Our area is just awesome. It has been such a blessing to serve here. I love it! This week we worked on strengthening our recent converts, serving and building relationships with members, and talking to everyone. It was a good week!
One of the coolest experiences with was Victor. He's a recent convert that the Elders took over after we taught the first lessons. We had a neat conversation with him yesterday. It was a testimony builder to me as he expressed the change he feels he has experienced as he has gone through his process of conversion.
He recounted how the last year of his life had been the most terrible year, he was depressed and faced a lot of bad influences and bad thoughts. Carmelo (his freind and another recent convert) had been inviting him to church and telling Victor about the great things he was learning at his new church. After many invitations, Victor finally decided to come. He walked in a felt alone, which was when we gestured that they come sit with us. They
We also did a fun activity with the branch last night. We watched Meet the Mormons and had several investigators and less active members there. Hermana Johnson had a great idea to give everyone a card to write down names of friends and family who are in need of a message of hope at the beginning of the movie, and then gather them at the end. As a result, we got about 10 referrals between us and the Elders. We are really excited to go meet the friends and family of member of the branch!
Hermana Johnson is stellar! I love her! She's such a had worker and so motivated to get work done and be proactive. I have admired her a lot these last few months in her desires to learn about the scriptures. She has very diligently studied and feasted upon the words of Christ. Companionship study with her is a blast because she loves the stories she reads. She is becoming quite the scriptorian and has been able to effectively and powerfully use the scriptures in our lessons. I love her!
I am grateful for the emphasis we have had in our mission to focus on following the spirit. Hermana Johnson always says, "No spirit, no eternal life." It has been a great experience for me to learn about the importance of relying on the spirit in missionary work as well as my own life. I have tried to be so much more aware of how the spirit talks to me and how I communicate back. I remember when I was younger going to the temple for baptisms. One day the temple worker introducing my ward's baptisms shared a message about the spirit. He said, "The Holy Ghost has manners." The essence of his message was that if you want the spirit to talk to you, you have to listen. He won't be rude and yell at you, but he will politely wait to be heard. I have found that to be true in my life and have seen evidence of it in the lives of investigators and members throughout my mission. I know that the spirit guides us in all aspects of the work, and it guides our investigators, too. We must all choose to yield to it. No spirit, no eternal life.
Hermana Clark