Man is it a great week to be a missionary!
Work
here is going really well, we are blessed with people to teach and
members who are AMAZING! They are all about missionary work and everyone
cares about every person of the community!
A few quite amazing missionary experience and then i
will get to the most exciting part of the week! First we had a second
lesson with a young adult named Dallas. After sitting down, we asked him
how reading the Book of Mormon went. He told us good but he didn't
understand lots of it. So we asked him what he read so we could help to
try to explain it. He then says, "oh part of 1st Nephi, 3rd Nephi, and
Mormon." It was so awesome to see someone receive a Book of Mormon and
run with it. We talked a lot about study tools we have and how important
it is to make sure we understand the content rather than just reading
through. We then talked about the Plan of Salvation and how God is
watching out for us and knows us. It was great! As we were explaining.
Every once in a while we would ask if what we were sharing was making
sense, he then would respond that yes, yes it does, it makes a lot of
sense. I feel as if the Spirit is truly giving him the answers that he
has been looking for. we are simply tools in the Lords hands to get him
this information. He talked about how he wanted to know what we believed
because there is a lot of evil in the World and you never quite know
what is the truth. That one experience could have made my week right
there!
But wait, there's more! We had an Family home
evening with Wendy, someone we are teaching, and her 4 oldest children.
They were a little shy at first being in the home of someone they
didn't know. But as I was saying before the members are amazing here!
Pretty soon they realized that they were in a safe enviornment and truly
began to shine. Her kids are ages 7,6,5,4 and they are generally a
pretty roudy bunch (a very cute roudy bunch). Along with the Fieldings
(who have 4 kids 7 and under) we taught the kids about obeying God and
the Ten Commandments. For Wendy to see that her children were actually
learning things and remebering about Jesus put a huge smile on her face,
especially when we got to honor thy father and thy mother. It was a
great opportunity to show how powerful learning from our families is. It
is truly a blessing from our Heavenly Father to have such experiences.
I know you are all thinking how this email could get
better, well here it is. This last Saturday we had a meeting with the
entire Washington Kennewick mission. Why? Good question. Because Elder
M. Russell Ballard wanted to talk to us. As well as Richard Maynes and
our area 70 Elder Risenmay. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! When he first came in
each missionary got an opportunity to shake his had, what an experience
it was to have the chance to introduce myself to a member of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles! A living servant of our Savior Jesus Christ who
has dedicated much of his life to Him. It was such a good conference.
All of them gave talks that were truly amazing and I learned a lot from
each and every one of them. I could sit here for hours and discuss all
that was shared with us. But i received a witness of God's love, not
only for me but every single person who has walked upon the Earth. They
talked a lot about the fact that you will never teach those who you
don't find, and that we need to literally talk to everyone! He also
talked to us about member missionary work. He worries that as members
are asked to do more that missionaries will feel that the members have
more responsibility than we do and we need to let the members act and
wait for them to give us someone to teach. He then said that we need to
be the example and that if we are working hard the members will see that
we love them and their area. He said with those efforts together,
Members and Missionaries giving it our all, then we will see the
miracles of member missionary work! So i will give Royal City my all.
Since I have been here I have gained such a great love for the people
here that I never want to leave!
Also from Elder Ballard, he said that we have to
know the gospel to be able to share it. He said we don't need to know
every detail there is but continually study the principles so that they
are on our minds, and then share them. It is better to have a knowledge
and share it with others. He said that they (the leaders of the church)
are aware of Satan and what we are up against, but then he said... BUT,
we also know the Lord. The Lord is powerful and he will always win over
Satan.
Elder Maynes and Elder Risenmay both told stories
about knocking one more door. Their stories were pretty similar in the
fact that they were knocking door after door without finding much
success. As they were finally getting ready to go home or start
something else, they decided to knock one more door. And can i just tell
you something? ALWAYS knock that last door! That night after the
conference we had tried quite a few houses, it was dark and no one
really wanted to talk to us. The last week here has been crazy for
everyone with work. Anyway after knocking quite a few doors. we found
ourselves in a group of 4 trailers that we have knocked many times. We
knew one wasn't home. Another was busy and the other didn't answer, yes,
leaving ONE more door. We had knocked on that trailer a few times, when
cars were there with no success, but we decided it couldn't hurt to
knock one more. As you can guess, she answered, let us in and we had a
great discussion on prophets and the restoration of the church and she
said we could come back again. Do i know where it will go teaching her?
absolutely not, but God answers prayers and always has a plan for us
even if we can't see it.
This week I have grown a lot, at least I feel like a
different missionary. The importance of why i am here has really come
to the surface. I have been humbled and served and enlightened by an
Apostle of the Lord. My faith in the Lord has never been stronger in my
life. I know what Faith is, I know it is real and that i have the Good
hope in Christ that will anchor my soul (Ether 12:4). Looking for
scriptures on faith? read Ether 12, it uses the word a bigillion times. I
love you all and hope you are finding joy in your journey of life. We
have the freedom to choose what our attitude will be in life. Choose to
be happy!
Hermana Ray
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