Week 64
I think this is going to be a long one! Beware!
The past couple days have been a day of miracles! I'd like to start off by telling some stories and then tell what major lesson I feel like I've learned this week!
First of all, yesterday was the craziest most miraculous day!!! Sister Owen and I started the day thinking it'd be a normal missionary Sunday...hardworking and spiritual, etc... but it ended up being filled with so much more than just that!! First: I've started translating in sacrament meetings and it is the most fun thing ever! It is so good for my language skills and I love being able to feel the gift of tongues so wyraźnie!
After church, an active member who's our age came up to us and said she wanted to talk with us! She's so amazing and is such a rock! We had a meeting and talked about the blessings of dating people who have your same beliefs...specifically dating people who one day you would have the posibility of marrying in the temple! It was such a genuine discussion we had and I hope that the Spirit was able to give her some guidance during our meeting!
Next we made some phone calls before our next meeting and we set up with 2 new investigators! ***I have totally stopped long ago using numbers as my motivation for work. But for us this week it nearly seemed impossible to reach our goal and by getting those two new investigators, we reached our goal!!! Which put us 1 member lesson away and 1 baptismal date away from reaching the standard of excellence!! **Like I said, the numbers are not what drive me at all...but I knew that they Lord would help us reach this because we were SOOO close! I said a sincere prayer of faith asking for miracles for the rest of the day, that we might be able to reach the Standard [their goals for teaching investigators, and having members be a part of teaching investigators with them, and scheduled baptisms] this week!
We started working our tails off to make things work! We called a few investigators and our beloved Teresa said she had a lunch break and could meet in 30 mins!! OKAY! So 30 minutes we had to work with to find a member to be with us in the lesson! We were set up to meet with a less-active woman who we've been working with and invited her to be on the lesson and I was pleasantly suprised when she said yes! We picked her up at her house and started heading to the chapel... the whole way I was kind of thinking..."are my motivations for this right?" And after some pondering, I realized all of the great things that would come from this: extra boost of spiritual energy for Teresa, but for the less-active member, she would get a chance to strengthen her testimony by teaching with us! She really needs that spiritual strength and I realized it was actually an answer to our prayers of what we could do for her to strengthen her and bring her back! Things lined up perfectly where a bus miraculously came and we hopped on it just in time to get to the chapel for our meeting! The Lord just put miracle after miracle in our path!
So we got the one member lesson, and then we just needed one more baptimal date! What an amazing opportunity to be bold with everyone we meet! We ended up going to a crowded park and talking to everyone in the park about baptism! We even invited them to be baptized on July 5th right then and there! This was one of the times that I was truly putting every ounce of energy, soul, and heart into talking with people! I felt so sincerely connected to them as I was being bold but not condeming and inviting them to change there lives around in the course of a month and a half! It felt so amazing!
You know...in the end, we didn't end up having someone accept the baptismal date. But I really feel like all of this is an answer to prayer to help me be more motivated and less scared to share what my purpose here is! I felt like I really gave my all yesterday and I saw so many miracles along the way! I know the Lord does have more people that really will accept a baptismal date! Who will want to follow and learn of the gospel! But His plan and timing is SO much wiser and better than mine! I'm excited to see the blessings that come next week and in the weeks to come!
Lesson Learned: I really have been understanding what it means to "take upon the name of Christ". This week I learned what that means to me. I (and every other person who has been baptized by Christ's true priesthood authority) have promised God that I will ALWAYS stand as a witness of Christ EVERYWHERE. President Eyring was invited to give a talk at a university a few years ago and was told that he wasn't allowed to mention Jesus Christ in his speech. Pres. Eyring was really perplexed by this because if he didn't mention Christ and be His witness in ALL situations, he'd be breaking his promise to God! He ended up realizing that his promises to Heavenly Father were more important to him than men...so he did briefly mention Christ in his speech. Afterwards, someone said they heard God's voice when Pres. Eyring said that. This taught me that I don't have to be self righteous about my beliefs or condem others for not believing it, but that taking upon the name of Christ means not being ashamed to say His name in conversations and not ever being embarrassed that we are a part of the Church of JESUS CHRIST. I really loved that this week! That's what it truly means to have integrity!
The past couple days have been a day of miracles! I'd like to start off by telling some stories and then tell what major lesson I feel like I've learned this week!
