Hey y'all!
What an amazing week we have had. :) Like all weeks, there was plenty of ups and downs, but the Lord blessed us for our efforts. . . And taught at least me a thing or two. :P The first and perhaps funniest thing I learned came last Monday.
You see, we had a pretty uneventful Sunday last week. No investigators came to church and we didn't have too much happen. That night I asked for a more eventful day. Of course I meant eventful to find people ready to accept the gospel. :P Well! Fast forward to that Monday. We found out the night before that a main gas line to Georgia burst, leaving the whole state with practically no gas and the sister missionaries searching for gas. Thus started our eventful day. :) We went to 5 gas stations before finding one that had gas. That crisis averted, we ended P-day and went to a dinner appointment with a member. Our dinner conversation somehow lead to weird things that happens to missionaries and members going out with missionaries. I shared my story of "Miss M" the prophetess, Sister Williams talked about some people in her last area speaking in tongues and saying rather strange prayers. :P We also talked about how often we run into a Buddhist tracting- which is like never- and also how awkward it is when people come to the door, peeking their head through the window, then telling you they are not wearing anything so they can't open the door. :P
Well! With dinner over, we set out to tract the rest of a neighborhood we had so much success at. While there, we said a prayer with a Buddhist, and met a lady who couldn't answer the door cause she wasn't wearing cloths. But! to top it all off was when we went across the street to contact a potential we met last week. It was the woman who's daughter died recently, and we wanted to talk to her about the plan of salvation. We knocked at her door and she let us in, telling us our timing was perfect. She then launched in to this whole crazy life story of her getting into drugs, going to jail. Getting out, and becoming a preacher. Then creating a cd album of christian music which she promptly gave us. And at the end she talked about how people think she's a prophet. :P But that she doesn't know what else she needs to do. She thinks her life is over. So in response to that, I challenged her to read the book of mormon and she would find her answers. Well! She placed her hand on the book of mormon, spoke a weird prayer in tongues. My companion and I looked at each other and began praying REALLY hard that she would receive an answer. . . And she did. . . In the index. :P She pointed to Counselor, Jesus Christ. However, she took it as her needing to become an counselor, and not counseling with Christ. -.- At the end, we walked out of the lesson, and ended the day kind of in a daze. We didn't exactly know what happened. Looking back on it, this investigator did receive an answer for her prayers and she wants us back. It was just a really odd way of doing it. Also thinking back, I learned that I need to be more specific in my prayers. A LOT MORE SPECIFIC. Hahaha! :)
His love proclaim thru days of mortal strife,
After learning that very important lesson, the rest of the week wasn't quite that strange. :) We worked very hard in the hot sun. Not too much happened, though, and we were feeling kind of discouraged. However, on Saturday we had a couple miracles. :)
The first was pretty unexpected. You see, a little while a go one of our investigator's, actually this old mother of one of our investigators. Had complained to us about how small the book of mormon was and that she wish she could get a bigger copy cause she enjoyed reading it. We were surprised she was even reading the Book of Mormon, so we told her we would order her a large print copy. :) It came this past Saturday, and we picked it up at the church. Later that day, we dropped by this investigators house and saw the mother, sitting outside with her head slumped, smoking. You see, she suffers from terminal cancer I would assume due to a life time of smoking. It is one of those sad cases where they keep doing it even though it's killing them. However, we went over to her, and showed her the Book of Mormon. She at first looked really sad and in a lot of pain, but the moment she saw that book, her eyes lit up and she was on the verge of tears. We gave her the book and she immediately opened it up, put on her glasses and started reading. She pointed to a name and asked us how to pronounce it and we told her. Repeatedly, she kept thanking us and telling us this was exactly what she needed. She said that doctors hadn't yet approved her medicine and she had gone 4 days without it. She was in a lot of pain and had an awful day. But that book of mormon made it so much better. She put her cigarette down, let it burn out, and eventually excused herself to walk inside and read it. It was perhaps the sweetest scene I have seen on my mission. :) How one simple act and a Book of Mormon lifted someone's life from such darkness. We walked away feeling such peace and comfort knowing what we did was good.
Later that day, a member who recently had some major surgery and has been bed ridden called and asked us to pick up her medicine and some groceries and bring them to her. The nurses that she had the first few weeks after surgery have now been stopped and she can't go anywhere. When we arrived, we found out that this poor woman had gone several days without pain medicine. She was in tremendous amounts of pain and could barely get up to see us. We gave her the things she asked for and she was so grateful. She said, that if there was no one else's life that we touched today, we touched hers. Those were such encouraging words. We felt better, a lot better, about our efforts that week.
Thus saith our God: "Ye have eternal life!"
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
The best ending to our week was the General Women's Broadcast. What inspiring words were said to point us to eternal life. All of the talks were amazing, but I would just like to conclude with my testimony about President Uchtdorf's talk. He talked a lot about faith, and what it can do, and what it can't. But perhaps the biggest message I had as a missionary was the end. That faith is Trusting in God, in His love, and in His knowledge. And that we need to have the faith to "keep going to the 4th floor, last door." As a missionary I have experienced many doors slammed in my face. Many people not interested. And many miracles happened. In my close to 9 months of service I can say with assurance that Heavenly Father will not always give us our reward after our first try. Or our second try. Or ever our third. No, there are so many days that I have gone out, knocked entire streets, entire neighborhoods. And not found a single soul ready to hear the gospel. But, in the end, Heavenly Father WILL reward us. Sometimes, after a whole day of finding people and searching, the last door we knocked is the one. The place we needed to be. And the person we needed to touch and teach the gospel to. It's hard, I have learned that so many times, and will probably continue to learn that because I am very stubborn. :P However, I have found the most sweet, most precious blessings have come form that 4th floor, last door. It is true what President Uchtdorf said. I testify of that. Our reward will come, but until then, we just need to "walk by whatever faith we have, seeking to strengthen our faith."
Y'all's Southern Bell,
Sister Welch
Flowers I got for my birthday
More fun street signs
Our calendar with pictures of the fall and the tree of life
