To start off, we had the COOLEST Zone conference the other day. President Clayton is one of the most brilliant people I know. He went over 19 evidences of the Book of Mormon and I sat there for an hour and a half getting my mind blown. If I had hours to email I would just spill out all these things I learned (like the definitions of the polysyllabic words in the subject line) but it would make no sense. I took gnarley notes so that'll just have to suffice. And after all this information overload, President just looks at us and says "And none of this matters." It was cool to feel the excitement of learning the evidences of such a beloved book, and then feeling the confirmation that literally none of those physical or intellectual evidences matter. What matters is the quiet feeling of peace that accompanies when we read. That is evidence enough.
This week was a tough one. We got dropped by Geraldo, our solid progressing investigator yesterday. Turns out he didn't tell his wife about us coming over and when we showed up to his house on Sunday to introduce ourselves to her, things didn't go over too well. Super sketchy...so we are pretty bummed. Diana, the investigator that has been meeting with us since before I got here, got her hands on some anti stuff and now won't meet with us, and our investigators that used to be reading and praying now aren't. It all boils down to the Book of Mormon. It is SO necessary that i don't even have words to describe how much I want these people to read it. Dang....Satan knows how integral the Book of Mormon is. He knows that when people read it, and KEEP reading it, they become truly converted and so he does every single thing he can to stop people from reading. It breaks my heart. It freaks me out that as members, we are in danger of the same trap. Baptized or not, the Book of Mormon keeps the testimony burning. So read it. Read it every day. Even if you are tired, or there is no time, keep reading.
I've been on a Book of Mormon rampage, lately....Can ya tell?
But throughout all the discouragements of the week, there have been some HUGE miracles and I still can't stop smiling! We added a new investigator named Hector last week (the man we contacted and got with a date!) and we had some pretty powerful lessons with him. It'll never cease to amaze me how perfectly God knows His children-Hermana Hansen and I teach him very simply and in a different way than most of our investigators. We aren't really sure why, but it feels so cool knowing that God is putting what he needs in your mind. He read a little of the Book of Mormon and loved it and has the best questions!! I love teaching him-feels more like "reminding" than teaching. Feels good:)
We also added a new family who currently hold a great part of my heart. The parents' names are Luis and Priscilla and they have 4 beautiful kids. Luis only speaks Spanish and Priscilla only speaks English and Tagolog (it's fun teaching those lessons..s) and "prepared" doesn't even begin to describe it. Luis seemed more interested at first but we went over the other day when just Priscilla was there and she opened up a TON. She's still a little hesitant, so if you could keep her and her family in your prayers, that would be great!!
We went to the Valley on Wednesday for exchanges:) it's a cool feeling, going back to your first area. I haven't served there since October but it feels so dang familiar. The same heavy feeling that i felt when i was there for the first 8 months of my mission came right back-that area is so special to me. It's different and requires a different kind of work. It felt like going home, driving into that place! But it also felt like coming home driving back to Santee. I have this goal that I want every area to feel like home when I am serving there. The Valley, Chula Vista and Santee are all home. What a good life.
We went to a members house and I had 8 tacos. Not even ashamed. They were small I promise.
This week I can't stop thinking about how much I love the Book of Mormon. I'm reading it again with a couple of things in my mind as I read and so many new things are standing out to me. I've gotten some admonitions, lots of words of comfort, and an incredible amount of direction this time around. I love it!
And I love you!! I hope you are all SO happy this week and that you can feel the prayers being said for your by MANY people here!! I love it when investigators and members pray for my family...know that they love you!
Hermana Hess
No comments:
Post a Comment