We had a pretty cool lesson this week with the husband of one of our investigators, who we haven't determined yet if he speaks Spanish. But he wants to be baptized so that's a thing!
So we got home after that lesson to quick get our service clothes and then run to dinner, and sister ferguson looks back at her bed. And there's a lump. And it's rather large. And she looks under her blanket, and then under her sheet, and then under the fitted sheet. And there, wrapped in some Saran Wrap, is a piece of meat.
Holy cow, flashback to that other meat fiasco. But wait, this is worse.
Also Apollo 18 scifi scary stuff was happening in my mind. Like, is there meat growing out of her bed? Is it alive? So we took pictures of it and carefully transported to to the kitchen counter and left. We showed the picture to the lady we had dinner with and guess what.
It was a tongue.
A cow tongue.
Los Elderes. They broke into our house and stuffed a cow tongue under Sister Fergusons sheets. Aren't they so nice? Whaaaaahhhahahah!
So the next time we saw them we decided we were going to kill them with kindness. We didn't mention the lengua at all and we bought 10 pan dulces (with all quarters!) for language study. And halfway through one of the elders goes, "so there's something on all of our minds that we all want to know.... How did the tongue thing play out?" And yeah that happened. So now ll talk about some of the really cool things that have happened this week. It's been a really awesome one!
We got a call from a less active member. All we could really understand is that there was an emergency, a lady and a baby, and we needed to get to the grocery store pronto. And so we get there, not really sure what's going on, and there is a lady. From Italy. And guess what, she only spoke Italian and Romanian. And o heard that and got so excited! Maybe this is why I took Italian last semester! And I said a prayer and...all that came out of my mouth was Spanish in an Italian accent. Nothing! I was so frustrated. Her husband came out of the store and miraculously he spoke Spanish. So we were talking to him and got to know his story. And they were in a tight spot but everything was taken care of. And we were wondering why we were there. But out of the blue he asked us if he could learn more about the church! We gave him a quick lesson and then invited him to church. We were there in exactly the right moment. And I'm really grateful we were able to teach them even though I totally dropped the ball with Italian.
There's a really sweet member in our ward who always goes with us to lessons and we wanted to do something nice for her, so we went and helped her weed her garden! And the whole time she's drawing comparisons from gardening to the gospel. And we talked a lot about faith in Alma 32. A really good spirit and a happy memory :)
Sara has expressed some concerns about faith, and how she wishes she had more. And we wanted to share Alma 32: 21
21 And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
We don't have to have a perfect knowledge, we just have to "exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if [we] can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in [us]" and we can trust that eventually that seed will grow into a strong testimony. And our faith really just has to be strong enough to do what we know will help our testimony grow despite the trials we might face. We need to have faith sufficient to nourish the word and see if it is true, for example, to read the Book of Mormon, or to pray to our Heavenly Father.
¡¡¡Personal study tangent!!!
President Eyrings talk from this last priesthood session of conference, "Priesthood and Personal Prayer" is something that has helped me to have some remarkable experiences with prayer. Heavenly Father listens :)
""What do you pray for? You pray that God may recognize you, that he may hear your prayers, and that he may bless you with his Spirit.” It is not a matter so much of which words to use, but it will take some patience. It is an approach to your Heavenly Father with the intent to be recognized by Him personally. He is the God above all, the Father of all, and yet willing to give undivided attention to one of His children."
It's possible to feel that, that Heavenly Father is giving you all of His attention and will bless you
And back:
So we had this lesson for Sara, based on what we learned from this experience with gardening, and we practiced it and prepared it and we got to the lesson, and when we were there the Holy Ghost took the lesson to 3 Nephi 11 instead and it was a powerful lesson and exactly what she needed.
But yesterday when we went to visit a lady we haven't taught in a while, we felt impressed to read Alma 32 with her! And it wasn't the same lesson we had prepared for Sara, but the Holy Ghost drew on our preparation and the things we had learned before to teach this lady according to her personal needs and questions. I'm so excited to start teaching her again! Heavenly Father really uses His imperfect servants in ways that they will allow to bless His children according to His plan and timing.
As we are teaching Angel and Sara I am constantly taught how well Heavenly Father knows them and loves them so much. And as I feel of His love for them, I come to love them so much! I cannot describe the feeling of seeing these people come into Christ, to see the light of the Gospel answer questions they've had, and see it touch their lives and fill them up. The most precious experience I think I've had yet on my mission happened last night after a family home evening we had with them and some other families from the ward. It was after a lesson about the Holy Ghost and how He changes our hearts and how we can feel close to our Heavenly Father through the Gospel. We were having a great time afterwards talking and taking pictures, and laughing and just enjoying time together.
And as they were leaving Sara thanked me. So sincerely, for everything.
My heart is just so filled with gratitude and joy for this chance to know them. I am so humbled by the trust Heavenly Father has placed in me to know and help these of His children to learn about the Gospel and to see it bless their family, and be there for them to help them come unto their Savior Jesus Christ.
As Angel says, whenever we ask him how he feels, "just WOOOOOW :D"
Angels have come to the earth in these days to declare the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I feel so blessed to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as a part of my life, and for this opportunity to give all of my time to teaching others about it.
