A new transfer!
This is going to be a good one. My new companion is Sister Weidmann, she's from Switzerland! We will be serving in the Beehive House. That should be interesting since neither of us have served there haha but we're actually really excited. I think it will be a lot of fun! I attached a picture of Sister Ichikawa and I and a picture of Sister Weidmann and I too.
Well we had a great week. It's been filled with pre-transfer things. It's really weird to see these sisters leave because I am so close to a lot of them, and that means that we are the next ones to go. It's a strange feeling. I'm just so grateful I have another transfer I can just focus on missionary work and nothing else!
In one of the Sisters' departing testimonies, she told us something that her mission president outbound had told her. She said: "Don't be so faithless that you have to see the results of your efforts." I think that hit a lot of us hard! Frequently we are told that doing this or that will bring miracles, and so we expect that. We think, if I work my hardest and give it my all, Heavenly Father will reward us. But that's not the case. He has a greater vision for us. On Sunday, I had to give my departing talk (my class is so big we already had to start so we could get to everyone). My topic was about Elder Oaks' 'good, better, best' talk. It was actually really hard to prepare because I felt like I was preaching to the choir. But, it was neat to see how the spirit carried the topic into submitting to and following the Lord's will and how that will lead us to make the best decisions. I believe that we really will be blessed for being obedient and working hard, but it won't always be in the way we want, or even expect.The feeling of peace knowing that I did all I could do is the greatest feeling.
We met a new investigator on chat! I can't remember if we already talked about her. Her name is Brittany. Actually when she came on chat, I was really skeptical. Her name on the chat was Sally Shireman. Poeple never put their first and last name. And when we take chats, we can see what the people are typing as they type it, but they don't know that. So when Brittany was typing, she kept typing and then she would erase it and type something else totally different. Usually, that means the person is just messing around. She said that her friend is a member and when she was asking her questions she told her to come tomormon.org and to talk with missionaries. When we asked if she had ever been to church with her friend, she said, "Well I have considered going to church with her but I am confused about certain beliefs, like the baptism for the dead, why your not allowed to drink caffeine, how can I know that the book of Mormon is true to what God wants" These questions are like typical time-waster questions. Not all the time, but when they're all together like that, it's usually a member who is just messing with us, or missionaries trying to be funny, something like that. Usually when I think it's someone wasting our time I will say something like, these are great questions, could we cal you right now to answer them? And those who are not sincere will always say something like, oh I don't have a phone or, no, I'd rather chat, etc. And when I asked her that, she said, I'm out of minutes on my phone. I knew that was bogus haha. I thought she was a member but we kept responding and trying to do our best to give answers according to the spirit. Eventually the conversation got better and better. I tried to take those questions and take them in a direction where we could teach about baptism. We started talking about eternal families and how her family can be together forever. She said that's what she really wants for her family. We talked about some other things like Prophets and some other principles. She said she was going to have missionaries come over so we just told her that the missionaries will come and share more information with her and that they will invite her to do some things that will build her faith and give her a chance to learn the information for herself. We asked her that when she does that, and she prays about what they share with her and her prayers are answered, will she be baptized? She said she was already baptized. She started asking questions about Adam and Eve, but we didn't want to move on. We asked her, what if you could add to your experience with your baptism? She said it would never hurt to add, but wasn't sure what she could add. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how Christ taught that we have to both be baptized by the proper authority AND receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost in order for us to truly be baptized. After we taught about the Priesthood, we explained the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how special it is and what He does, how He can be with us 24/7. She said: "I have felt the holy spirit before, but I know that it's not always there, a big reason I believe it leaves me is because I am a smoker, and I am having trouble giving it up." We talked about how she can overcome that and be worthy of the Holy Ghost. We had to go, and we asked if we could continue to teach her and she said yes, and surprisingly quickly left her number AND said, "also my name is Brittany, I was a little skeptical at first so I used a different name, I don't like to be to trusting over the internet." I think she was honestly seeking, but she was just a little scared. We've been teaching her since, and she really likes the teachings of the church, especially eternal families, she just has some concerns she has to get through. I am still a little skeptical sometimes because it was a little weird using a different name and changing her answers, but I will always give the befit of the doubt because this is important. This is the Gospel, and I want her to have it. I would really regret it if I never talked to her and found out after that she had been sincere. It's taught me a lesson that even if people come online and they change their answers or use a bogus name, I should keep talking with them. You just never know what could happen. I could have lost out on an awesome investigator, a future eternal family.
This brings me to a cool story I wanted to share. Two of the departing Sisters that were in the same zone were previewing the church's FamilySearch Discovery Center exhibit here in the JSMB. It shows your family's ancestry and the converts and how they were converted. Well, these two sisters were checking out their family history. One of them pulled up their 4th Great-Grandfather who was a member of the church and had served a mission. The other pulled up her own 4th Great Grandfather, and as they looked at each other, they realized that the one Sister's 4th Great Grandfather had converted the other. He also helped them come to America. So without him serving a mission, the other wouldn't have been baptized, and the Sister probably wouldn't be in America and certainly wouldn't have come on a mission. I'm sure he didn't think he made that big of an impact but really, we just never know! I think we make bigger impacts than we know as members of the church. You just never know what could happen. That's why we should always open our mouths! Like I said at the beginning, we can't expect to see huge things come from it, but Heavenly Father will reward our efforts in some way, even if it's over generations of time!