First of all, yesterday was the craziest most miraculous day!!! Sister Owen and I started the day thinking it'd be a normal missionary Sunday...hardworking and spiritual, etc... but it ended up being filled with so much more than just that!! First: I've started translating in sacrament meetings and it is the most fun thing ever! It is so good for my language skills and I love being able to feel the gift of tongues so wyraźnie!
After church, an active member who's our age came up to us and said she wanted to talk with us! She's so amazing and is such a rock! We had a meeting and talked about the blessings of dating people who have your same beliefs...specifically dating people who one day you would have the posibility of marrying in the temple! It was such a genuine discussion we had and I hope that the Spirit was able to give her some guidance during our meeting!
Next we made some phone calls before our next meeting and we set up with 2 new investigators! ***I have totally stopped long ago using numbers as my motivation for work. But for us this week it nearly seemed impossible to reach our goal and by getting those two new investigators, we reached our goal!!! Which put us 1 member lesson away and 1 baptismal date away from reaching the standard of excellence!! **Like I said, the numbers are not what drive me at all...but I knew that they Lord would help us reach this because we were SOOO close! I said a sincere prayer of faith asking for miracles for the rest of the day, that we might be able to reach the Standard [their goals for teaching investigators, and having members be a part of teaching investigators with them, and scheduled baptisms] this week!
We started working our tails off to make things work! We called a few investigators and our beloved Teresa said she had a lunch break and could meet in 30 mins!! OKAY! So 30 minutes we had to work with to find a member to be with us in the lesson! We were set up to meet with a less-active woman who we've been working with and invited her to be on the lesson and I was pleasantly suprised when she said yes! We picked her up at her house and started heading to the chapel... the whole way I was kind of thinking..."are my motivations for this right?" And after some pondering, I realized all of the great things that would come from this: extra boost of spiritual energy for Teresa, but for the less-active member, she would get a chance to strengthen her testimony by teaching with us! She really needs that spiritual strength and I realized it was actually an answer to our prayers of what we could do for her to strengthen her and bring her back! Things lined up perfectly where a bus miraculously came and we hopped on it just in time to get to the chapel for our meeting! The Lord just put miracle after miracle in our path!
So we got the one member lesson, and then we just needed one more baptimal date! What an amazing opportunity to be bold with everyone we meet! We ended up going to a crowded park and talking to everyone in the park about baptism! We even invited them to be baptized on July 5th right then and there! This was one of the times that I was truly putting every ounce of energy, soul, and heart into talking with people! I felt so sincerely connected to them as I was being bold but not condeming and inviting them to change there lives around in the course of a month and a half! It felt so amazing!
You know...in the end, we didn't end up having someone accept the baptismal date. But I really feel like all of this is an answer to prayer to help me be more motivated and less scared to share what my purpose here is! I felt like I really gave my all yesterday and I saw so many miracles along the way! I know the Lord does have more people that really will accept a baptismal date! Who will want to follow and learn of the gospel! But His plan and timing is SO much wiser and better than mine! I'm excited to see the blessings that come next week and in the weeks to come!
Lesson Learned: I really have been understanding what it means to "take upon the name of Christ". This week I learned what that means to me. I (and every other person who has been baptized by Christ's true priesthood authority) have promised God that I will ALWAYS stand as a witness of Christ EVERYWHERE. President Eyring was invited to give a talk at a university a few years ago and was told that he wasn't allowed to mention Jesus Christ in his speech. Pres. Eyring was really perplexed by this because if he didn't mention Christ and be His witness in ALL situations, he'd be breaking his promise to God! He ended up realizing that his promises to Heavenly Father were more important to him than men...so he did briefly mention Christ in his speech. Afterwards, someone said they heard God's voice when Pres. Eyring said that. This taught me that I don't have to be self righteous about my beliefs or condem others for not believing it, but that taking upon the name of Christ means not being ashamed to say His name in conversations and not ever being embarrassed that we are a part of the Church of JESUS CHRIST. I really loved that this week! That's what it truly means to have integrity!
Funny: When walking by a Tesco (Polish Costco) I saw a VW Bug with Dottie Small's Car Eyelashes!!!!!!! Small world! ...no pun intended!
Siostra Blake
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