Where are the weeks even going?
This morning I said goodbye to a missionary whos going home TODAY and
another that starts her mission tomorrow! Its crazy, I remember when
that was me! Probably not the greenest of all greenies but green
nonetheless.
This week. Ah man it was all over the place. For the first time we had
genuine investigators HIDE from us. It was only when a kid bashed open
the door from the outside that we saw the dad pretending to be on the
floor with a fever, the mum hiding in the shadows in the kitchen and
the daughter in the fetal position behind the door. Great. But luckily
we have a bunch of other investigators. We've been working hard to
strengthen the centro area close to the chapel and even though its
been a tougher couple of weeks doing a lot of finding and working on
part member families who don't want to be taught, we're starting to
see the successes. This week we had a ton of teens at church whos
parents are less active, so we're hoping through a bit more work and
their example their parents will follow them. We have this one family
in particular, the mum wants the kids to be baptised but the dad is
less than supportive of them and is a less than great example for the
kids. The two teenage boys, being teenage boys are generally less than
excited about becoming active church members, but over time we've seen
the change in them. The dad is drunk every time we go there and treats
his wife terribly, and even though the boys don't really enjoy church
and don't have any friends there, its like they know the gospel really
will help their dad to be a better person so they do it even though
its hard. We taught them with their mum this week and after the
longest time, both boys prayed in the lesson. The mum cried. That dad
might take years yet to change but whatever happens we don't give up
on them.
We also found the worlds best new investigator family on Christmas
Eve! They have 8 kids, 6 who live with them. The dad was less than
keen until we finally got him to sit down and listen and now hes
really having some of his questions answered that hes had for years.
He basically taught himself the Restoration the other night, he was
like it would make sense for the true church to have this, and then
he'd read a passage of the BoM and be like, annnd you do, so good. The
mum is amazing. Shes proof to me that they're no 'type' of person that
we're looking for, we're all children of good. She came to church and
brought all the kids and answered every question in every class. She
said shes been to every church looking for the true one and she knew
this was it before she even came. She just gets it. I love people like
that. I honestly know that the Spirit drove me to her house on
Christmas Eve. If I hadn't seen so many other miracles occur in my
life, finding her alone would make me believe. They're definitely
going to have road blocks along the way, and I won't be here to see
them get baptised but they're on the way. One other thing I realised
is that she lives next door to a member who always invited her kids to
activites and thats how shes always remembered that our church was
good. Months ago when I first got here Bishop gave us a list of names
of members and told us that he was inspired that we needed to ask them
for referals and this members name was on it, we just were always too
busy to go to her house and ask her, and if we had it probably would
have been this lady. It also strengthens my testimony that the
prepared people will be found eventually, and whether or not we are
prepared will be whether or not were the missionaries who are blessed
to teach them, and how much sooner their lives will be blessed! I also
have a stronger testimony that when a Priesthood leader tells me hes
been inspired that I should do something, I should probably do it
right away.
We also had a special experience with one of our RC's this week. We
couldn't do the lesson we had planned so I shared a story from general
conference that I liked and asked her if she'd seen any miracles in
her life. She told us that her dad, who has now died, years before had
been sick and actually died but come back to life. That in itself was
a miracle, but he told them all about what he had seen in the spirit
world and all of the angels while he was briefly there. She said she
didn't believe it at the time until she heard about the Plan of
Salvation and realised these things can actually be real. The more I
get to know these people the more I can see how special each and every
one of them is to our Heavenly Father, and I really think of them as
my brothers and sisters.
Missionary work! If you can get out here, get out here now. There is
nothing, anything in this world like it.
Mahal ko kayo lahat, mga guwapo at guapa!
Sister McKim
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