We're already on week three of this transfer which means it's half over! Isn't that crazy?? Things go by so fast in "mission time"-time just FLIES! I'm really having the hardest time remembering what else happened this past week! Usually I have my journal but we didn't get to email yesterday at the library with it being Memorial Day so we're using the Family History library at the church today and I don't have my journal or anything. I do hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday, hopefully you were able to celebrate the wonderful day and its importance. I know I was thinking of family members that have fought for our country, continue to keep all of those who sacrifice for us in your prayers.
The work is really picking up though. Ideas that we have to help the area, getting back in touch with former investigators, things are just going well! We're finding new, wonderful people to teach as well. Something I'm learning about going through teaching records of those who used to be taught my missionaries is that some needed more time to prepare. These are people who were being taught and were ready to get baptized and then suddenly stopped wanting to meet with missionaries and everything was stalled. For many I think they needed more time to prepare; I think it is/will have been good for many to take the break, just so they will now be able to see a difference in their lives, the difference they felt while having the missionaries and the gospel in their lives verses having it absent for a time after knowing what the Spirit felt like. I'm also praying this will be the case with Micheal. I don't know what it is with him, he seems so ready when we are able to sit down and talk to him, yet it is so hard to be able to get in touch with him. I think his family thinks we're annoying, always there or calling him and they always say he's asleep or at work. Though he was the one who reached out and asked for a priesthood blessing, he's not following up too well on it and I think it will benefit him if we're absent for a little bit. Maybe it will give him the drive he needs to reach out to us. Sad for me to say, but like any other investigator, the ball really is in their court. We're here to help and teach them, but at the end of the day, it is their desire to change and they are the only ones who can make that happen.
We do have a new investigator I can tell you about though, her name is Stephanie and she is awesome!! She's probably about 40 years old and she has a little daughter named Leah and she takes care of two young men who have special needs. I feel right at home! (Okay, not like that, dad). But seriously it is so wonderful feeling like I am back at my old job! Those boys are so close to the Spirit it's amazing! They sit in on lessons and just smile--the Spirit is always very strong. Last week we gave one of them a picture of Christ and little children around him and he had it right up to his face staring at it the entire time. It was one of the most precious things I've ever seen. Stephanie really wants to come to church and when we told her the boys would be welcome too she was overjoyed. I hope she comes this Sunday, I would be in heaven! Stephanie is amazing though, she has so many wonderful questions. She told us how she feels so comfortable with us in her home, more than anyone else who shows up at her doorstep. Made us feel really good :) Lately we've been having people like her compliment us on the way we live our lives and people really do see a difference in us. Another investigator told us we were two of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen because of the way we live our lives and go about things. One of my favorite quotes I heard before I left was "Don't shine so that others might see you, shine so that through you, others might see Him." What a perfect phrase. We are all here, whether on a mission or not, we're all on earth, to allow people to see the Light of Christ. If that light is shining in us, people will notice, and they'll want it. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."
There's not a whole lot else to say for this week, just that I'm really excited and so grateful to be a missionary right now! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Allow Heavenly Father to be in the workings in the smallest details of your life, each and every day. You will see miracles. Look for those miracles too, you may be surprised at all the blessings!
Keep being wonderful, I love you all, and I will talk to you again next week! Have a great one! Sorry there aren't any pictures this week, I'll try and make up for that next week.
All my love,
Sister Applegate
No comments:
Post a Comment