Called to Serve Him!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Thanks for the many e-mails this week, Mom, Dad, Brooke, Car, and Corb! I am looking forward to reading them! How was your week?! Are you having fun in Oregon and in West Jordan and where ever else you may be? It was an awesome week here! I will do my best to fill you in!
First of all, Swinda and Dave are gone back to Curicao! Dave's cancer is gone and they flew out last weekend. At first I was really sad to hear that they had to pack up and get out so soon because I wanted to teach them more and continue to bring them closer to Christ but then I was reminded of the wonderful miracle that it is that he is healed and that Heavenly Father will be sure to bring them in contact with the missionaries again in Curicao. Yesterday I took pictures of them to the primary and shared them with the children. All of a sudden it hit me that all of the little primary children had been praying for Dave, as well as all of you, many ward members and many of his family members and friends. He also received a priesthood blessing. I KNOW that the blessing and many faith-filled prayers were answered and he was miraculously healed. I don't know what better witness Dave and Swinda could receive that Jesus Christ lives and this is His church! As I stood before the Primary children tears were brought to my eyes and I was humbled to know that Heavenly Father works many miracles and I had the opportunity to witness this one. It was a tender mercy and one of the highlights of my mission.
On Friday night during our nightly planning session we were planning out what we were going to do on Saturday night. We had a good chunk of time open in the evening and we were doing our best to try to listen to the Spirit to know how the Lord wanted us to use that time. After sharing a few ideas with each other and not really feeling like any of them were right the phone started to ring. I felt like I should answer it and as I walked to get it out of my bag I jokingly said to Zuster Harrington, "I think this will be someone who needs our help tomorrow night!" Turns out, it was! A 28 year old man named Frank had received a pamphlet from us, Zuster Harrington’s first night here as we were knocking doors, had read it, and was wondering if hecould set up an appointment as soon as possible to learn more about the church! We set up an appointment for the next night and he gave all of his contact information to us so we would know where to find him. We went balistic! Of course we quickly fell on our knees in gratitude for that great blessing. On Saturday we really made sure we made a solid lesson plan and tried to follow the Spirit in knowing what to teach him. We also started calling members to find a joint-teach. After calling about 25 members, Zuster Weening agreed to come with us although she had much she had to get done that night. We made sure we were on time for the appointment and continued to say aprayer in our hearts that everything would go well. We went to his house, rang his bell, and….nothing happened. We rang again and still no one came to the door. We finally resorted to calling and it went directly to his voicemail. We were devastated! Our joint-teach was very disappointed and headed home and we were left not knowing what to think. Did we not have enough faith? What had happened in that 24hour period that had driven Frank not to meet with us? As I was reading in the Book of Mormon I came across 2 Nephi 2:24 that says, "But behold, all things are done in the wisdom of Him that knoweth all things.“ We had done our best. The Lord has a plan and Frank has his agency. It was still a miracle. I don’t know what will happen in the future with Frank but I am thankful that I do know that my perspective of things is really small and the Lord has all wisdom.
We are still teaching Emily and we are really working on building up relationships between her and the members. We are also still teaching Zjuleika and she is beginning to follow through with her commitments. She read a pamphlet and she even commited to reading a Liahona article. They are small steps but her faith is growing.
During lessons this week my faith was strengthened of the power of the Holy Ghost in knowing what to say. During our lesson with Zjuleika I felt prompted to ask her if we could help her in her yard to get it ready for summer. Her jaw dropped and then she said, "How did you know that that is what I needed? I have wanted to get busy with it but as a single mom I just haven't found the time. I would love your help!" We are going to be setting an appointment to do that this week. In another lesson with a 20 year old in active member, Zoraima, I felt impressed to ask, "If you could be invisible would you come back to church?" I put off asking it because it sounded a little childish. I thought that she would think I was crazy. But the Spirit continued to prompt me so I sheepishly asked the question. I was a little freaked out when she loudly said "YES!" and then totally opened up and let us know how she was really feeling. That was the question that really got her talking and now we know what the root of her problem is and what we can do to help. The Spirit truly does give us everything we need at the moment we need them!
We had our first Saturday activity and we only had a few people come but we have big hopes that it will continue to grow! It was a lot of fun with the people we did have and we hope that as members hear about how fun it was they will also want to come. I think it will become a great missionary tool!
Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I LOVE YOU! This work is amazing and everyone can do it! I am convinced that being an example and serving are the two greatest ways to bring others to Christ. As I have read and studied the story of Ammon I have come to see the most effective way to do the work. He was willing to serve and set the example first and then King Lamoni came to him asking questions about the gospel. It is just up to us to be ready to give the answers! I hope that you have a great week! I am praying for you!
Love,Laur