Hey Everyone!
So
... no more counting how many weeks I've been here. It's just to sad to
think that my mission is disappearing before my eyes. I already feel
like I don't have enough time to bring people to the gospel and to find
the path to salvation and eternal happiness. Every week flies by and I
can hardly believe it's preperation day already again!
There truly is SO much to do in this work, and the more
I do the more I realize that the missionaries can't do this alone. Yes,
we have God on our side, and thus everything is possible, but I'm not
talking about that. We desperately need the help of the members! (p.s.
That includes most of you...) Our district is working on doing a better
job working with the members in our ward. One thing Sister Whetten and I
have realized is that the leadership in our ward is doing missionary
work, we're just not coordinating our efforts with their efforts
(coordination leads to more success!). We're trying to ask more about
what they're doing and what we can do to help them instead of just putting
things our investigators might need down on the paper for the
correlation meeting. We also got a specific assignment to try to help
one of our less actives come back to church which was really exciting!
We know that Preach My Gospel teaches that working with members is so
much more effective for finding, and we want to put that to good use in
our area. One especially important thing is that people are so much more
willing to hear about the gospel if it comes from a friend first.
People are more likely to listen to missionaries if they do it in the
home of a friend instead of when the missionaries knock on their door. I
want all of you to think of all the different people you know who need
the gospel and don't have it. Share with them. Talk with them. Don't
push it, we can only invite and testify, but give them that opportunity.
Without that chance they will never even have the option to start down
the path to salvation.
This has been a bit of a weird week. Monday
was preparation day and was great because we got to play soccer with the
Zone. It was so much fun, even though at first I was super
uncoordinated and couldn't seem to get my foot to connect with the ball.
By the end of the game I was doing really well, especially at defense.
The elders were all very surprised. I definitely had to take a shower
after that and then we had dinner with the family of one of our
investigators. His baby was going to get a surgery soon, so we got to
witness the Elders (who were also there for dinner) give her a blessing.
It was such a special moment and makes me so happy that he is going to
be baptized and prepare to be able to receive that priesthood and give
those blessings himself!
Tuesday was weird because we had some extra meetings,
and had to get a car wash, and had several things get cancelled on us,
but I got to spend some time playing the piano in the church which was a
great stress relief.
Wednesday was zone conference which was AMAZING! It was
so good to recieve training from President Hall and the assistants. It
was also nice to see all the other missionaries, and hear testimonies
from the ones who are leaving in the next couple of transfers. One thing
I learned was two different (but complimentary) definitions of power in
missionary work.
Power = Authority + Worthiness
Power = Spirit + Doctrine
I
love that! We have the authority because of our callings, now we need
to be obedient to show that we have the worthiness. We have the doctrine
in Preach My Gospel and in the pamphlets that we often use to teach,
but we have to have the Spirit with us as we teach in order to really
touch people. The thing I liked best that President Hall said was that
we need to "have an urgency for the work and quit wasting time!"
Thursday was weekly planning, and we helped out with a
blitz (Where lots of missionaries work in one area at the same time to
try to find new investigators.) in Pacoima on Thursday after weekly
planning. That was an interesting experience for me. We ran into a
Jehovah's Witness who talked at us for nearly 40 minutes. We just
testified and testified, and tried to leave three diferent times until
we finally basically just walked away. We didn't have much luck on our
street, but the Elders found a family of five which was super cool! We
were praying that they would get the miracle that they needed the whole
time since it wasn't working out in our street.
Friday was dstrict meeting and lunch/lesson with Juan
(recent convert) and Gabby (one of our investigators). Juan is great,
and always makes food that is easy for me to eat. This time he made
grilled cheese sandwiches and steamed rice. Then that night we had
another lesson with our two youngest investigators Penelope and Ashley.
We taught a little bit more about the restoration, and how we can pray
and receive answers. It was so cute because they both shared experiences
that they'd had where they prayed for something and then got an answer!
They also both wanted to pray right then and there to see if the church
really has been restored. The Spirit was SO strong! I love the simple
faith of children. If we could all have that faith the world would be
such an amazing place.
Saturday we did a lot of finding (AKA knocking doors).
We also got dropped by two of our investigators which was sad, but at
least they said they wanted to keep their Books of Mormon and would keep
reading. Maybe someone will teach and baptize them in the future. The
most exciting thing that happened on Saturday was actually in our
appartment. Hna Whetten was washing dishes and told me that she thought
there was a cockroach in the kitchen and I should come kill it. I hate
bugs, but I'd rather kill them while I know where they are than know
that they're somewhere in the house and could come crawl on me any
minute. So I put my shoes on and looked hard at the little black bug
scuttling around on our kitchen floor. I didn't want to get too close to
it or give it a chance to get away, so I took a running start and a
flying leap, and jumped halfway accross the kitchen to land squarely on
the cockroach with my right foot. It was very dead, but very gross! It
gave me the shivers until we actually left the apartment for the day.
Sunday was kind of a hard day... but turned out great.
We spent the entire morning calling and dropping by almost all of our
investigators and none of them would come to church with us. As we sat
in the church parking lot I was ready to cry. Then in my rearview mirror
I saw Juan (a recent convert who's been fellowshiping his sister, one
of our investigators) pull up and park. In his car was Gabby (his
sister), her two sons (not investigators), and her grandmother (also not
an investigator). The grandma was a huge shock to me because we
actually have to teach lessons to Gabby in English some times so that
she can't break in with comments about how wrong we must be because the
Catholic church is right. They only stayed for sacrament meeting, but it
was such a miracle! Then after church we were a little early for our
cena so we went knocking around the neighborhood and found a new
investigator! The Lord really does bless us when we work hard to do His
work His way.
I absolutely love our district! Elder Winward is such a
good district leader, and he seems to know exactly what we all need
most when we're in district meetings. They've all been so helpful and
patient with me learning missionary things and especially Spanish. Elder
Garland has been a great inspiration (he speaks so well and hasn't been
here that long) to me and also a help because he's always correcting me
when I say something that doesn't make sense. I get my 'yo' (I) and
'usted' (you/him/her) forms mixed up all the time when I talk. Hna
Whetten and I have been working on subjunctive though which is nice
because the two forms are exactly the same.
I absolutely love this work!!!!!! I love the gospel,
and I love the opportunities I'm having to share and grow my testimony!
This church is true, and God loves His children.
Love,
Hermana Marin Hardy
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