This past week was a rough one as far as pain
went, it seems as if no matter what I eat that I have sharp shooting
pains. But the wonderful thing is that I take about a 2 hour break
everyday and we just keep moving forward! :) Despite the pain, this past
week was a really wonderful week with teaching.
Our
investigator Shawna that came to church last week is truly progressing
and has a burning testimony. She told us she really enjoyed church,
learning from others and she loved how much her boyfriends little girl
LOVED church. Someone brought up how they sacrifice not drinking coffee
even though they love everything about it and Shawna asked us about it
when we visited with her. We explained a little about how important it
is to treat this wonderful gift, our physical bodies, with care and to
make sure we keep it pure with no addictions. It was so cool because she
agreed, she stopped drinking awhile ago, doesn't drink coffee either and
had this great understanding about why we live the word of wisdom.
Somehow baptism got tied into our conversation about the Plan of
Salvation and she told us that she really wants to be baptized but wants
to do it the right way. Her boyfriend is Rusty, who we originally
started teaching and they live together but aren't married. She opened up
a lot and later after we left her house, she text us saying how
grateful she was for us coming to visit with her and teach her! I love
those text messages :) She is such an incredible person and I hope that a
miracle happens so she can get baptized asap!
Our
Hamilton Tuesday night family kind of stopped wanting to learn or talk
about religious things and it became almost uncomfortable to share with
them anything we planned. Well after dinner, we played a short Mormon
message clip on "knowing enough" and no one wanted to really share what
their thoughts were on the clip. I opened my mouth, shared my testimony
of feeling like I knew enough so no one needed to tell me how to live or
teach me anything which led to some hard times until I hit a point in
my life where I needed to learn more because I didn't know enough. Before
I realized it, I felt good learning and what I did know, was enough to
keep me going through challenges and I keep learning which helps me know
that I know enough for each day. As I continued to share my unplanned
testimony, I noticed their daughter Kenzie was teary eyed and I felt the
spirit so strongly burning inside. It was an incredible feeling because
I knew that Heavenly Father was allowing me to use that Spirit to fill
my mouth with the words to say that would help them all feel the spirit
and remind them that they can make those changes in their life as they
keep learning. Although no big changes happened after our lesson, no
miracle of them all saying they wanted to be baptized, I knew that they
felt the spirit that night and they could see that I was just delivering
a message from God, as His servant. The dad, Neal, had some changes
when we came to teach him on Wednesday which was incredible! He read
other things that we never told him to read and he even asked some good
questions. I love the power of the Spirit. So much easier to listen to
it ha ;-)
On of my
favorite events this week was discovering that a mom we found back in
Feb or March, that moved away to Brookfield with her Fiance last month
just moved back to Chilli!! We were driving along and we saw her son
sitting in a driveway in town, so drove back by because we wanted to
make sure it was him...yep it was...he waved and definitely knew we were
stalking the house haha. Which he even went inside and told his mom
that his "sister friends were stalking the house" haha. Its what we do
best as missionaries I guess! But we got to visit with her and lots of
her siblings this past week. It was a total blast listening to them
harass each other and give each other a hard time but you could still
feel this incredible love between them all. Oh, they're all grown adults
too with their own kids which made me feel like I was hanging out with
my own family, just a little more rough around the edges haha. The
amazing thing was being able to share with them who we are as
missionaries, what we do every day and why we do it. The house was a bit
chaotic but they all committed to be at Jennifer's house when we go
back on Wednesday this week. I am so excited too, I really love
Jennifer, she is an amazing mom, friend and so humble. She has
downloaded the Gospel Library App on her phone and downloaded some of
the manuals which she has no clue what they are for haha but she is so
excited to learn.
I
absolutely love this area and the people here. I am sad to think that
the area might be closing but I PRAY that they at least send elders in
to keep it going instead of it being double covered by elders in the
other surrounding areas. I have to admit though, I have learned a lot
this week about FAITH. Many times I have felt that my faith has been
lacking which is why I wasn't getting better when I truly believed that I
would start feeling better after X minutes/hours. I was reminded that
sometimes we question our faith when in reality it is just a matter of
remembering that it is not our faith that is lacking, it is our time to
prove to the Lord that we still trust in Him while we wait patiently
through our afflictions. I am so grateful to have been humbled by many
events this week, I see just how much the Savior loves us and gives so
freely to us when we are so imperfect. I love Jesus Christ, our Brother,
for the pain he went through so we always have someone to turn to in
times of need. I also am grateful to know that He was such a loving and
happy man because THAT is the kind of person I am striving to be like
everyday :) I love you all and am SOOOO grateful for all your letters
and prayers, I feel them every day and I KNOW that your prayers is what
helps me EVERY DAY. THANK YOU!!!!!
Love,
Sistaaaa Larson
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