A week of "A-has"
Let me start off with talking about one of the greatest highlights of the week: The Cuiellars' Baptism!!!!! So this is a family from the Summerset ward that I had been working with for over a year!!! So the Elders back in March 2013 tried to work with them but they had dropped them because they didn't know what to do with them. So when I opened the area back in Sept. 2013 there was no teaching record or info of them. It was when I was going through old progress records trying to get information on stuff that I came across them. They were written in on only two progress records but a long time ago, but I decided to go and try to contact them again. I started working with Juanita who is the mom. I worked with them a ton and then when I left I didn't hear too much about them. Until a month ago we got a text from the mission office about their baptism(i think i wrote about this a few weeks ago). This was a testimony to me of how I always need to go through all old papers and information. What if I would of thrown all those papers out assuming that the area was well organized and the teaching records would of been there(well i guess they never really taught them, we were the ones that started teaching them) they could of been lost forever and would of never came to know the truth.
Anyways so I went to the baptism and it was so good!!! As soon as I arrived it was packed with members from the ward and missionaries. I went right up to Juanita and her two kids getting baptized and just hugged them. Juanita and I hugged for such a long time and just cried to each other. I told her how proud I was of her and the example that she has been to her family and how strong that she was. She told me that she has never been this happy before in her life and she told me that there was no way that she would be able to go through her Baptism without me there. She is seriously an amazing woman, some day I will tell you all about it. It was such a neat experience to see her get baptized. When the Bishop was welcoming her into the ward he did something that he had never done before. He had every that was serving a mission and had ever served a mission stand up, then he had those that were not currently serving to sit down, and then he had all the other missionaries that had not served in the Summerset ward sit down as well. As I stood there with a handful of other missionaries Bishop Root talked about how valiant we were and how grateful he was to work with us. It was there that I started to cry! It hit me as I look at Bishop Root and at the Cuiellars and at all the other members in that room how much I missed them all. That area and ward had such a huge impact on my life, I could never forget them. I had an ache in my heart thinking of all the great memories there and it killed me to know I will never serve them as a missionary again. But I am grateful for the opportunity that I got to go to that baptism and feel the spirit there so strong and to see all the ward members and to hear the impact that I had on their lives. I promised them that when I get home that one day I will just show up in the church meeting. That is a promise that I am going to keep! That is one thing that I am grateful for that I got the opportunity to serve in a place so close where I could come back to visit those that I have served.
So things are going well with Sally Fogg in our area, we got to see her this week a couple of times because she is off work, but she goes back this week :( She has already read most of 1 Nephi! You can really see the spirit working on her. Last night we went with her and her less active husband to Hymns of Thanksgiving. It is a community event that was actually started by a member in the church where the sing hymns of thanks. It was really great to be able to bring them there. Sally always jokes about us that one day we will "tie her down to the floor" to convert because that is what she thought missionaries do before she met with us. But what she doesn't realize that it is her that is really "tying herself down to being converted". It has been great to really see the change in her these past few weeks.
Anyways so I went to the baptism and it was so good!!! As soon as I arrived it was packed with members from the ward and missionaries. I went right up to Juanita and her two kids getting baptized and just hugged them. Juanita and I hugged for such a long time and just cried to each other. I told her how proud I was of her and the example that she has been to her family and how strong that she was. She told me that she has never been this happy before in her life and she told me that there was no way that she would be able to go through her Baptism without me there. She is seriously an amazing woman, some day I will tell you all about it. It was such a neat experience to see her get baptized. When the Bishop was welcoming her into the ward he did something that he had never done before. He had every that was serving a mission and had ever served a mission stand up, then he had those that were not currently serving to sit down, and then he had all the other missionaries that had not served in the Summerset ward sit down as well. As I stood there with a handful of other missionaries Bishop Root talked about how valiant we were and how grateful he was to work with us. It was there that I started to cry! It hit me as I look at Bishop Root and at the Cuiellars and at all the other members in that room how much I missed them all. That area and ward had such a huge impact on my life, I could never forget them. I had an ache in my heart thinking of all the great memories there and it killed me to know I will never serve them as a missionary again. But I am grateful for the opportunity that I got to go to that baptism and feel the spirit there so strong and to see all the ward members and to hear the impact that I had on their lives. I promised them that when I get home that one day I will just show up in the church meeting. That is a promise that I am going to keep! That is one thing that I am grateful for that I got the opportunity to serve in a place so close where I could come back to visit those that I have served.
