We had weekly planning on Friday and we were reviewing our goal for new people. We had five people out of the eight that we made a goal to find and we were desperate to be able to achieve our goal. We made a plan and we prayed and asked for Heavenly Father's help to be able to find three new people. We were really specific and we asked that we would each be able to find a new person who was prepared to hear the gospel that day and then we figured the next day we would be able to find one more between the both of us. It seemed impossible but we had faith and God answered our prayer almost immediately! We both got on Teaching Center and on both of our first phone calls we were able to teach them and then set up a return appointment to teach them more. What a miracle! We ended up finding nine new people out of the eight that we had set a goal for. I know that when we pray and we have faith that our prayers will be answered, God will always provide an answer.
Sister Johnson and I took our first German tour together this week and it went pretty well! Absolutely no one else could take it so we ended up doing it during our study time (sacrifice brings blessings, right?) and the couple was really sweet! I was really nervous because we hadn't role-played it at all but I can say that the gift of tongues is for sure real.
Last but certainly not least, we met in Taijah in person today!!! I don't know if any of you remember but she is the one out of the 35 referrals that Sister Broadbent and I got at General Conference that worked. She was on date to be baptized and then fell off because her parents are really not supportive. She lives here in Utah and we invited her up to Temple Square and she came! We took her around on a tour and the spirit was so strong, especially when we went up to the Christus and talked about how Christ can help us with everything in our lives, even the small things. She told us it was just what she needed to hear. I love Taijah and I am so grateful that she made it to Temple Square so we could talk to her and show her that we love her:)
That is all for this week and thank you for all of the love and support, I love being a missionary!
Sister Moran
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Hey Mom and Dad! This week was really fun and I am finally warming up to Sister Johnson!
We had our Pioneer Day mission activity this week which was good. The first half of the day we were on Square and we did Assembly Hall and proselyting and some Teaching Center and then around one we went to the This Is The Place Memorial park thing and it was really cool. They have a pioneer village with doughnuts and ice cream (can you tell what my favorite part of the day was?) and some other cool things. Sister Johnson and I decided to ride the train around and learn more about the village. I think we should get a train at Temple Square and give tours super fast and furious as we drive. Maybe I'll tell president about it? It was really fun, I ate a lot of junk food, and I got super sweaty and was in the sun for about three hours straight. No worries though, my mission has really changed me into a responsible adult and now I put on sunscreen when I know that I am going to be going outside.
Because of the mission activity, everyone had to be on the square until 9 pm. We were planning on doing some Teaching Center when we got back but because all 200 of us were on square, there were no computers open to do so. We went to West Gate to see if we could pick up some shifts but again because there were 200 sisters on the square, everything was covered. We decided to proselyte the rest of the night on the square and we spent most of our time in the South Visitor's Center. It was awesome! We ended up teaching a lesson and having some really meaningful contacts. Sister Johnson was pretty frustrated after though because every person that she had talked to was not interested and shrugged her off. She then proceeded to talk to members only for the rest of the night because she knew that they would talk to her. She made a new goal to talk to more nonmembers and not just go to members as a cop-out and I am excited for her! I have noticed that she has a tendency to just talk to the safe people so I am excited to see how her new goal is going to make her grow and become even better than she is right now (which is pretty awesome).
We had a very big miracle happen this week and it really showed me the power of prayer. We were doing weekly planning on Friday and reviewing our goals and we realized that we still needed three new people to reach our goal of having eight and we had less than two days to do so. Slightly stressful. So we just prayed that Heavenly Father would help us find new people to teach so that we could reach our goal. We prayed again before we sat for Teaching Center time and lo and behold Sister Johnson and I called some people at the exact same time and they both became new people! The first phone call that we had with them and the first calls we had even attempted to make all day long. What a miracle! Later that day we found one more person to reach our goal of eight and then the next day we found one more and exceeded our goal. What a miracle. We shouldn't have been able to reach our goal but God listened to our prayers and helped us find and retain those people that are ready to hear the gospel.
