This past week was a good one. Lots of great things happened and I'm here to share just a few of them with you!
1. We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire which was good and dandy. I was with Sister Davies and she's just amazing...I definitely learned a lot from her! I kind of went in with a stubborn/prideful attitude since "I've been serving longer" and "she shouldn't be showing me how to work if I have more experience than her". That was a huge mistake on my part because I really look up to her now! She's a fabulous missionary and she taught me the 'why' of my missionary service. Why did I leave my family for 18 months? Why do I choose to obey all these strict rules? Why am I out here on my own enduring many trials and suffering lots of persecution by the people of New England?
It's because I love the Lord and I love this gospel. I left my family and flew across the country to an unknown land with people I don't know because I wanted to. I wasn't forced onto the plane. I wasn't pressured into filling out my mission papers. Nobody is dragging me out of bed by my hair every single morning at 6:20 am. I do all of this because I know it's what I need to do. Sister Davies didn't say all of this, but as I was around her...it all came together for me. My mission truly is what I make of it and I am so glad that I'm here :)
2. On Friday we went to deliver a cute quote that we made to a less active family. We met with them a few weeks ago but we haven't been able to get a hold of them since. As we parked outside thier house, we saw cars in the driveway and lights on inside the house which told us they were home. This didn't mean they would answer the door though...we had this happen before and nobody came. So, we decided to try something new. Our sister training leaders told us about "binding the Lord" which is basically praying for something and EXPECTING Him to bless you with what you're wanting. Binding Him with a promise saying that you're there on His errand, but we expect Him to make something great happen. They promised us it works, so we gave it a try. We prayed in front of their house and said that we are here at this couple's house that we've been trying to meet with for months, and all we want is for someone to finally answer the door. We told Him we expected it, and ended the prayer. When we walked up to their kitchen door and knocked, nobody came. We heard voices, all the lights were on, etc...but no answer at the door! All of a sudden, Sister F. walks into her kitchen while talking on the phone and doesn't even notice us. She never heard us knocking. It was so awkward because it was night time outside and I didn't want her to look over at the door and see me standing there in the darkness with her kitchen light shining on me! but as soon as she started walking out of her kitchen, we hurried and knocked one more time and SHE CAME! She was happy to see us, took our quote, and said she'd call us to set up a dinner appointment. What!
We couldn't believe it.
As soon as we got back into the car, we were speechless. I immediately told Sister Brown that we were saying a gratitude prayer and we did. I am so certain that Sister F. was led to the kitchen at the perfect time so that she could hear us knocking. I know that He heard our prayer and blessed us according to our faith and I am so happy that we had that experience!
3. Last night we went with Sister Adams and the Nuons to a Lantern Festival and it was SO MUCH FUN! It was a fundraiser for ovarian cancer and we had a picnic, decorated our own lanterns, lit them, and set them out on a big pond along with everyone else's. It was absolutely beautiful.
At the beginning, someone was introducing the event and they made it very religious. They weren't LDS, but they were talking about how people taken from this illness are happy where they are and they aren't gone forever. He said that death isn't the end of this life. He also invited the spirit to dwell with us as we send off our lanterns. As he said these things, it occurred to me that many religions do have a lot of truth to them.
I look at it like this: The gospel of Jesus Christ is like a beautiful, perfect, stain glass window. When the Great Apostasy happened, the window was broken into thousands of pieces and it wasn't possible to put it all back together properly. Different people picked up some of the pieces and tried making a new window out of it, but they couldn't figure out how to make it back to the way it was without all the other pieces. Their windows had the same pieces, but it wasn't completely fixable. Then, Joseph Smith came and under the direction of Heavenly Father and our Savior, he was able to take every single piece of glass and renew it to its original perfection and beauty.
How blessed are we to be enjoying the fullness of this gospel? We have every last wonderful piece of this mirror. Churches around us have parts of the truth, but we have it all. I am so thankful for my knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this church is true and I am thrilled to be given the chance to share that testimony with others.
IM SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG but I'm just so full of gratitude :)
Exchanges!
Us with the Adams and the Nuons at the festival
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