Hi everyone!
What a week! Man, we have been working so hard. There was one day where I was just exhausted. I was in the "hot seat" at the VC, next in line to give a tour. I hear the doors open and I'm like, "Peter? Lily? Mark?" and suddenly there are my cousins and aunt and uncle!! What in the world? Moving to Wichita means they will be in the mission boundaries. I could even get transferred to their ward. Can you imagine? So that was fun. They only had a couple minutes, but we quickly browsed the history downstairs.
Then the next day, Sis Clark and I are up next and she quietly says (with hardly any emotion-so funny. I teased her about that). That's...my brother. So of course, we gave him a tour. Coincidence in both of these situations? I think not. It was so fun to get to know her brother, to kind of see a glimpse of her family, her regular self.
A part member family we are teaching finally had a spiritual lesson with us. Usually, the kids are runnin' wild. This time, the wee ones were out of town. It was fabulous :) Sister Clark showed a piece of paper with words written like "faith, baptism, tithing, priesthood authority". She started ripping it to show what happened during the Great Apostasy. We had them try to put it back together. Everything almost worked except "authority" was gone. We then said that only God could put it back together perfectly, with no rip lines or glue. We pulled an identical paper out of our bag and testified of the Restoration. The member teared up and bore her testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was perfect. It could have been on a Preach My Gospel Movie clip. "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding...We will be holding a baptismal service on....Will you...?" The Spirit was there. God, the Testator was in that room. He will be baptized on Aug 21st. Some changes will need to be made in order to be following the laws the prophets have helped us understand, but I know that he will do it.
I got to go on exchanges with Sis Hafen (my Mound City, KS companion)! And it was the day before her birthday, so that was way fun! She and I just jumped right in and taught some great lessons. We didn't have to adjust to each others' teaching style or anything like you normally would on exchanges. We saw some neat miracles, too. There's this part-member family we have been visiting. And they have an adult daughter who lives at home. She never, ever has sat in on a lesson. She comes in, glares at us, then goes into her dark cave. This time, we knock and she happily invites us in. No one else is home and yes! She wants to sit and read with us. She fills us in on how she decided 10 days earlier that she was done doing drugs and had been sober since. I'm so proud of her! So she studied with us for a while and I know she felt the Spirit. She doesn't enjoy reading, though, so that is a problem. Maybe we can get her the BoM on CD. She has a lot of potential to really turn around her life.
I had this life-changing thought the other night while brushing my teeth: Right now, I am responsible for hundreds of people- members of the Church and those who have never heard of it- who live within the ward boundaries. When I go home, I will only have stewardship over myself. I will have no children, no calling yet, no one to receive revelation for except myself. No wonder it's so difficult when missionaries are released. That whole "mantle" thing is real.
A family came in from Germany and I took them on tour. They "happened" to be attracted to what they read about this place. Non-denominational. It was a wonderful experience and to make a long story short, they were teary-eyed at the end and accepted a Book of Mormon to be delivered to their home in Germany! About 20 minutes later, a family came in from France. They accepted missionaries as well, to visit their home and were super excited! I love this work. You can tell that The Lord is in charge.
We have been trying to contact a referral that was given to us. She kind of moved to Texas for a while (actually I wrote about her 3 weeks ago. I talked to her on the phone and prayed with her). We finally went to her house and taught her! She just ate it up. When Amos prophesied that a famine would take place, he knew what he was talking about. This poor, sweet single mom has been starving! And she loves the Gospel. I have really high hopes for her.
We met with the elders yesterday and swapped some of our former investigators. We gave them some who live near them. With no car, it makes it very difficult for them to travel in such a large area. So we share! And they gave us single women and Spanish-speakers. Zion I tells ya. I love the Inde 3rd ward.
"And I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people" - Lev 26:12
Ahh! It's been such a busy week. Our ward held a music program where we invited all sorts of people from the community. 40 people from another faith came. It was a huge success! Almost every family who came brought a nonmember friend or family member. The elders were able to stay after and actually teach a lesson. The work goes on! We had a former investigator who had dropped us a few months ago come. She said we should start coming over again! Yay! And she had a baptismal date before. Miraculous Miracles in the Missouri Independence Mission- that's what Pres Van Komen always says.
I feel like I am the Mom to the lil elders in our ward. Yes, he's my district leader, but things like the following story seem to be happening more and more. "Hi, sisters. We wanted to ask you about your investigator...blah blah blah...but we're really calling to see if you had any food? We are starving..." So of course. you know me. I either have a burrito or raw Top Ramen or a granola car in my bag. I gave them my snacks and they said I saved their lives. Boys.
The other day, I took THREE Spanish tours! One was a bus! And I was the only Spanish sister on shift. Gift of Tongues. It's legit.
We've had quite a few more people who are never home, be available for a lesson this week. We had so many people to see that we did a "split". Sis Clark went with one sister in the ward and I went with another. Double the lessons! Genius. It's been super neat to see the hand of the Lord, again, in this work. Amazing stuff is going on here.
Hope all of you are seeing miracles in your own lives. God is there. He does hear us. He sees what we're going through and is so sad when we don't remember Him like we promised. And yet, there He is--His arm extended for all. Every day. I'm starting to get it now. I'm humbled to be serving here. Dedicated land. Land with a connection to our first parents. Land that has seen many Saints driven, persecuted, killed. But it's not about coming here to Zion. It's about your Zion. You and your relationship with God. Your family. Hope you're a little better than you were last week. Thanks for your love. I appreciate so much more than I can express.
Con Amor,
Hermana Hijo-de-Adan
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