Monday night, we didn't have a lot of time, but we decided at 8:00 PM to try to go by a family. We showed up just as they were pulling into their driveway. We were able to get their phone numbers, then they said, "Do you want to come inside?" We all sat down around the table, and it turns out that one of them has been independently searching for a church and had decided to come to ours on Sunday. We talked about our purpose as missionaries and how we can know that God is really there and taught her how to pray. We asked her if she would be baptized if she knew this was all true, and she said yes and committed to be baptized on December 9th! ... The only sad part of this story is that they didn't come to church like they said they would, so we're going to go by tonight and hopefully figure out what happened.
One person did come to church, whose going to an English ward closer to their house, but they went with Sister McKeen and are excited about it. We've started teaching the daughter and she has a lot of questions. It's so fun to watch her mom teach her, and be so excited to share the gospel with her daughter. She's already set a night for family night and wants us to come whenever we can. This Friday we're going to the Mesa Christmas lights with them, which I'm excited about!
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| Hermana Garner with one of her new friends! |
Another young woman we are teaching didn't get to go to church (she also goes to an English ward closer to her house) but her father said he would go WITH her next week, which we're excited about. She has great support in that ward. The Young Woman's president is amazing - she took her to Deseret Book and bought her her own set of scriptures with her name on them, and has been willing to drive to Phoenix to pick her up for church when she's with her mom over the weekends! I want to be that devoted to service when I return home. We sometimes have trouble getting in touch with her, but we're going to start having regular lessons before mutual, so that'll be great. She's already telling everyone she's going to be baptized. She went to the New Member Fireside with us last night and said she felt the Spirit a lot and felt direction from the Lord.
As we were trying to contact some potentials and new investigators, we met a man (who I'd actually met before, but never had a full conversation with). We'd talked to his wife a couple weeks ago and she seemed super interested, but when we were talking to him he kept saying he already knew about the church and saying that we needed to study the bible more. It wasn't in an antagonistic way, he was just emphasizing how much he believes in the bible, but he was talking about how the bible says not to add to the gospel, and he thinks the reason his wife's interested in what we're saying is because she doesn't know the bible as well as he does and doesn't know that we're adding to it. Though I didn't say that, I was struck by the truthfulness of that scripture - that we must not add to the gospel of Jesus Christ. What people don't understand is that the Book of Mormon doesn't add to the gospel at all - it's the same gospel, just another witness of it. We didn't try to argue with him about it, though, but we did talk about the importance of relying on the Lord to help us understand the scriptures, and by the end he agreed to read a pamphlet and pray about it, which to me was a small miracle.
The choir is sounding great for the Christmas concert, I'm so excited about it! We also had a review of all the small group numbers this Saturday, and I was super impressed by them - they sound so good! They're all so talented!
I've been really bad at sharing my scripture study the past couple of weeks, and I apologize for that! But here are some of the thoughts that have stood out to me the most recently.
In Isaiah 28:24-29, Isaiah talks about how the plowman doesn't treat every plant the same, but he knows that they each need something different to grow. He compares this to how the Lord will harvest the earth, and it made me think more about our individual journeys to conversion. Everyone has a different story, and what brought me to Christ and to know of the truthfulness of the gospel is very different than what has brought others that I know to that same knowledge. But the Lord knows exactly what we need to grow, so that He can harvest us up to Himself.
I shared D&C 64:33 a while ago which is the one that says, "Be ye not weary in well-doing..." and while reading in Isaiah 40:28-29, I was reminded of it. Isaiah says, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" Well, duh, right? But what's important to us is the next verse - "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." It's so comforting to know that we can and do receive strength from one who never wearies, who is always strong. Thus, the commandment of "Be ye not weary" can really be seen as an invitation - "Come to me, and I will strengthen you, that you may do my work."
Last fun little tidbit for this week - I've been learning how to pray and testify in Samoan! So I say most of my prayers in Samoan now, though it's very broken Samoan haha.
Ou te alofa mo otou uma lava! (I love you all!)
Hermana Garner
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