Its like when
you are in high school. or college. or anywhere in life I suppose....
and some weekends there is absolutely NOTHING to do because all of your
friends are out of town or on dates or whatever, and so you end up
staring at the wall/ watching a chick flick all by yourself. And then
there are other weekends when everyyyybody wants to hang out and there
are 3 different parties and you get asked on 2 different dates and your
friends are going hot tubbing and there's a huge movie premier and you
just wish that you could be in 12 places at once!
Haha. It happens in missionary work too. This week
Sister Grant and I were SO busy that we couldn't even make it to half of
what we wanted to! I blame it on the ward members..... this week our
ward mission leader asked the members of our ward to pray for me and
Sister Grant and the elders in our ward by name every day. Holy cow. It
made a difference! A huuuge one. So if you want to make a difference in
missionary work, pray for the missionaries in your ward. Pray for them
by name. Pray for their investigators too!
Thank you for all the prayers you pray for me! I can truly feel so
many prayers coming my way and it really makes a world of difference.
THANK YOU.
So one day we were on our way
to go visit our friend Simin. She is about to leave on her mission to
Boise, Idaho! I'd never gone to her dad's house before, and we got a
little lost trying to find the address. So I started asking people if
they knew where this street was, but nobody knew. And some of them were
kind of mean... (they must have thought I wanted to preach to them or
something.) Haha but there was one guy who was really nice. So nice that
it started getting creepy. He didn't know the address and so we thanked
him and went on our way. But 5 minutes later he came out of nowhere and
had been following us! He said he wanted to come with us... we told him
we had an appointment to get to and that we hoped he had a nice day. He
said ok bye! and then kept following us! Like so close that I could
feel him breathing on me. We tried to say goodbye like 3 or 4 more times
but he just kept right on following us!! Luckily our friend Simin came
and rescued us. but before she did... the big creepy man HUGGED me.
alfbeiazslkfskjggggzkk I have not hugged a man in over 6 months now and I
definitely did not want to break that streak with him! ahhhh. It was
weird.
Anyways. We taught a lot of great lessons this
week... One day we went to visit our friend Karin, the lady
that Sister Pete and I helped with her wedding reception 2 months ago.
She is a suuuper busy lady and so we were SO excited to finally get an
appointment with her. It was an amazing visit! She told us how its been
really hard for her with church because people aren't very accepting of
her getting married in a Danish church. And that she wants to share the
gospel with her husband but doesn't feel like its the right time. There
were tears in her eyes that about ripped my heart out when she told us
that something is missing, and she wishes the gospel could be a part of
her home. She was so glad we were there to talk with her about the
gospel because she hadn't had anyone to talk with in such a long time.
Our visit with Karin was one of those moments where I can feel my name tag burning on my chest. Where I can feel Christ's love and feel
with my whole soul that I am His instrument in that precise moment. It
was amazing. We shared one of my favorite Mormon message videos with
her, about having courage and being strong and living your testimony.
you should all check it out too.
One day we walked like 5 miles through wind and rain to try and stop by
an inactive woman. When we got there her daughter answered the door and
said her mom was unavailable. We talked with the daughter for a minute-
she said she grew up in the church and was active her whole life, but
she has no interest anymore because the church just isn't for her. THAT
MADE ME SO SAD!! Its the worst thing ever when people who had the truth
turn away from it. It seems like that happens soooo much and I hate it.
Its scary! Its especially scary that so many returned-missionaries go
inactive. My current-missionary self wonders how that even happens. How
could someone who has served a mission and has thus seen the hand of the
Lord every single day and has seen miracles happen as they watch the
gospel change people for the better and bring so much happiness into
people's eyes and lives.... turn away from that?
Well it happened in the Book of Mormon too. there
were people who literally saw Heaven's angels and huge incredible
miracles, and then turned again to wickedness. But as I've been thinking
about that and why/how it happened, I've realized that it never
happened to those that were truly converted. Those that were
truly converted, converted without needing to witness miracles and see
angels, they endeared to the end. It must be the same today too... That's
why it is so so important to be truly converted, to have your own
testimony and continually nourish and strengthen it, to exercise and
show your faith every day.
One day we were talking with a less active member
who served a mission. She said it was so much easier to read/study the
scriptures and pray back then on her mission than it is now, because now
she has so many other things to worry about like work and school and
marriage and family etc etc etc. True- as a missionary your scripture
study is a scheduled activity of every single day. But back in the
normal world, all those things- work and school and marriage and family
etc etc etc- give us all the more reason to need it. We need the
guidance and strength and protection and spirit that we receive through
scripture study and prayer if we are going to endure to the end and not
fall away.
I have the most rockin dad ever and this is what he told me in his letter this week about this very subject.
"It
happens even to the best members, with generations of members behind
them for support, up to our newest convert members. It all starts with a
distancing from the small, simple things. They forget the most
essential tools we have to keep us closer to the gospel path.... It's easy to miss a Sunday
meeting or two, then before you know it, you are on the ward rescue
plan. The adversary doesn't succeed with getting people to make one BIG
error, but through a series of choices, complacency, and indifference,
he can distance us a bit at a time, from the spirit, which is our guide
and companion in helping us stay nearer to God. Once we have lost its
companionship, or no longer can feel its closeness and promptings, Satan
wins."
Read
your scriptures! Say your prayers! Go to church! I don't want to lose
any of you guys! Satan is stepping up his game so you've got to step
yours up too.
Yesterday was the primary program in sacrament
meeting for our ward. It brought tears to my eyes as I watched the
cutest little Danish children bear their sweet testimonies and sing the
primary songs. The same exact songs that I grew up singing, and that my
beautiful little sister is singing back home right now.
Jeg
er Guds kære barn, og han har sendt mig her, har givet mig et jordisk
hjem, med far og mor så kær. Led mig, før mig, gå du med mig, hjælp at
finde vej. Lær mig, hvad jeg gøre må, for hjem til Gud at nå.
They don't celebrate Halloween in Denmark but today we are gonna be Americans and carve pumpkins.
I hope you all have a great week! Send me pics of your costumes and jack-o-lanterns.
JEG ELSKER JER.