I love you! Have a great week, and pray for opportunities to see the gospel changing your life and the lives of others. You will see miracles!
mle
So we got home after that lesson to quick get our service clothes and then run to dinner, and sister ferguson looks back at her bed. And there's a lump. And it's rather large. And she looks under her blanket, and then under her sheet, and then under the fitted sheet. And there, wrapped in some Saran Wrap, is a piece of meat.
Holy cow, flashback to that other meat fiasco. But wait, this is worse.
Also Apollo 18 scifi scary stuff was happening in my mind. Like, is there meat growing out of her bed? Is it alive? So we took pictures of it and carefully transported to to the kitchen counter and left. We showed the picture to the lady we had dinner with and guess what.
It was a tongue.
A cow tongue.
Los Elderes. They broke into our house and stuffed a cow tongue under Sister Fergusons sheets. Aren't they so nice? Whaaaaahhhahahah!
So the next time we saw them we decided we were going to kill them with kindness. We didn't mention the lengua at all and we bought 10 pan dulces (with all quarters!) for language study. And halfway through one of the elders goes, "so there's something on all of our minds that we all want to know.... How did the tongue thing play out?" And yeah that happened. So now ll talk about some of the really cool things that have happened this week. It's been a really awesome one!
We got a call from a less active member. All we could really understand is that there was an emergency, a lady and a baby, and we needed to get to the grocery store pronto. And so we get there, not really sure what's going on, and there is a lady. From Italy. And guess what, she only spoke Italian and Romanian. And o heard that and got so excited! Maybe this is why I took Italian last semester! And I said a prayer and...all that came out of my mouth was Spanish in an Italian accent. Nothing! I was so frustrated. Her husband came out of the store and miraculously he spoke Spanish. So we were talking to him and got to know his story. And they were in a tight spot but everything was taken care of. And we were wondering why we were there. But out of the blue he asked us if he could learn more about the church! We gave him a quick lesson and then invited him to church. We were there in exactly the right moment. And I'm really grateful we were able to teach them even though I totally dropped the ball with Italian.
There's a really sweet member in our ward who always goes with us to lessons and we wanted to do something nice for her, so we went and helped her weed her garden! And the whole time she's drawing comparisons from gardening to the gospel. And we talked a lot about faith in Alma 32. A really good spirit and a happy memory :)
Sara has expressed some concerns about faith, and how she wishes she had more. And we wanted to share Alma 32: 21
21 And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
We don't have to have a perfect knowledge, we just have to "exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if [we] can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in [us]" and we can trust that eventually that seed will grow into a strong testimony. And our faith really just has to be strong enough to do what we know will help our testimony grow despite the trials we might face. We need to have faith sufficient to nourish the word and see if it is true, for example, to read the Book of Mormon, or to pray to our Heavenly Father.
¡¡¡Personal study tangent!!!
President Eyrings talk from this last priesthood session of conference, "Priesthood and Personal Prayer" is something that has helped me to have some remarkable experiences with prayer. Heavenly Father listens :)
""What do you pray for? You pray that God may recognize you, that he may hear your prayers, and that he may bless you with his Spirit.” It is not a matter so much of which words to use, but it will take some patience. It is an approach to your Heavenly Father with the intent to be recognized by Him personally. He is the God above all, the Father of all, and yet willing to give undivided attention to one of His children."
It's possible to feel that, that Heavenly Father is giving you all of His attention and will bless you
And back:
So we had this lesson for Sara, based on what we learned from this experience with gardening, and we practiced it and prepared it and we got to the lesson, and when we were there the Holy Ghost took the lesson to 3 Nephi 11 instead and it was a powerful lesson and exactly what she needed.
But yesterday when we went to visit a lady we haven't taught in a while, we felt impressed to read Alma 32 with her! And it wasn't the same lesson we had prepared for Sara, but the Holy Ghost drew on our preparation and the things we had learned before to teach this lady according to her personal needs and questions. I'm so excited to start teaching her again! Heavenly Father really uses His imperfect servants in ways that they will allow to bless His children according to His plan and timing.
As we are teaching Angel and Sara I am constantly taught how well Heavenly Father knows them and loves them so much. And as I feel of His love for them, I come to love them so much! I cannot describe the feeling of seeing these people come into Christ, to see the light of the Gospel answer questions they've had, and see it touch their lives and fill them up. The most precious experience I think I've had yet on my mission happened last night after a family home evening we had with them and some other families from the ward. It was after a lesson about the Holy Ghost and how He changes our hearts and how we can feel close to our Heavenly Father through the Gospel. We were having a great time afterwards talking and taking pictures, and laughing and just enjoying time together.
And as they were leaving Sara thanked me. So sincerely, for everything.
My heart is just so filled with gratitude and joy for this chance to know them. I am so humbled by the trust Heavenly Father has placed in me to know and help these of His children to learn about the Gospel and to see it bless their family, and be there for them to help them come unto their Savior Jesus Christ.
As Angel says, whenever we ask him how he feels, "just WOOOOOW :D"
Angels have come to the earth in these days to declare the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I feel so blessed to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as a part of my life, and for this opportunity to give all of my time to teaching others about it.
I love you! Have a great week, and pray for opportunities to see the gospel changing your life and the lives of others. You will see miracles!
mle