This week has been AMAZING as always. I mean it always is as a missionary.
We met the BIGGEST miracle this week. Her name is Adrina. We met her while we were out knocking on doors in her apartment complex and she was the most nice and quiet and soft spoken person that I have ever met and she has a really big desire to come closer to God. She told us that she has been out of church for a long time and she wasn't even sure if she was still someone that God wanted and we just told her that YES! God loved her and that God had a plan for her and that she could feel greater peace in her life as she came closer to Him. She loved that and she came to church with us on Sunday and then even came to a baptisimal service with us that evening and was seriously crying and said that what she was feeling was overwhelming. It was so stinking cute and I love her and I am so excited for her to keep coming closer to Jesus Christ and feel even happier as she does so.
Sister Reese and I have been seeing straight miracles dropped into our laps everyday. We met this lady named Michelle earlier this week in a neighborhood that we had never knocked in but that we had always thought that we should and it was straight God. Michelle had met with missionaries two years ago in a different part of Ohio and we were able to set up a time to come back and talk with her a litle bit. She was so sweet and we are so excited to talk with her more! God for sure is directing His work and He knows His children and is taking care of them. I am just so grateful that I get to see Him doing this and that I can be part of this.
I hope you all have the best week ever!!
p.s. Sister Reese and I got matching beanies, yes, we know that we are super cute
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Hey there Parents!
This week has been really good and super fast. I have loved being a missionary over here in the great Ohio Columbus Mission and I really love my companion!
Honestly, the schedule here is a lot more relaxed than on Temple Square. We don't have specific assignments all the time and we don't have a set lunch time and time on the computers and everything like that. So crazy. So, it was actually kind of hard at first because I feel like we weren't setting as many goals and it didn't seem as structured. For example, at Temple Square we would set a goal and a specific thing for every hour of our day so we were being super focused and counting contacts and lessons and everything and here we have all these gaps in our schedule and Sister Reese is like "okay that looks good" and I am like "what?" and she says yeah we will just knock around that time and place that we are in and it just isn't as go go go but also it is. Interesting. But I love it. I like to drive and listen to music and have the freedom to say "let's stop here I am feeling this neighborhood" and just real quick pull over and knock. It is a good time!
We have experienced a lot of miracles here in Gahanna though! Something that President Stratford says here is "just do your best and then watch the Lord drop miracles right into your lap" and I have for sure seen those miracles falling from every which way. From finding super prepared people and other things, it has just been awesome. One sad thing is that one day we accidentally left our area and felt like we should stop and knock and this road was SUPER PREPARED and we found SEVEN NEW PEOPLE but literally they aren't in our area and it wasn't until the next day that we realized that so we had to send seven referrals to the Sisters in the area next to us. Lame. But still, everything happens for a reason and I am pumped for the missionaries that get to go back and see these people hopefully progress.
So all in all we had a huge miracle and found 14 people this week! Like I told you on the phone, the Elders in our district (which include our District Leaders and the Zone Leaders that we share the ward with) were kinda triggered and throwing shade that we found so many people and that we have seven on date and they were just kind of annoyed and we are just like why?? That is ridiculous you should be HAPPY for us that God is letting us find nice people that are prepared and everything but oh well I guess. The Elders we share the ward with are super awesome though, they are always available if we need them to give a priesthood blessing to someone that we are teaching or if we have a question about what the deal is about stuff and they are just great.
I will just tell you the biggest miracle of yesterday. We met this sweet lady named Adrina the other day. We street contacted her while we were out and about just knocking on doors in the apartment complex. She was so quiet and soft spoken but her eyes were so big and we told her about the Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and she said yes. We came back and honestly, I thought that her place would be a mess. Most of the houses and apartments that we go into in this area are filled with smoke and dirt and a million people in a tiny space and a ridiculous amount of stuff. Her place was the complete opposite. She had nothing on the walls and nothing anywhere. It was just a plain apartment. I think that honestly it was because she just didn't have anything to furnish the place to have more. She welcomed us in and we were able to teach her the plan of salvation. She has been out of church for a long time for one reason or another so she was telling us that she isn't sure if God knows her or if God even wants her at this point and we just told her that God does love her and that God does want her. That she is His daughter and that He has a plan for her. We taught her about everything and she just loved it a lot. She is super sweet and super quiet but you could tell that she was feeling it during the lesson. We then brought up baptism and invited her to prepare to be baptized on Feb 15 and she said the she would do it! Two days later she was at the church building bright and early and ready to participate. The members were being really good and talking with her and everything. After church we asked her what she thought and she said that she felt a lot of peace, even though she wasn't always sure what was going on all of the time.