So things are going well with Sally Fogg in our area, we got to see her this week a couple of times because she is off work, but she goes back this week :( She has already read most of 1 Nephi! You can really see the spirit working on her. Last night we went with her and her less active husband to Hymns of Thanksgiving. It is a community event that was actually started by a member in the church where the sing hymns of thanks. It was really great to be able to bring them there. Sally always jokes about us that one day we will "tie her down to the floor" to convert because that is what she thought missionaries do before she met with us. But what she doesn't realize that it is her that is really "tying herself down to being converted". It has been great to really see the change in her these past few weeks.
Things are still hard at times in our area, but I came to a realization and committed myself to something this week. Okay my thoughts are scattered but I hope this will all make sense to you. This came to me as I was studying for a training that I had to do at District Meeting. Our meeting was focused on "traps" as missionaries. Mine was on finding vs. referrals and us falling into the trap of waiting and relying on our only source of finding through referrals. I have decided that this is such a great time of a year where people hearts are soften and receptive to the spirit and listening to a message about the Savior. Even our stake is doing a two night event where they have a live nativity that is outside with the youth as actors and they bring in live animals, even a camel!!! hahaha Anyways, so here is what I declared to my district and to myself. That I want to go home with bloody knuckles. I want people to think that I was in a fight because in all honesty I am, I am in a fight against the adversary. I want to knock on every single door in our area, even though tracting is not as effective. But you know what, I want to go home swinging, I want to go home knowing that I tried to bring every single person I could closer to Christ. I can't just wait until they come to me, I keep saying the area is tough. But I know that I can't stay that there is no work until I have knock on every house. So that is something that I have committed to: to knock on every door. I want to come home so tired!
Don't worry about me for Thanksgiving, I am going to be well taken care of! We have a Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Desserts, and lots of other people that have asked us to stop by the home on this wonderful day. I think I might be too well taken care of this holiday season, hopefully you will still be able to recognize me when I get back ;)
So I had this realization today as I was having personal study of why as missionaries we don't live in the world and the reason for the rules that we have. They are all there to help us build our testimony. This is the time in our life's where I have solely focused on spiritually things. I have been able to figure things out and question things while focusing on getting those answers by using spiritual resources(i.e. the scriptures and prayer) and not having the influence of the world. There has been no other point in my life where things have been so clear to me and I know exactly what I know to be true with out a shadow of a doubt. I realized how important it is for me to write down my testimony that I have right now because when I go back home that influence of the world will try to start to put its input into my testimony. I see those that I am working with how the word has shaken their testimonies, it made me realize that if for whatever reason I start to question what I know to be true that it will be because of what the world is trying to make me think. That I can look back at this point in my life and realize where I should when I was not apart of the world. That is something that really burned deep inside me today and I just had this overall reassurance of how important my testimony is not only to me but to those around me. I realize how special and precious it is as well and that I need to continue to nourish it when I get home. I challenge all of you that may be struggling or questioning things about what you believe to "take the world out of the equation". Study it out in the scriptures and talk it over with your Father in Heaven.
I can not tell you how much my testimony has grown not only over the course of my mission, but so much even more this past transfer. As I have been rereading the Book of Mormon and studying the conference talks about Joseph Smith, my whole body burns with the testimony that I have of him. Over and over there is evidence that he was called to restore Christ original church and that there is no way that he himself could of written this "book from heaven". I also had a realization this week as I was studying talks how important it is for me to know where my testimony is at and to strengthen it before I can help others. So I had this realization today as I was having personal study of why as missionaries we don't live in the world and the reason for the rules that we have. They are all there to help us build our testimony. This is the time in our life's where I have solely focused on spiritually things. I have been able to figure things out and question things while focusing on getting those answers by using spiritual resources(i.e. the scriptures and prayer) and not having the influence of the world. There has been no other point in my life where things have been so clear to me and I know exactly what I know to be true with out a shadow of a doubt. I realized how important it is for me to write down my testimony that I have right now because when I go back home that influence of the world will try to start to put its input into my testimony. I see those that I am working with how the word has shaken their testimonies, it made me realize that if for whatever reason I start to question what I know to be true that it will be because of what the world is trying to make me think. That I can look back at this point in my life and realize where I should when I was not apart of the world. That is something that really burned deep inside me today and I just had this overall reassurance of how important my testimony is not only to me but to those around me. I realize how special and precious it is as well and that I need to continue to nourish it when I get home. I challenge all of you that may be struggling or questioning things about what you believe to "take the world out of the equation". Study it out in the scriptures and talk it over with your Father in Heaven.
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