Oi oi oi!
How has everyone been?! I hope everyone has been doing well I haven't heard from anyone in a while... just because I'm in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska doesn't mean I've fallen off of the face of the Earth! So.. hop on those emails and letters! They seriously keep me going whenever I get them.
This past week was filled with both challenge and excitement. We had so many lessons to teach this week! this area is exploding with new investigators and less-actives that we have been teaching and inviting to come to church. We even have a baptism set for
this Saturday, with two more progressing investigators who are soon to follow in the coming month. Their faith is amazing to me. Well as for our baptism this weekend, that is a crazy story. His name is Jean Aime (pronounced like John) and he is from Congo, and shoot this guy is super cool. He is here in the United States studying political science because he is running for the President of Congo! And the crazy part about it is this is a revolutionary idea for his country. He was telling us that whenever he travels home he has to be protected because people are always trying to kill him for his democratic ideas. He even has a website and all this stuff. And through it all he has amazing faith. He had been meeting with the missionaries for several weeks before I arrived, and unfortunately had his baptism delayed. But when we spoke to him about it, instead of being upset, he said that he knew that there was a reason for it, that God knew what was best, and that even if he had to wait a year, he would wait that year and then be baptized. What faith. He even said hat when he goes to Congo he is going to tell all his friends about the Book of Mormon so he can let other people share in his happiness. He wants people to see the new Jean Aime as he said it.
But things are not always peachy on missions. Times are tough, and the work is hard. It really is "work" there is no doubt about that. Missionaries don't just drive around and then horse around on P-Days. We have to always be spreading the gospel and finding people to teach. It is extremely exhausting work. I go to bed at
10:30 and it seems like
6:30 always comes earlier and earlier. It's strange how 8 hours of sleep can feel less than the 6 or so I would get at school and over the summer. Anyways the part that is so difficult for me, is talking to people I don't know. It just frightens me. Whenever we are walking down the street and you see a person walking the opposite direction or someone sitting in their yard there is this constant battle of should I say something, should I not, and just on and on and on. But the key is to just open your mouth. Be an "open your mouth missionary" as Elder Bellows calls it (he is part of our tri-panionship and is going home
on Friday) and constantly invite others to hear the message of the Restoration. You never know who is waiting and searching for the truth. Such an experience recently happened.
On Friday my companions, the mini missionary, and I had an appointment scheduled, and then it fell through. Well, just because we have an appointment fall through doesn't mean that we go home and rest, we have to keep finding. So the two experienced missionaries went to go see a less-active, and I was left with this mini missionary, I didn't know the area, I didn't know anyone, and I had to go and find. I started panicking inside. How in the world was I supposed to even do anything when I literally had been in the field for 6 days, and was with a mini missionary who knew less than I did? Well I pulled out the Ward Directory and started looking over the inactive names. One name jumped out to me, and I wanting to act on any inspiration I received said okay lets go for it, now where is it? Well I pulled out the map and it happened to be on the opposite side of the area we were in that day. So we walked all the way over there and knocked on this door, and guess what happened? Nothing. I kept thinking to myself what the world is going on I thought we were supposed to come here? So I looked at the list again, and once again a name jumped out to me that happened to be close by. As we were walking I saw a little old lady by herself in her front yard pulling weeds or something. I kept feeling like I should talk to her, but in the back of my mind I kept saying what the world I don't know her. I have no idea what to say, and so on. But when we walked by, I opened my mouth and just started speaking, and I think I honestly freaked her out a bit, but we ended up having a wonderful conversation. She doesn't want to hear our message, but we offered to do service for her and he face beamed. She was so grateful and she is going to call us and put us to work. We ended up talking about temples and parts of the gospel, something that would never have happened if I had not opened my mouth. That truly is one of the keys to missionary work, just open your mouth! If your don't know what to say, well no one does. That's where relying on the Lord comes in. You have to trust that when you step out of your comfort zone, and try to share a message with a complete stranger that through the Spirit he will put into your mind what to say. and he does, he truly does. I have never before felt so guided by the Spirit then I am right now, and I love this feeling so much. Yes, I may have no clue about anything in this area, or what to say or how to say it, but the Lord does, and by doing all that I can to be worthy of that Spirit of inspiration I can be the missionary that God wants me to be.
Well, that's about it really, well all I really have time for there is so much that goes on and I don't have enough time to say it all! The Lord really has his hand in all things. He knows everything from the beginning to the End and he will give us success is we are wil.ling to be that instrument in his hands. Yes, not everyone will accept the gospel, but they are not who we are searching for. We are searching for those ready to be harvested, those seeking for truth and do not know where to find it. People may mock and ridicule the gospel and Joseph Smith but truth is truth, and I know that the message I share with people about the restoration and reality of the Book of Mormon is pure truth. I have seen it change people's lives already, including my own.
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