First of all, Jeanbie, Cyber, and Jeftie have not been baptized yet, but they are scheduled to be baptized this Saturday! We are excited for them, and they all came to General Conference on Saturday. Sister Jeanbie even came on Saturday too. It is harder for them because it is in all English, but it was really neat to see what the spirit taught them and listen to them explain all the things they learned from the Prophet. Their sweet sincerity and desire for more knowledge is inspiring.
General Conference for missionaries is better than Christmas. Each session goes way too fast, and after it's all done, I feel ready for round 2! But It's important as well that we apply the things the spirit testified to us. It has been cool to use the prophets council and teachings in each appointment and we learned from each of the talks. We are spreading their simple, but profound messages as the spirit directs in each appointment. It is really amazing how it just comes to you. If we are continually studying the word of God, what we need to teach will be given to us at the right time. This promise is fulfilled each day in the life of a missionary. I don't want that feeling to stop. The feeling of receiving revelation and then immediately acting on it. It is the best rush of joy and excitement!
We had our missionary leadership council meeting again. And I am now addicted to Family History Work. We received council to teach Family History to every LA, active member, RC, and Investigators about to be baptized and submit their pedigree chart to the office. When we send in a new member's baptismal record, their pedigree chart has to be completed and attatched. The Spirit of Elijah just exploded in me. It is a different and fun spirit to feel. It is a very motivating spirit. We received a referral from a member to visit a Less-active and her non-member grandchildren. The children were not super excited to talk to us, but as we were talking to sister, we realized she was really obsessed with her handhed tablet. Each time she would tell us something, she would show us an example with her electronic device. By the time we could actually start the lesson, we helped her upload the app "gospel library" because it's free and showed her how to read or listen to the scriptures each day. Then we gave her the assignment about family history. She is on fire now and loves using her device for family history work. Even though she wasn't excited to listen to us in the beginning. Now she is excited for us to keep teaching her new things on her tablet. It was a first time for me to use an electronic device in a lesson, but it was cool. I love being apart of some of the changes in missionary work. And I love Family HIstory. It is a focus in this mission because we are the highest baptizing mission in the world. That means we have the most recent converts in the world. So we will be able to help each recent convert start their family history. It's just exciting... How many more times can I say the word exciting?? :) I am excited.
We had a huge tender mercy yesterday (SUNDAY). Over the last few weeks, our ward has stopped really working with us and they keep canceling all the appointments we are setting. We used to have a lot working with us, but five just left on missions. This week we had someone set up each day of the week, but they all canceled the morning of. We just kept smiling and working even though there was a huge storm that came in for 3 days and there were no people outside and everyone was sleeping so no one was answering the doors. We weren't able to proselyte one of the days because of our leadership meeting, and another day we had the zone training that we gave. Then we had general conference. Finally on Sunday, the sun came out and we were ready to go on member exchanges with two relief society members... but they both canceled five minutes before. I started crying on our way to our first appointment, but only a couple tears. These are my last weeks as a missionary, and I've been feeling everything spinning out of control. Then I realized, it is out of my control. But it is in the control of our Savior, our Master, and the leader of All missionary work. I said a silent prayer to pull myself together, and with my companion, we re-set our goals for the day. We only had 6 hours to make up for our losses that week, and visit all our investigators that have been gone, and find new investigators. Our goals were unrealistically high, but we prayed for them and ran like Abish from house to house. For our third appointment, we were in the middle of a sugar cane field with a split in the path. We were supposed to just head into the village, but I just remembered one of our investigators who hadn't been home for two weeks. I didn't really want to go to his house because it is far and we were in a hurry. But I just stopped and asked Sister Russon what we should do because the thought had popped in my head. She thought for a moment, and we went to this investigator. Five steps later around the corner, we met a HUGE family all talking and relaxing on the front of their house. We passed that house so many times but it was always empty. This time I talked to them and was joking with the little 2 year old who was blocking our path. The family was joking with him and telling him to move, and we ended up talking to the family. I asked if we could give their family a prayer... and ended up teaching a 10 minute lesson, setting a return appointment, and continued on to the investigator who was not home again. I am so grateful for the spirit and also for the spiritual sensitivity of my companion. Within our first hour, we met and taught two families and gained 9 new investigators. We gained three more new investigators later that evening. In multiple lessons throughout the day, random less-active members kept joining us, and in one situation we found out after the lesson that one of the "investigators" was a member. We were getting member-present lessons, without a member working with us. Not only were we able to meet our goals for the day, but we exceeded them. I love my companion, Sister Russon. And I love our companion, the Holy Ghost. This is God's work. He has a plan. And anything is Possible. I love you all and for the amazing things I learned from you my whole life! Lots of love,
Sister Smoot
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