Glad to
hear you're all doing well and going to all sorts of different places. I loved
hearing about the sealing that mom and dad went to! As a missionary, you just
gotta keep your sights set on that goal, and realize that even if it's 1 in a
million, it makes all the work worth it. I also loved all your ideas for
activities, getting people to church, etc. You guys are just great!
Okayo
anyways! Soooo this week was a good one! I kinda feel like I'm finally
getting into the swing of things. But, I did read a scripture the other day
that said "Wo unto him that is at ease in Zion"...so, I definitely
can't be at ease. A big theme at the VC is being "zealous", so I'm
trying to have lots of zeal both in the VC and the area.
Well, I
guess I'll begin with Wednesday...which is when we had zone development
meeting/interviews. It was a really good day, I learned lots and lots. I was
lucky enough that I was the first one interviewed by the president out of the
whole mission! So I got him when his mind was fresh haha :) But that was a
really good interview, he gave me a few scriptures that I really needed...I'll
tell you them, and you can look them up for yourselves :) Words of Mormon 1:7,
1 Nephi 18:3, D&C 123:17, Ether 12, Mosiah 26:29, and Proverbs 3:5-6. He
just like spouted off scriptures, he's definitely inspired. So that was good,
since the interview I'm trying to focus more on going up unto the mount to pray
unto the Lord, and to cheerfully do all things which lie in my power.
Wellll...one
crazy thing that's happened this past week is PHONECALLING in the VC. So, if
you'll remember, how I didn't confirm any phonecalls (meaning noone that I
talked to accepted to have missionaries visit them) for the first like 6
weeks of my mission. Well, since October 1st, I've confirmed TEN! So, it's been
pretty awesome. But it's really cool, Elder White was just like "it's that
irrevocable law", that if you work hard and work diligently, the Lord
makes it happen. So, I've had some really good conversations over the phone.
ONe was with a lady that was recently diagnosed with cancer, and she sounded
really weak over the phone. So she accepted to have missionaries come over, and
I just tried to be as comforting and hopeful as possible. Then, when I called
the member to let them know, I found out that the lady I had just called had
recently found out that her 6 month old baby has cancer as well. Oh my
goodness...so man, I just realized how much she is in desperate need of comfort
right now. I also spoke with several ladies who were recently divorced and/or
separated. Also, I was able to confirm a phonecall of this random cab driver! A
less active man came into the VC, and he was like "well...i could refer
the guy who was driving the cab I was just in" So random! But he did, and
I got a hold of Gary the Cab Driver, and Gary accepted missionaries. Crazy.
Hahaha. So yeah, that's been really awesome...I'm very grateful to just see the
Lord's hand. He always provides the people who are ready! We just have to do
our part.
Well,
in other VC news, I had a pretty incredible experience with this one visitor
last week, one that I will not soon forget. So I'm in the exhibit, and this guy
is looking at this picture of Christ, and he just looks really beat up. And so
I start trying to have a conversation with him. He's about like 35, a member,
totally normal/sharp guy. I start talking with him, and he proceeds to tell me
that on September 18th, his birthday, he found out his wife had been cheating
on him with a guy she met on Facebook. since then, they've split up, she took
their 4 kids with her, and now he is completely, completely alone. The guy had
at one point before been Elders Quorum President, but leading up to the split
he had been going kind of inactive, and he was just completely blaming himself
for the entire situation. So anyways, I'm talking to this guy who is just in
the lowest of all lows, and I'm like...how in the world could I possibly do
anything to help him. He described his feelings like this: "I feel like I'm
in a pitch black field. For a long time, I was walking through the field,
seeing a little bit because I was holding a flashlight that the devil had
given me. Now, the flashlight is gone, and I'm standing, all alone, waiting for
the sun to rise." So basically, we had this incredible conversation, that
was just completely spirit driven. All of these metaphors and thoughts popped
into my head that I had never before thought of, and we just talked all about
the Atonement. So yeah, it was one of those just awe-inspiring conversations.
We talked for probably 45 minutes, then he had to go, but he said he'd come
back. Then...on Saturday, he came back! And I saw him and I was like "HOW
ARE YOU?" and he was just like "So much better." and he just talked
about how he felt very literally like a burden had been lifted off his
shoulders, that chains had been broken, that he had been filled, like all the
muck in his mind was taken away. It was incredible. It's just crazy...this man
was completely HEALED. And I feel like I've been able to witness several
instances of that before, of just the Atonement completely healing someone, and
you can't mistake it for anything else. It's like comparing band-aids to
surgery, you can recognize the difference between true healing and just a quick
fix. So, it was pretty incredible. Just like "what just happened?"
And people always talk about how you feel "humbled" when you see that
you've taken part in something so incredible, but it's true. He told me how
grateful he was for me, and all I could feel was humbled...I had really become
a small tool in the Lord's hands to help bring a small part of that miracle to
pass. So yeah...awesome experience of the week!
So...to
sum up everything else! Haha the area is going well, we had 4 investigators at church!
3 of them were like under the age of 13, but that's okay hahaha. One was a lady
named ana. Sister Tejada had the feeling that we should visit her...she's an
old investigator that they could never find. So we went to her house, and she
was sitting out on the porch. She proceeded to tell us that she had gone up to
UTAH for conference with her LDS friend, and that she had loved it! And wanted
to come to church on Sunday! So...she came! And testimony meeting (my 1st one
in the mission field...hahaha it was funny) was really good! Her firend bore
her testimony, and a recent convert, 22 yr old Lupe, bore her testimony of
missionary work, because she had gone up to conference too. Those two
testimonies were perfect. So, I have high hopes for Ana. She already knows
several people in the ward, and a lot of people greeted her there. We also were
able to serve the members more and work with them more in church yesterday. We
covered primary so a lady could go to the mormon.org training, and we covered the
library for the 3rd hour so the president's wife could go to sunday school with
him. So that was good. So yes, things are goin welllllllllll! I had planned to
send you pictures, but I'm running out of time. I'll send some next
week...they're not too exciting. Mostly they're just like pictures of gross
insects we've found in our apartment or doing something that mildly resembles
normal life on a pday hahaha. But I love you all! Thanks for all of your
support, have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Fors
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