Hello all!
So transfer news: I'm staying here in Dillon with Sister Schwendiman!!!! We were both so happy! :) Our ward mission leader has been threatening to call our mission president to tell him to let us stay here because he likes us. Hahah. I think he gets anxiety around transfer time.
New Years was great! We spent the evening with a member family and we ate food, shared the New Years video (check it out on lds.org. It's really good!) and played games. Their son tried to light off fireworks but it was too cold. The lighters and matches wouldn't light and we couldn't stand outside long enough to watch them. Haha. We did have an extended curfew though. Instead of being home at 9, we could be home at 10 if we were in a members home. Sister Schwendiman and I did get some cider from them, put it on our night stand, set an alarm for midnight and we woke up, rolled over and poured some cider and drank a swig then fell back asleep. Hahaha. That's how we celebrate on a mission. :P
Here's a cool encounter: we were tracting around and knocked on a trailer. A Hispanic woman answered the door who knew very little English. Using what little knowledge of Spanish we had, we tried to explain our purpose to her, what the Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet were and what we wanted her to do with them. We later came back with Spanish copies of them both, which will be better for her. I wish I remembered more but I threw out the words "Iglesia", "Jesucristo", "El Libro de Mormon", "leer", "muy bien", "feliz" while trying to charade things too. I bet Spanish speaking missionaries would've thought we were hilarious.
Here's a lesson that I learned this week: we were teaching an investigator and she has been familiar with the church for a while now. We finally got her to let us teach the first lesson to her and for most of the lesson, I kept thinking to invite her to baptism. But guess what... I didn't!!! I kept ignoring the promptings and telling myself that I will in a second, I'm just waiting for the right time...and it never happened. I walked out of that lesson just wanting to punch myself. Why did I not invite her to be baptized? Fear! I was afraid of ruining all the years of hard work the members out in of trying to bring her the gospel. Fear of making our relationship with her awkward. And fear is the opposite of faith. Satan and the natural man are the sources of fear and God is the source of faith and hope. I vowed to myself that I will never make that mistake again and that the next time we teach her, I will invite her to be baptized.
Some good news here in Dillon is that some people are just accepting the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the first vision as truth right off the bat!! They just believe it! It kind of throws me off when we ask them to pray about it and they just say, "I don't need to! I know it's true!" Holy cow! I see great things happening this transfer! :)
One of my all time favorite things on the mission is seeing kids flipping through scriptures and people watching the "Because of Him" video. I might have mentioned that before but I love seeing children of God watching and learning about their Savior. It seriously touches my heart. :) Moments like those are ones that I live for!
Well, I can't think of anything else crazy happening this week. Here is my ponderizing got scripture this week. I think it might be my favorite one in the Book of Mormon. It's Alma 37:36-37: "36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." How awesome is that! This scripture has helped me a ton when I was having a difficult time when I first came out and it gave me the reassurance that I'm not alone. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are there!
Sister Ney
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