everything out in our lives, has granted us the great blessing of time in days, weeks, months and years; something this last week I grew to appreciate as I contemplated it all. Interesting huh?
It seems to me as we look more and more into our daily lives for what we are grateful for and what He has done for us, we realize more and more that EVERYTHING is a gift from Him. I am very grateful that we have a loving Father in Heaven who knows each and every one of us perfectly. As time goes by, I realize more and more how, "nothing I am," or in other words, powerless without Him. He gives me my very breath each and every day. This morning as I contemplated and pled for His help to forget about my own feelings and thoughts, I came to realize even more about His grace, love and that, He works in ways that truly are higher than ours. As I wrote a dear friend, a Mormon message came to mind titled Wrong Roads by Jeffery R. Holland. Here is the link to that video
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2714780496001
On Friday night we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders again (because we are troubled missionaries lol... jk) and I stayed in our area with Elder Perkins while Elder Silva went to situate with Elder Lefthand. It was a blast! In the morning we met with Ivan, who was a referral and taught him the Restoration and extended a date to him for October 12th and he accepted as well. Then we took Chris out with us the rest of the day who is a less active kid we have been working with. A great kid, but a little rough around the edges. We had some great little moments with him. One moment was after he helped teach English Class with us we were in the car and apparently one of the games missionaries play sometimes now is where they roll up all the windows and crank the heat full blast.... Well, I don't see what is too fun about it. Anyway, we had a good little moment where we were able to talk for a little bit. I am worried about him though because he moved yesterday to Hartford, CT. It can be either a really good thing for him or a bad one depending on what he makes of it.
One of our most awesome members got her divorce papers in the mail that she has been waiting over a year for and so she can finally get married which will be this month on the 13th! We are all stoked for that.
This last P-day we went to the church building in Situate for zone O-day. It was a blast! They had a fire pit and everything you could want. We got permission to have a fire, smores, hot dogs and Elder Lefthand took his guitar, so we all had a good time singing along. We played ultimate Frisbee at the end and man it was a blast.
Yesterday we went up to the Temple in the morning because Elder Silva had someone he had taught that was doing baptisms for the dead for the first time. It was also the mission Temple day and Recent Convert Baptism day where our mission presidency goes and give a little talk before the new converts go and do their baptisms. It is suppose to be a very spiritual and uplifting experience for them. I and a few others had the opportunity to give service in the Temple while that was going on, so we did laundry, which was a blast! I love the Temple and the great peace that is there. After that we went into Chelsea to pick up some things I had left and borrowed some street clothes since we forgot ours and were going to be with a big group of missionaries. I was rocking in gym shorts, a short sleeve shirt, tall black socks and my church shoes all day, lol! We went into Boston and met up with Jack for a little bit. He got us food; we got to ride in the police car and just had a blast. We walked over to Mike's Pastry's and ran into Sister Romans, her new companion, Elder Cathcart and Treseder. We just roamed the streets of Boston with good friends and it was a good time. We got lost for a little bit and had a guy yell at us that we needed to repent once he found out we were Mormon missionaries and told us we were a cult and everything. It was a great P-Day.
As for me, I am doing great. I couldn't ask for a better place to be than right here in Central Falls. I love the people, the area and there is so much work to do. I had a dream last night about going back to Bridgeport to die, who knows what will happen lol.
The other day, once again, here I was telling people I had 5 months left and then I was corrected that it is actually 4 1/2 months! Time flies by way too fast! Even though the Lord doesn't work by time, necessarily, I am very grateful that He, in our very inadequate way of thinking and trying to plan everything out in our lives, has granted us the great blessing of time in days, weeks, months and years; something this last week I grew to appreciate as I contemplated it all. Interesting huh?
It seems to me as we look more and more into our daily lives for what we are grateful for and what He has done for us, we realize more and more that EVERYTHING is a gift from Him. I am very grateful that we have a loving Father in Heaven who knows each and every one of us perfectly. As time goes by, I realize more and more how, "nothing I am," or in other words, powerless without Him. He gives me my very breath each and every day. This morning as I contemplated and pled for His help to forget about my own feelings and thoughts, I came to realize even more about His grace, love and that, He works in ways that truly are higher than ours. As I wrote a dear friend, a Mormon message came to mind titled Wrong Roads by Jeffery R. Holland. Here is the link to that video
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2714780496001
As I thought of this video and everything that has transpired in my life, I am so grateful that the Lord is
there guiding us. Sometimes allowing us to go down a road that we feel
he has told us to go down, only to find out that it is a dead end. I love the
example of His love behind the reason why he allows this to happen. It
is so that we can have an increased peace of mind and heart, experiencing a fullness of joy, because we then KNOW that our correction puts us on the right road
leading us to where we want to go and where HE wants us to go.
There have been so many things that I have been learning lately, as I have been applying what I am learning, that I wish I had more time to share with all of you. One of those things is about prayer. Maybe next week I will be able to write about it if I feel inspired that I should.
I want all of you to know, that are reading this, that I love you, and that I know that our Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ love you. That as we start to put our faith in Him and remember the things that He has previously told and promised us, that ALL will be well, no matter the end result.
I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes people, for it has been changing me and I am so very grateful for that. It has changed my very nature and hope that I continue allowing my Savior to do that. I leave these things with you all in the blessed name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
P.S. Smile! Go out and find a way to help someone this week
;)There have been so many things that I have been learning lately, as I have been applying what I am learning, that I wish I had more time to share with all of you. One of those things is about prayer. Maybe next week I will be able to write about it if I feel inspired that I should.
I want all of you to know, that are reading this, that I love you, and that I know that our Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ love you. That as we start to put our faith in Him and remember the things that He has previously told and promised us, that ALL will be well, no matter the end result.
I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes people, for it has been changing me and I am so very grateful for that. It has changed my very nature and hope that I continue allowing my Savior to do that. I leave these things with you all in the blessed name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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