Love and Chastising Go Hand in Hand

Love and Chastising Go Hand in Hand

This week has been a great learning experience. The Lord loves me so much that He chastised me haha. Most of you who have served missions know that a mission has this funny way of magnifying all your weaknesses 10 fold, and this week one of my weakness has been magnified 70 x 7. I'll give you a little back ground on what brought about this realization; this week we had 8 appointments fall through on us (Mitzie, Grace, Chris, Rose, Kimberly etc..). By Friday I was feeling pretty discouraged and couldn't figure out why these awesome investigators had suddenly turned cold. Sister Williams and I sat and discussed and came to the realization that we both lacked Humility. We have been teaching and trying to find people on our own knowledge, not relying on the Lord to help us and guide us to those who he has prepared. Our prayers have lacked sincerity and now we and our investigators were paying the price. My stomach had this sinking realization when I put 2 and 2 together. Because I had not put my trust and faith in the Lord to guide me to the elect and put the words in my mouth to those who we teach, I had let all our investigators down. The Lord truly must have infinite patience for dealing with us imperfect missionaries.

One particular instance of me being too caught up in my own logic was last week as a thought popped into my mind that we should NOT extend a baptismal invitation to Chris... I thought that was just me having a lack of faith cause Sister Williams and I had felt so good and confident that the Lord would provide! This thought occurred to me several times, but I ignored it. Sister Williams extended the baptismal invitation and Chris declined, which we were not too choked about, but our mistake took light in the coming days as Chris didn't show up to church and then cancelled on our appointments and didn't return our calls..... AH! I have been praying to have the gift of discernment, to have Heavenly Father lead me by the spirit so that I can help all our investigators, but when He tried to tell me Chris is not ready for baptism, I ignored Him and trusted in my own understanding. 

I felt terrible! I may have just messed this mans eternal salvation up for Him because Im ignorant and imperfect. So what do I do? I get on my knees and repent. This time I felt the need to call and apologize to Chris, to let him know that I ignored the spirit and that Heavenly Father knew he wasnt ready for baptism. So I called and left a message. Not 3 minuets later his wife calls us to scheduled an appointment. 

Lesson Learned: When you make a mistake, do not run and hid, the Lord is always there to help us right our wrongs. He will lovingly let us know our weaknesses and when we repent and humble ourselves before Him, He will help us. I cant describe the love and gratitude I feel towards our Father and Heaven over this experience and I can only hope and pray that by the end of my mission I will have learned how to fully rely on the Lord in all I do.

-> if anyone has advice for me send it my way! 

Zone conference last week and this is my MTC district!

moving on ---------->

Interesting and cool experiences this week

Interesting: I got spanked by an old Catholic Italian women on the street as I tried to share the gospel with her.....

Cool: Dante is a man who we've talked to once in the elevator in our apartments a few weeks ago and as we were walking in to our building for lunch he stopped us to ask us for the address to our church so he could go... he didnt show up but eh thats alright!

Cool: A man knocked on OUR door to talk to us about something and when he found out we were missionaries he told us if we were ever near his place to come over and teach him about God and then proceeded to give us his name and number. Unfortunately he lives on the east side of our mission, but transfer calls are this Sunday......

Awesome: Sister Williams and I, having been chastised already this week, have made a special effort to do everything we can to become more humble and even more obedient. Sunday roles around and it's 7:40 at night, and we haven't had the opportunity to talk with anyone and we still have companionship study we have to do before 9. We drive around for 10 minuets looking at bus stops and drive the main roads looking for anyone to teach, but the weather is bad and there isn't a soul outside. We drive back to our apartment and decide to pray that God will put 10 people in our path in 10 minuets. Now let it be known that our apartment is not near any main roads and not very many people walk down our street. However, less then 10 minuets latter and we have talked with 10 people and we didnt even leave our street. aka Heavenly Father will provide if you ask AND THEN act.

Super Sweet: A week ago, sister Williams and I challenged a family to give a way a Book of Mormon and their son Mark took it to heart. HE prayed and felt prompted to give the book to a friend he hadn't talked to since grade 5. It went well, his friend Zachary took the book and ended up coming with Mark to church on Sunday. Zachary has had some health issues so Mark asked him if he would like a blessing and Zachary agreed... the elders gave him a blessing and then we taught him. THIS NEVER HAPPENS! You cannot deny how present the Lord is when it comes to His missionary work. He knows everything that is going on and as long as we are willing to be humble and submissive, He will guide us to those who are ready and will direct us in the things to do and say. Where this will go, I'm not sure but I will most definitely be counseling the Lord on everything I do.

I am grateful for my weaknesses and I am grateful that the Lord loves me enough to show them to me. More importantly though, I am so grateful that despite these weaknesses, Heavenly Father is stilling willing to bless me =) 

I love  you all, embrace your weaknesses and glory to The Lord! 

Line of the Week:

After our investigator Grace leaves for a second to help her son and after I finish telling the awesome story of the great apostasy.

Sis Williams: Why are you yelling at our investigator?!

Me: What? 

Sis Williams: Stop yelling at our investigator

Me: Im enthusiastic...

Anyone who knows me knows exactly what Sister Williams was talking about haha poor Grace. 

Scripture of the Week: Ether 12: 27

After the sting that comes from being Chastised by the Lord, I hoped my scriptures to find comfort and flipped open to Ether 12. The whole chapter is amazing, but this stood out to me.

 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weaknesses that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." 

A Haiku for You:

Jesus Christ

Atonement at Work

Nations Healed  

Sister Hall

These are the NASTIEST mints you ever did eat! So I decided to eat them all at once...

And then spit them out over the balcony because they're just that gross.

Spagetti and bacon for dinner! AKA it's the weekend and we're running out of options..