Dear Family and Friends,
I am so grateful that I know that I can receive guidance from the Lord and that I realize that His way really is better than my way.
Our mission president stresses all the time not to rely on "the arm of flesh" In the last few months I have realized that I know so little compared to Heavenly Father, and that things work out a lot better when I seek and take His guidance than when I try to rely on myself. I really have seen the Lord give me a witness after the trial of my faith. It is only after I act on what I know to do that I see why things happen.
I'm so glad you found a great house and that you were able to feel the Spirit confirming to you that it is the right house. One of the things I am learning out on a mission is to pray for things specifically. I don't think I was horrible at saying a morning and evening prayer but now I am praying for people and their problems specifically and I feel much more power in that. I've realized how much the Lord really is just waiting for us to ask.
Another amazing thing is that as a missionary we have the authority and power to promise specific blessings to people. For example, we are teaching this 60 year old guy, LeRoy, who hasn't come to church because of family problems. As inspired by the Spirit we can promise him specifically that if he comes to church he will have the strength to deal with family issues and that the hearts of his family will be softened. I was thinking about that last night as we were discussing with another member how we might be able to help him. Teaching people is a lot of responsibility, but I think it is also really amazing and a privilege to be able to promise them blessings. We are told in Preach My Gospel and by our leaders that the Lord will honor the promises that we make to people. ISN’T THAT SOO COOOL!!!!!
Ok, business/temporal stuff:
The email policy for this mission is that anyone can email me, but I can only email family. But I check email before I write letters, so if people want to email me that would be fine. Though, of course, mail is always super amazing!
If anyone wants to send me a package or stuff, I would love music. Any classical music, any church music (though I have a lot of pre-2002 Especially for Youth music). I would actually love some Enya music. And I can listen to any Christmas music.
Ok for News:
So just, btw, BYU has lost all four of their football games, which I am pretty bummed about, not really, but sort of. Sister Goodell is a U of U fan so she likes to rub that in my face. Oklahoma is WAYYYY into football. The main rivalry around here is Oklahoma University (OU) verses Oklahoma State University (OSU). But they also are also into NFL and high school football. So tracting here in the evening is a little harder, because people are either at a game, or watching the game and annoyed that we have interrupted them. There is some sort of football going on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, (And Tuesday is Junior High) So that's pretty crazy.
I'm so excited for General Conference!!! Here it's 11 am-1 pm and 1-3 pm.
Oh, so last week I was down in South OKC with Sister Holly, Sister Davey, and Sister Grant (my MTC companion) I was there all day Tuesday-Friday. It was interesting to see how other people teach, work, and tract. Sister Holly is 4'11 and from just south of Seattle, next transfer she goes home, and it was way fun to work with her. Sister Davey is like 5'2, Sister Grant is 5'7 so it was funny, Sister Grant and I were the tall missionaries and Sister Davey and Holly were the short ones. I discovered it is really weird to try and teach someone with 4 missionaries. With 2 it is easy to switch back and forth, but with four we were constantly interrupting each other and all had different ideas of where to take the lesson next. The commandment to teach 2x2 really makes sense now. (Though it always takes time getting used to teaching with someone new and none of us had taught together)
So the reason that I went to the south is that Sister Goodell, the other trainers, DL, and ZL were in training. The learned the 8 new missionary lessons that are about how we as missionaries are supposed to teach, it's what's going to be taught at the MTC coming up. They are all about how to better use the Spirit and how to get out of the way of what the Spirit wants to testify of. The way we plan before we teach, the way we teach, and the way we follow up are all changing. It's great because some of this I was taught at the MTC, and it was a great foundation for all the changes that are being made. It's no more going through the motions of teaching, but really receiving guidance from the Spirit as you teach.
We got 2 investigators to church!!! Yay!!! Out here people will say they'll get baptized but getting them to church is harder. But in the next week, everyday, we are going to ask everyone we teach, if they are planning on coming to church, and what they’re doing so that they can come.
Over the last week we have seen a lot of people put other things over finding God, whether that is family, personal problems or whatever. People seem to think that they need to solve their own personal problems or turmoil before they can seek God or church--which is completely what the world tells people, to set out time for themselves before anyone else. People are soo deceived. They don't see that putting God first will really help them. All changes in our lives for the better are through obedience and through the grace and enabling power of the Atonement. Satan is good at getting people to put off seeking God, and putting extra criteria on that journey. We don't need to fix ourselves before we seek for God. I have started to see daily the false traps tactics that Satan uses. People really are deceived by the precepts of men. As I see these things in others I realize that I need to carefully inspect my own life as well. I can't think that I must be a better person, scholar, teacher, whatever before I ask the Lord for help. I know that whatever problem people are facing, turning to face God will improve their lives. I came across a scripture a few days ago that really got me thinking about this. It's at the end of Matthew 11. It says something like, "all ye that are heavy laden, take my yoke upon you, for my burden is easy and my load is light" I realized that the Lord isn't telling us to give him our problems. We are to take "his yoke upon us". As missionaries we are to take the Lord's purpose on us, specifically to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I know that as I take this yoke upon me, that whatever other burdens I am carrying or worried about, will either take care of themselves or I will be able to accomplish them. But I also know that this scripture applies to everyone, once we become more one with Christ and his purpose, our loads will become lighter.
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson
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