Hola Everyone!

Wow...it's 2012! So strange! I was thinking about that this morning and just giggled to myself when I realized that maybe we'll find a few more investigators somewhere around November this year...what with Armageddon coming on the 21st of Dec. and whatnot. Hahaha. Oh boy...people are crazy! :)

This second week was pretty......good? Haha. We definitely had some ups and some downs. I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but on my first day tracting we knocked on a few apartment doors trying to find a family, but instead we found a guy named Tony! He seemed really interested and told us to come back. Well, after several days of dropping back by and him telling us that he was sick/the house was a mess/his wife wasn't home/etc we FINALLY set up a new appointment with him. :) It was great sitting down and talking with him and his wife! They've only been married a few years and have one child together, then one each from other relationships. He is from New Iberia/New Orleans, LA (I gave him one "Who Dat" for good measure...hahaha) and she's from Spokane. Anyway, we had a good little lesson and we set up a church tour with them! :) Another new investigator that we have is Jennifer. Sis. Everill and her old companion tracted into her a few weeks before I got here. :) We have a church tour with her tonight! :) So, we have a few new investigators! Hooray!

As for updates, the Three Amigos, as I like to call our C&S house men, are doing well! Darryl is still on date for Baptism and Rob is just an amazing guy! One of the GREATEST miracles this week was walking into our church building and seeing BOTH of them there this week!!!! :) They both looked sharp and Rob, of course, had the biggest smile on his face! - He's like the biggest little kid you'll ever meet! :) Darryl was grinning and was happy to see us. He is about a 6'7" African American that has SUCH a strong testimony of the Atonement of Christ! During Sacrament meeting, it's amazing to me how much I pray and pray and PRAY that they will feel the spirit and have a spiritual experience while they're in the church. It's always so noisy and quirky speakers sometimes make things interesting. As I sat there praying, the most amazing thing happened...the last speaker felt like he needed to share a different story that he didn't really want to share, but he didn't know why he needed to. The story related SO well to both of our investigators and it was just a testimony builder to me that the Lord definitely has investigators best interests at heart as they turn to Him! I was so excited when Darryl and Rob both decided to stay for Sunday School and Rob even stayed for Priesthood! SO COOOOOL! :)

I told you about a few of the ups, but there were definitely some rough patches this week. On one day, EVERY single one of our appointments fell through and we had hours and hours to tract. It was a hard pill to swallow. Our numbers had been really low this week compared to the week previous and I was definitely feeling blue. Well, as we perked up and went out we had a really cool experience. We got to a slightly sketchy part of our area and we found a creepily tucked-in house back in the trees. We looked at each other and questioned whether it was safe or not, but in the end we found ourselves knocking at the door. Hahaha. Oh dear. When a non-scary guy opened the door, we were relieved! My first instinct was to think that he was a member of the church! As we talked to him, we found out he had been baptized when he was 8, then stopped going to church when he was 10 or 11! His wife isn't a member and they've been considering going to a church! (Man, does the Lord prepare people!) He gave us his number and asked to call back to set up a church tour appointment! It was an exciting find amidst our day of upsets! :) One of those tender mercies/miracles moments.

Later that night, we had a REALLY rough experience. We were following up on a referral from an Elder in our district on two families who has a sister that is a member. The first house was...interesting...hahaha. We knocked and suddenly we heard people yelling at us from the 2nd story window...yeah, they didn't even come to the door! hahaha. Anyway, they began to explain to us that they believed in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, none of the Mormonism stuff. It's always interesting how we believe the same thing as other people, yet they don't see it! They told us that they're Born-Again Christians. We thanked them for their time and headed to the second house. When we got there, we realized the previous people must have tipped these guys off because they had a "speech" prepared for us Mormon Missionaries. :/ We talked on the doorstep for about 5 minutes before he invited us in out of the cold. We should have seen it coming...he drilled us for about an hour about what WE believed. Needless to say, it was an exhausting event. We walked back to the car and my initial reaction was to curl up in a little ball. We had tried our hardest to bear our testimonies and not be affected by what he had to say, but it was definitely hard.

That night, I sat contemplating the events of the day and Richard (the Born-Again that drilled us) wouldn't leave my mind. At that moment, though, I felt a wave of peace come over me. I knew that he had brought up a lot of things that could have shaken my testimony, and yet at the end of the night I KNEW - more than I ever have known before - that Christ is my Savior. That prayer IS a two-way communication with the Lord. That the Book of Mormon is TRUE. That we must do more than just have faith in Christ...we must also have good works. I knew that I must live the commandments to be able to return to my Heavenly Father and that we ARE accountable for our actions. In a nutshell, I knew that that experience we had with Richard was a blessing in disguise. His whole purpose that night was to shake to young women of their testimonies and beliefs, yet without meaning to he completely STRENGTHENED them. Without that test of my faith, I could not have felt that growth. :D The Lord works in mysterious ways, my friends and family. Miracles DO happen - I see them unfold before my eyes every single day. We just have to have the faith that He can work miracles and we must pray for them with that perfect faith! :) As our MTC Branch always said, "Obedience brings blessings - Strict obedience brings miracles!" I love this gospel and the opportunity I have to serve the Lord at this time in my life! I've only been out for 1 month and I can honestly say that if you've considered a misson, DO IT!...It's such an amazing experience! :)

I had better run, but I'm uploading some pictures on here. Some of them are a bit random, but they're just a glimpse into the life of our fun little companionship! Hahaha. The mailbox is a bit of a long, funny story. To make it short, I was so excited to finally get a package and Sis. Everill got her Departure Travel Plans that I forgot to get the keys out of the mailbox. About 5 miles later and no keys to the church building we realized what happened! haha. Thankfully when we drove all the way back, the keys were still sitting there, untouched. The Lord was looking out for us. We thought it was funny. The piggie picture was just fun. They were HUGE pot-belly pigs and loved the visitors! The tree is our small Charlie Brown tree! It brought the Christmas spirit into our apartment! The other is of Sis. Everill and I out driving to an appointment! :) We have some great laughs everyday. We joke that our companionship was definitely a "match made in heaven!" Haha. That is a HUGE blessing within itself!

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! If you haven't already written a letter, please do! I would LOVE to hear how you're doing! If writing is too hard for you, shoot me an email by Sunday night! :) (Letters are much better, though!)

Sister Morgan

 

P.S. On the 15th of this month we get to have.....Elder Jeffrey R. Holland....at our STAKE CONFERENCE! IN PERSON! We get to take our investigators to listen on the front row! How amazing is THAT?!?! :) Loves!

 

(Sorry, I'll figure out how to flip these for next time!)