Sister Johnson and I took our first motorcoach (large group tour of 15 or more people) this week. We had 45 people to preach to in this particular group and I was both nervous and excited. I knew that our tours needed some work. Sister Johnson tends to just repeat the exact same thing that I say because she zones out. No worries, though we are getting better at paying attention and going with the flow of what our companion says. Anyways, we had gotten a call informing us that the tour we were taking was not going to be a tour where would want to share the religion because apparently there were people in the tour that were not fond of our religion. I was like okay but I am a missionary so I am going to preach anyways. At our first stop (the handcart pioneer monument) these two people from Australia said some rude question about polygamy and the temple or something and I just looked them dead in the eye, told them the correct answer, and then laughed and invited them to double check their resources because there was a lot of false information out there. You should have seen their faces. They shut up real quick the rest of the tour because I was not having it. But the rest of the motorcoach went really well! There were good questions at the end and we made them laugh, we felt the spirit, we invited them to change their lives (aka repent) and we invited them all to have copies of the Book of Mormon and to stay in contact with us. None of them wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and no one wanted to stay in contact but you know it be like that sometimes. At the beginning of my mission, I would have thought that the tour was a failure because no one wanted to stay in contact or have a copy but now I don't feel bad at all. I invited them and did everything that I was supposed to do, they have their agency. Of course, I will continue to assess how I could make the tours better so in the future it may be more likely that they will accept some more of the invitations, but I don't feel bad because I did what I was supposed to do wow. growth. Also, this one lady at the end raised her hand like she was asking a question and she said that she didn't have a question but that she thought that "you ladies are doing a wonderful job representing your families and your church" and that just made my day.
We took our first German tour together this weekend it didn't go too bad! We got a call from West Gate when we were doing our studies and they asked us if we could skip personal study to take the tour and you could tell Sister Johnson didn't want to and neither did I but hey they needed help and the Germans needed saving. It went pretty well all things considered. My German is still super broken and I should probably ask for some language study time so that way it gets less broken haha. We ended off at the Christus and we both bore our testimonies and you could tell they felt slightly uncomfy but hey it was good. Plus they were really nice and they said they could understand everything that I had said and they wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon so all things considered it went pretty well. Another miracle with prayer happened later that same day because we literally had zero assignments, just Teaching Center so we prayed that we would find ways to fill our day. We ended up skipping dinner and having it later to cover South Visitor's Center and then we covered it again after dinner and we had so many miracles and God really made us tools in His hands. We were able to teach two lessons and get two people's contact information! One of which was a family from South Korea but they spoke English. I explained the Temple Model to them and about who we believe God is and our relationship with Him and how the Book of Mormon helps us grow that relationship and what the Book of Mormon even was and dang I almost cried when I was talking with them the spirit was so strong and I could tell they felt it too. In the end, I got them a copy of the Book of Mormon in Korean and in English and the dad said, "Wow, I almost joined your religion when you were talking." I think that he will eventually join it and I have his contact info so we will see where these things go.
We put Kevin on date this week for August 23 and like I told you, I just straight up told him that his baptism wasn't done by the right authority and that it wasn't valid. Maybe it was mean but we had tried to say it nicely but it wasn't getting through to him so I just told him straight up and man Sister Johnson seemed horrified. But hey it worked because now he knows what the priesthood is and why it is important and he wants to get baptized. Sometimes you just need to be bold.
Also, the tour with Taijah went awesome! I love her even more now that I have met her in person. She was asking lots of questions and we were laughing and sharing scriptures and testifying and inviting. I'm glad she came. We got pizza after and just got to know her a little bit better and she is super cool. She thinks she wants to transfer to a college in NY after this year so we shall see. If she does, then she could probs get baptized there because then she won't have her anti parents scaring her away from what she wants to do. Plus she is so cute and sweet. I'm grateful that we could take her around, even if it was our pday, so worth it.
I think that is all I have for this week! Love you both and miss you so much! Also, I typed this whole thing on my Bluetooth keyboard and this thing is the bomb I swear. Thanks for sending it to me.
Love,
Em
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