First off a quick Shooooouut OOOOOOUUUTTTTTT
to my sister Jill who threw our parents an excellent surprise anniversary party! She put a ton of work into it and lets just say that I am glad to be all the way out here in Kingston Ontario ;) (Yaaaah I bet you are! Let's just say there is plenty of time for her to make up for it....haha)
On to some of the good spiritual feasting. I have been taught much this week and Heavenly Father has helped me to realize that He really is watching over His work and He is aware of everyone.
So we had a lesson planned with Jake for Wednesday @ 7:30 and because Jake is a guy, we as missionaries must have another girl to accompany us to the lesson. Unfortunately Sister Laing and I did not account for the fact that this week all the university students had midterms so for the past 2 days we had been frantically looking for another girl to come with us. All 9 of them were pretty swamped with school or had work.... gah! What to do what to do?! We prayed our little hearts out that God would provide a way for us to get a member to his lesson.
We were left with 2 options:
1. Get one of the older people in the ward to come teaching with us....
->not too bad, but Jake lives in a party house with other roommates and bringing someone who could be their mother to teach with us just felt awkward.
2. Teach at the university
->we really wanted to have a spiritual lesson and the university is not exactly the right place for that
We decided that going to the university would be our last resort so we ask a few of the younger ladies in the ward but all of them were busy.... we sent Jake the text asking him to meet us at the university. We would just have to put our trust in God that everything would work out... needless to say I was a little skeptical.
We got to the university and went searching with Jake for a free room in the library where we could at least have a little privacy, but because of exams all the rooms were full. We ended up sitting out in the common area where everyone walked past and to top it all off someone was playing some music really loud. My hopes of having a spiritual lesson were all but dashed
->oh ye of little faith!<-
So we start talking with him about how his week had been going and such, just trying to get a feel of where we were going to take this lesson when he started asking us questions about the Word of Wisdom. We had barely begun talking about it when lo and behold Scott Jackson, one of the YSA members, comes over and sits down... jaw drop... Scott is an incredible member missionary and is SO good at teaching. We fill Scott in on some of the concerns Jake has regarding the Word of Wisdom and then proceed to the greatest lesson on the WOW that I have had on my mission. A guys perspective was exactly what Jake needed to hear. The people walking past and the music playing became background noise as all of Jakes questions and concerns were answered. It was honestly crazy. Jake had gone into this lesson doubting the need for the WOW and left having a totally different perspective on it.
Oh and get this, at the end of the lesson Jake commented on how we didn't open up with a prayer. We explained to him that we didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable cause it was out in public. He said that he didn't care so we said a closing prayer. After the prayer Jake leans back in his seat and has this content smile on his face. He tells us that this his is favorite part of the lessons. During our conversations he always has questions, comments, and "what if's" running through his head but when we say the prayer everything goes away and he just feels peace, like everything is going to be alright...... GAH! I love the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reflecting back on how the events unfolded I saw Gods hand. He knew that Jake needed to hear what Scott had to tell him, He knew that sitting in that common area Scott would find us. If we had done that lesson at Jakes house with someone else it would not have had the effect on Jake that God was looking for. We truly are just hand puppets in this work and I LOVE it! If we put our trust in God that He is watching over us and is aware of us, then what need is there for us to worry about sharing the gospel with someone or doing something else that can be scary?
The icing on the cake is that a few days latter when we met with Jake he told us that since the last time we met with him he hadn't had a cup of coffee AND he almost went without drinking buuuttt his friends pressured him into doing it.
We had begun teaching a Chines exchange student named Maeglin (he chose his English name from a character from LOTR...winning!) The first lesson we had with him was not very promising. We went over the plan of salvation and he was fairly skeptical of the whole thing. His perspective was that if a large enough group of people believed in something they could manifest it.... hence the concept of God. Going into this lesson we were planning on wrapping up the plan of salvation. I started to recap what we had talked about previously and had mentioned about how our time on earth was a time to live the gospel which brings us happiness. He asked us what the gospel was and I was debating on if we should go into it, but I figure "what the heck!" So we begin talking with him about what exactly the gospel of Jesus Christ is and the spirit immediately fills the room. Maeglin's whole demeanor changes as he begins to understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. We begin talking with him about baptism and ask him what it would mean to him to have all of his sins forgiven and be given a clean white page to start anew. He thought for a moment and explained to us how he is not a happy person and how he has hurt a lot of people in the past and how he seeks forgiveness from them. The spirit was strong as we testified of the love and forgiveness of God and how He wants him to have a happy and fulfilling life. This time instead of debating faith, he expressed his believe that if God was real He would be his friend and would help him and how he wanted to find out if He was there. We committed him to be baptised on November 24th :)
This work is Glorious!
Heads up = Jess should be getting baptised this week!
Well I am running short on time again -_-
I love you all! I will do my best to write my endings first so you get the good stuff too!
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| Best companion EVER |
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| Beaver tails on campus! |
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| Companionship unity! Sister Stats, my sister training leader, and I decided to match. Vickie & Kianna would be proud |
Jeg vil bare at dere skal vite at dere har en helt fantastisk datter, hun er den beste misjonaren jeg noen gang mott!! :) Dere har all grunn til og vare stolte av henne, hun er veldig god! Jeg elsker henne!! Ha en flott uke!
-that is from Sister Waal. I wanted her to write my whole letter in Norwegian cause I thought it would be funny to make you guys use google translate buuuuuuuuuuuttt I didn't
Scripture of the Week: Alma 42:31
"And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mast bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen."
A Haiku for you
in Gods hands
doubts falling away
we will trust
Sister Hall
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