Dear Family-
Happy Halloween!! Hope you guys had a good and cozy one!
This week was a trip! By trip- I mean lots of hard work, trying times, with intermingled miracles and deep joys that ultimately lead to even greater joys and showing forth of God's power.
Can I just say? THE REALITY OF GOD IS REAL. I am learning why it is so important for life to be imperfect, situations to be less than desirable, unknowns rampant, physical pain, emotional let downs on and on and on- because in alllllll of these weaknesses- IF WE TURN TO GOD IN MIGHTY PRAYER with faith and then go forward, they will ALL work together for our good and they ALL have a higher purpose that we didn't grasp before. If you feel a presence of one or more of these things in your life- don't be discouraged- take heart, because God has a plan for you through it all, and through our weaknesses of this fallen world and our fallen state- HE MAKES STRENGTHS! HE WORKS MIRACLES! faith precedes the miracle though- so have faith. I am learning to trust God. with my life. my future. my problems. my desires. my dreams. Proverbs 3:5-6 is a scripture I committed to memory last night, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS."
believe that- I know that is a major lesson God wants me to internalize and understand deep in my heart, and He is using my mission to teach me that truth. Now to share some of those miraculous experiences with you :)
Our investigator Jessica came to church again this sunday! and this time she brought all 4 of her kids! we introduced them to the primary president and that was such a good experience for me- so gratifying and cool to bring people into the church and get them all settled in with capable teachers and loving members. We also had a lesson on the Restoration and the Priesthood with her this week, so in order to help her to better understand the priesthood we thought it would be good for her to receive a priesthood blessing! She wanted to and it went beautifully, another really good experience, the Spirit was very strong.
Then on Friday we had an amazing lesson with John Smith- an 80 yr old man who is strict Lutheran, and has been a minister for many years. He is VERYYYYYY knowledgeable about the Bible, and truly a man of great faith I so respect him for that. he is the neighbor to one of our ward members and he invited us over for a lesson with her there too because he had some "questions" for us- which here in the south is code for trying to debate or challenge our beliefs- so me and my companion were VERY prayerful before going to this appointment. We are teachers not debaters- our purpose is invite the spirit- so after our many prayers and me doing a lot of personal pondering, I felt at peace with the resolve that all we would do and focus on is having the spirit with us and allowing him to feel that. If the Spirit is there? I have no fear. of anything. So I was calm and peaceful and confident going into that lesson. we talked to sis. Mullkin before going over with her to his house and prayed with her too- and that was that. well- we get there and had small talk,friendly convo, and then we got to it he said, "well sisters I have some questions for you. I know what you do and I know you are in the throws of missionary work and you see a lot of people and have I imagine a lot of experiences, so, my question is- who is Jesus Christ to you? what is your response to who Jesus is?"
The question was just hanging in the air- how do you answer such a question? what response was he looking for? how do I even begin to answer such a broad and all encompassing question? Who is Jesus Christ....I had an immediate and automatic rush of thoughts and emotions when he said the saviors name- but i paid attention to how I felt and realized I was feeling the spirit- I felt warm all over and tears just came rushing to my eyes. I knew exactly how to answer that question- I simply bore my testimony. I told him how I have come to know my Savior through my life experiences. shared how I have had to rely on him. shared how I have seen people differently on the mission and felt boundless love for them because I was able to see them as HE DOES- THERE ARE NO UNIMPORTANT PEOPLE! The truth is, I cant tell you everything I said because I don't remember- it was so spirit led. I talked of the atonement- but most of all I testified of His love for people, for us, for me, because that is what I think of and am in AWE of when I think of Christ. I cannot speak of Christ, especially as a representative of Him right now, without tears in my eyes. His patience and condescension for me- His example- His comfort. His grace. his meekness, his lonely, beautiful, painful, and perfect life. Then I finished by saying, "that is who Christ is to me." I am glad he asked such a beautiful question- with a question like that- how can the spirit NOT abound? thanks to him, he made it easy for us to invite the spirit . After I finished, or rather the spirit did, the whole room was silent- he just looked at me- but this time it was with a different tone- the whole spirit in the house changed. the spirit was there, I knew it. He just looked at me then he smiled- there was such light and softness in his eyes now- he smiled and said in a really soft voice, "thank you." His next question was, "How do you teach you gain salvation?" Instantly- the doctrine of Christ was brought to my mind, again i know full well that the spirit allowed me to have