Family and friends!!
I don't even know how to begin to tell you how amazing this week has been! I've truly had some life changing experiences this week and we met so many prepared individuals.. The Lord blessed us with nine new people to teach and those we met genuinely have the desire and are searching for truth.. It's been incredible to see the Lord orchestrate this work and place these people in our path. It's been extremely humbling. I wish I had time to share all of them, but I will share a few!
We had exchanges this week.. they are always great!! I always come away motivated and they always help me realize that I can push myself even more and I'm capable of more. My goal for exchanges was persistence and being rejected 3 times before moving on.. so sister Hegstrom was the perfect missionary to help me with that haha.. She's sooo bold. I love it! She's someone I really look up to and admire. Their exchange message really touched me about the importance of our purpose and that our purpose is more than just something we recite every day.. We also talked about WHY we are persistent. It's because we love these people! And most of the time, they don't even know what they are rejecting, so we have to do every thing we can to share this message because the gospel really is for EVERY ONE. We saw a lot of miracles on Tuesday.. One in particular, that really touched me. We were street contacting and we came across this woman named Syra (She goes by Rob). I actually met Rob on that same street, last transfer with Sister Xayadeth. She accepted a Book of Mormon, when we met her the first time and explained that she lived in Goleta. We really didn't do much about it the first time we met her, and I know that Heavenly Father was blessing me with a second chance. She was thrilled to see us and she had been thinking a lot about our first contact.. We emphasized prayer and she told us she has never prayed. We then taught her how to pray and she said a beautiful prayer. We met with her again on Friday and taught the restoration. She said that prayer has already helped her in so many ways and she will pray about the things we are teaching and the Book of Mormon. She said that once she comes to know that these things are true, she would be baptized.. she explained, "No one has ever told my that I am a child of God." Ah.. soo cool.
We met with Jimbo twice this week and he came to church. He still has his concerns.. and part of the reason is because he looked up "mormon" on wikipedia.. nooo. haha We are trying to clear up all the junk he saw. but we had a member at our lesson and it was defintely more powerful than our other meetings. Our other meetings always seem to be more of a bash and that's the exact opposite of what we want. He still has a problem with a modern day prophet and The book of Mormon, but he is willing to continue to read and pray.. We care for him and love him so much. It's so important to see these people how heavenly father would.
Greatest miracle: We met Jamie and Charlie this week.. oh my goodness, they are amazing. Jamie has been less-active for years and her fiance Charlie has always had such firm faith in God, but has always felt that something was missing. Charlie referred himself through church HQ and they want this more than any thing for their future family.. The first thing they said when we sat down was, "When can we go to the temple? How can we be together forever?" It was so powerful.. Charlie has been on his own since he was 15 years old and his mom passed away when he was just three years old.. We talked about eternal families and he got extremely emotional. We talked about temple work for our family and genealogy and that is something he is soo excited about. They expressed several times that they just want to feel loved and feel that they are part of this eternal family.. Jamie was very emotional.. she has such a powerful testimony and she even told us, that she has never doubted any of it and she couldn't help but miss the spirit she felt. Before we could ask any thing they expressed all of their desires.. baptism, reading and praying, attending church, every thing. Sister Ashworth and I just kept looking at each other, "is this real?!" They are so great.. They want to get married as soon as possible and Charlie wants to enter the waters of baptism as soon as he can. I've never met someone with such great desire to feel the atonement of Christ in their lives and to follow him.
Yesterday, Sister Ashworth and I had an experience that was unforgettable. We were knocking a less-active members door and a couple minutes prior, a cyclist rode by. He turned around and called out to us.. he said, "I don't know why, but I felt impressed to turn around and talk to you two." He then recognized our name tags and started asking amazing questions.. He told us that he is actually on a "spiritual search" right now and has always wanted to look into the mormon religion. He then asked us about eternal families.. he explained to us that his brother and father have passed away.. he began to weep. He said "I want to know where they are.. if I will be with them." Sister Ashworth and I had the opportunity to bear testimony that He WILL be with his family again and we know exactly where they are. We taught parts of the plan of Salvation and the restoration as well.. This grown man, in his tears, expressed his gratitude to us for allowing him to know that there is a plan. It's moments like that, that change your life.. holy cow.
I have never felt closer to my heavenly father and have never felt greater joy than I have in my life.. This work is incredible. I know it's real and I know that their are individuals in this area.. God's children, who are ready to receive the gospel. I've been thinking a lot about D&C 12:8 and how we really cannot assist in this work unless we are humble and willing to submit ourselves completely to him.
Sister James