So remember that this week and open your mouth because you just never know :)
Love you, have a great week!
Love
Well we had a great week. It's been filled with pre-transfer things. It's really weird to see these sisters leave because I am so close to a lot of them, and that means that we are the next ones to go. It's a strange feeling. I'm just so grateful I have another transfer I can just focus on missionary work and nothing else!
In one of the Sisters' departing testimonies, she told us something that her mission president outbound had told her. She said: "Don't be so faithless that you have to see the results of your efforts." I think that hit a lot of us hard! Frequently we are told that doing this or that will bring miracles, and so we expect that. We think, if I work my hardest and give it my all, Heavenly Father will reward us. But that's not the case. He has a greater vision for us. On Sunday, I had to give my departing talk (my class is so big we already had to start so we could get to everyone). My topic was about Elder Oaks' 'good, better, best' talk. It was actually really hard to prepare because I felt like I was preaching to the choir. But, it was neat to see how the spirit carried the topic into submitting to and following the Lord's will and how that will lead us to make the best decisions. I believe that we really will be blessed for being obedient and working hard, but it won't always be in the way we want, or even expect.The feeling of peace knowing that I did all I could do is the greatest feeling.
We met a new investigator on chat! I can't remember if we already talked about her. Her name is Brittany. Actually when she came on chat, I was really skeptical. Her name on the chat was Sally Shireman. Poeple never put their first and last name. And when we take chats, we can see what the people are typing as they type it, but they don't know that. So when Brittany was typing, she kept typing and then she would erase it and type something else totally different. Usually, that means the person is just messing around. She said that her friend is a member and when she was asking her questions she told her to come tomormon.org and to talk with missionaries. When we asked if she had ever been to church with her friend, she said, "Well I have considered going to church with her but I am confused about certain beliefs, like the baptism for the dead, why your not allowed to drink caffeine, how can I know that the book of Mormon is true to what God wants" These questions are like typical time-waster questions. Not all the time, but when they're all together like that, it's usually a member who is just messing with us, or missionaries trying to be funny, something like that. Usually when I think it's someone wasting our time I will say something like, these are great questions, could we cal you right now to answer them? And those who are not sincere will always say something like, oh I don't have a phone or, no, I'd rather chat, etc. And when I asked her that, she said, I'm out of minutes on my phone. I knew that was bogus haha. I thought she was a member but we kept responding and trying to do our best to give answers according to the spirit. Eventually the conversation got better and better. I tried to take those questions and take them in a direction where we could teach about baptism. We started talking about eternal families and how her family can be together forever. She said that's what she really wants for her family. We talked about some other things like Prophets and some other principles. She said she was going to have missionaries come over so we just told her that the missionaries will come and share more information with her and that they will invite her to do some things that will build her faith and give her a chance to learn the information for herself. We asked her that when she does that, and she prays about what they share with her and her prayers are answered, will she be baptized? She said she was already baptized. She started asking questions about Adam and Eve, but we didn't want to move on. We asked her, what if you could add to your experience with your baptism? She said it would never hurt to add, but wasn't sure what she could add. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how Christ taught that we have to both be baptized by the proper authority AND receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost in order for us to truly be baptized. After we taught about the Priesthood, we explained the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how special it is and what He does, how He can be with us 24/7. She said: "I have felt the holy spirit before, but I know that it's not always there, a big reason I believe it leaves me is because I am a smoker, and I am having trouble giving it up." We talked about how she can overcome that and be worthy of the Holy Ghost. We had to go, and we asked if we could continue to teach her and she said yes, and surprisingly quickly left her number AND said, "also my name is Brittany, I was a little skeptical at first so I used a different name, I don't like to be to trusting over the internet." I think she was honestly seeking, but she was just a little scared. We've been teaching her since, and she really likes the teachings of the church, especially eternal families, she just has some concerns she has to get through. I am still a little skeptical sometimes because it was a little weird using a different name and changing her answers, but I will always give the befit of the doubt because this is important. This is the Gospel, and I want her to have it. I would really regret it if I never talked to her and found out after that she had been sincere. It's taught me a lesson that even if people come online and they change their answers or use a bogus name, I should keep talking with them. You just never know what could happen. I could have lost out on an awesome investigator, a future eternal family.
This brings me to a cool story I wanted to share. Two of the departing Sisters that were in the same zone were previewing the church's FamilySearch Discovery Center exhibit here in the JSMB. It shows your family's ancestry and the converts and how they were converted. Well, these two sisters were checking out their family history. One of them pulled up their 4th Great-Grandfather who was a member of the church and had served a mission. The other pulled up her own 4th Great Grandfather, and as they looked at each other, they realized that the one Sister's 4th Great Grandfather had converted the other. He also helped them come to America. So without him serving a mission, the other wouldn't have been baptized, and the Sister probably wouldn't be in America and certainly wouldn't have come on a mission. I'm sure he didn't think he made that big of an impact but really, we just never know! I think we make bigger impacts than we know as members of the church. You just never know what could happen. That's why we should always open our mouths! Like I said at the beginning, we can't expect to see huge things come from it, but Heavenly Father will reward our efforts in some way, even if it's over generations of time!
So remember that this week and open your mouth because you just never know :)
Love you, have a great week!
Love
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