Then, she with two of the other people that we are teaching, Reesie and Aaleah, came to the baptism for a little boy in our ward and everyone loved it. Reesie is Aaleah's grandma and they super super loved it. We reexplained priesthood and Reesie just said that she loves the priesthood and that this way of baptism is what God wants and Aaleah who wanted to be baptized but felt a little scared about it, was really feeling more at ease after seeing a baptism. We are really thinking that Aaleah at the very least could be baptized because she is already on chapter 12 in the Book of Mormon and loves everything about it. Reesie has some kind of something holding her back. We are trying to get to the bottom of it because she LOVES the Book of Mormon and she LOVED the baptism and the entire time was like "oh praise Jesus amen hallelujah" and "wow the Holy Ghost is awesome I would love to have that with me all the time" etc. We will keep you updated about that though. Adrina was just loving it and after the baptism (which was super powerful btw) she had tears in her eyes and she said that she couldn't describe what she was feeling but that is was overwhelming and we were like THAT IS THE SPIRIT!!!!!! Good times. Also, Adrina has just been having a hard time lately and she literally got a priesthood blessing last night and she was just openly crying and said that she wants to keep coming to church. It has been so amazing to see how God has just put us in the right place and allowed us to meet this beautiful person and these people that are so willing to come closer to Jesus Christ. Just so special.
We have a bunch of other people on date right now. We have this lady named AJ who has been being taught by missionaries since like May of last year. Her house is kind of a wreck and we sat on a crate to teach her about the restoration. Her problem is that she wants to be baptized but she also doesn't want to keep commitments. She has MS and uses that it seems as a crutch to why she can't go to church. But she wants to be baptized. When we tried to be bold (or when I tried to be bold and convince her to go) she was got mad at me a little bit so we backed down and we don't really know what to do about that. We shall see. There are these two ladies Lori and Nikki that want to be baptized. But they don't really understand priesthood authority we don't think and why that makes baptism really important. We are working on that. Plus they have like nine kids in their townhouse so it is always madness and it is hard to teach and talk because there is so much else going on. We explained to them that they had to hear a few lessons about what we believe and come to church three times so that way they could be prepared for their baptism and they were just kind of like yeah whatever and then said they would be at church and then didn't show up. But they crazy really want to be baptized! Any suggestions on how we can help them out? We also have this lady named Crystal that is super cool and wants to be baptized too but she hasn't been to church either and just always have family emergencies happening all the time so she can just never come. She is getting a priesthood blessing on Tuesday night so we are hoping that it can be a really spiritual experience for her and she will be more motivated to come to church despite the challenges. We can promise her some dope blessings too. We will let you know. I guess just pray for all of our people. Especially for Adrina and her kind sweet heart that she will keep wanting to progress and that she won't forget the way that she feels when she comes to church and when she got her blessing and everything. She just seems too good to be true so I am just scared that something crazy will happen but I don't want that to happen.
Okay. I love being a missionary. Easily the best thing that I have ever done and will ever do minus being a mom. I just can't really imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't gone out on the mission. I don't think that I would be apostate but at the same time I would never know what my life could really be like or how I could be changed if I hadn't gone. I am just super grateful and humbled that I can do this. Thank you for paying for half of it! I don't think you can ever know how much I appreciate it.
I'm so sorry that life is just so stressful for you right now. I'm sorry that it is sad and that it is hard. Just know that I am praying for you every day and I am praying for you super hard. I know that God will take care of everything. I trust His hands way more than I trust anyone else's hands and I know that He has a plan and He knows better than anyone else. If there is anything that I have learned while being out here it is to trust God and to stay close to Him. I know that you are already doing that. Something that just came to my mind that you could do is actually to read the Book of Mormon together as a couple! I mean maybe I'm just a stupid missionary and young but I think that would be a really good thing that you could do to bring strength and everything during this hard time. Let me know if it makes a difference if you study together.
I love you both a super whole lot and I miss you guys! I'll talk to you soon and I'm praying for you everyday!!
Love
Em
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