such clarity of mind and brought everything to my remembrance right when i needed it- I explained and outlined what we believe: faith in christ, repentance through atonement, baptism the gateway, then RECEIVING the Holy Ghost, then enduring to the end. again he was touched and impressed by the spirit, he just looked at me when i finished and then said, "you're going to bless a lot of lives." He just sat looking at me studying my face and smiling, then studying my companions face- our "challenger" had been transformed to our dear friend thanks to the spirit! We then talked openly and freely of various spiritual experiences we have experienced, we listened to his stories, we laughed, then he told us of miracles he had seen throughout his life- again the spirit prompted me to read a passage from mormon 9:15-19 with him from the BOM. I thought, I can't do that! sis. Mullikin had warned us that the BOM was a sore spot for him and he previously rejected it when she offered- but the prompting came again, this time with the thought, if we read it out loud to him, then he can feel the spirit, and then he will be more likely to accept it if he experiences and identifies feeling peace with reading it- without hesitation I flipped open to it, I made sure to emphasize that what we were about to read was from the Book of Mormon- he listened- I read- wow! those are some beautiful verses! they are the verses that talk about how god is a god of miracles and an unchangeable being- the room was so still, even his dogs didn't make a peep. After I finished- he looked up and had tears in his eyes- it was beautiful. He wiped his eyes and said, "thank you. thank you."
The power of that book is astounding!! it is palpable- i have such a testimony that the Book of Mormon is of God, and He truly uses scripture to communicate with us as His children here on earth. After that we sang a hymn, because he loves music. At the end of the lesson I felt prompted to offer him a Book of Mormon- i was afraid too...i shrank to do it because i didnt know how he would respond or what i would say, but the prompting came again and then i thought- i am the Lord's missionary! He will give me the words to say- I felt i just needed to be really honest with him so i said, "Mr. Smith- you are clearly a man of great faith. We have really felt the spirit here with you today- we don't want to be pushy, but sir I just can't leave here without offering you the Book of Mormon again and inviting you to read it on your own time. We fully respect love and cherish the Bible and know it is God's word, the Book of Mormon is simply another testament of Jesus Christ.They truly do support each other. i promise you will feel the Spirit of it as you read it, just as we did when reading from it a moment ago. So mr. Smith, will you accept a book of Mormon and read it, truly read it?" He shifted in his chair and leaned over to me and looked me straight in the eyes- "I will." he said, "I will because I am familiar with the spirit and how it works and I will know if this book is true by how i feel. I felt the spirit when you read that passage- so because of that- I will. I'll read it." wow. wow. cool. so yeah- we read the intro with him and he listened- we read moroni's promise- he smiled a warm and genuine smile- He took it and said again, "I'll read this. I'm not afraid to read this." He was just so happy! We all were! then at the end sister mullikin told him about church and he said, "I would be willing to come just to see the glow on these two faces!" (pointing to us) he said, "Just look at their faces! You can tell these ladies know god by the look on their faces. they glow." The spirit is amazing! he just thanked us profusely and kept saying what an amazing experience it was. afterwards me and sis. schmidt just sat in the car and reveled in the spirit! it was such an amazing experience and I really learned that i can rely on the lord and the Spirit in all things.
We also had a lesson with our investigator Dion this week- we have a lot of work ahead of us to truly get him ready for baptism and keep having some opposition with getting to meet with him- but man do i love that boy! and he still wants to do it! so we will do whatever it takes to meet with him each week and help him prepare himself for baptism. So please keep him in your prayers ok family? his date is Nov. 30th. and we prayed about it and want to set Jessicas baptismal date for Dec. 7th :) pray for them family and us so that we can be the missionary's God and these people need us to be! i need all the help i can Get from on High. I am nothing without it, of that I am sure.
Anyway- halloween was..weird haha we had to be in by 7 so i just crashed and we had an early bed time, but we did carve a pumpkin at a members home. I have been battling feeling sick and queasy and have a huge loss of appetite so im not sure whats wrong but fall back and the extra hour of sleep is really helping! I love it :) I just am happy and really love these people. oh! and we had a ward halloween party, which went GREAT because we had our investigator candy come with her kids and we had 3 other families invite nonmember families so I was in heaven networking and talking to all the potential investigators! it was great. I love you guys. Hope you are all doing well.
Much Love <3
sister b
Halloween Party
Me and Sister Schmidt
All our Halloween decor haha
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