Dear Friends and Family,
Before my mission taking the sacrament was just something I did every week. I knew what it meant, but I didn't realize the significance of it in our lives. Being on a mission I have seen a little bit of how important taking the sacrament is. Coming to church and taking the sacrament allows people to get baptized, to seek forgiveness, to feel renewed, to hold a calling and help others, and especially to be worthy of a temple recommend. I know I still don't understand to full import of the many ordinances in the church but I am seeing the consequence of them in my life and in the lives of others. It's that whole idea that keeping the commandments allows you to have even more freedom. If people keep the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy, and other commandments they have the freedom to go to the temple; whereas without that they don't.
This Sunday we had an amazing experience--a man who has been investigating the Church for the past 5 years on and off has finally decided that it is true. He has already read all of the Book of Mormon and sounds like Doctrine and Covenants too. A few weeks ago he ran into one of the less active members who was struggling with her testimony and through bearing his testimony of this Church the Spirit spoke to her and she has been coming for the past 3 weeks and now has a goal to get to the temple in the next year.
For the sake of this blog we'll use the name Michael--he came to church and the first counselor in the bishopric who knows him invited him, the ward mission leader and his wife and us over for dinner. He asked us during the dinner how he could get baptized and we explained that we would review some basics of the gospel with him and the commandments and then he would have an interview with one of the Elders (male missionaries) and then he would get baptized. A person has to go to church at least 3 times to show consistency and that they are willing and able to come to church, because that is one of the things they covenant to do at baptism. So we set a date for him to be baptized on Sept. 10th! We are going to teach him at the first counselor's house and we have 3 appointments set up with him. Pretty much everything will be a review to him because a few years ago he attended church for 6 months straight! It's going to be interesting to teach someone who probably knows everything already, but that just means we have to be even more on our A game.
This week was awesome! Even though about 3 investigators dropped us we found 4 more. So far none of our current investigators, except Michael, have come to church. So that is what we will be focusing on this week. We have been able to teach a lot of lessons, but so far no one is progressing towards being baptized. But we helped a 10 year old recent convert to come to church and I think through her eventually her mom will come back as well.
Our mission president has given each companionship a portable DVD player and The District I&II (training DVD's for missionaries) and I have really enjoyed watching them. They show other missionaries and how they teach and how they follow Preach My Gospel. Of course these missionaries are not perfect, but they are great examples to me and they have really helped me in the last few weeks to learn better how to be a tool in the Lord's hands.
Just before we went tracting we had stopped by an investigator’s house (who doesn’t have a phone) to confirm our appointment for that week and he said he was no longer interested, that he would stick to the Bible. I went on to promise him so many blessings from The Book of Mormon and that God wanted so much more for him. He responded with "Well some people just want to stay where they are." It made me so sad for him and for all the other people in the world who believe that. Sister Esau said after we left that there are going to be many people that will be satisfied with the Terrestrial kingdom. (A place where people go who lived good lives but were not willing to live Christ's gospel of faith, repentance, baptism by proper authority, receiving the Holy Ghost, and continuously living Christ-like lives. There they will be happy but will not live with God or be united with their families)
We also had some cool tracting experiences.
We talked to a guy that had no hands that was out in his yard pulling weeds. He had some sort of weeder attached to his left hand and apparently he weeded his own yard and the yard of all his neighbors because he was a farmer when he was younger and wanted to stay busy. He lost both of his hands as an electrician repairing the lines after a tornado. Someone a ways down the line turned on the power while he was working on it and he fell 30 feet away and lost the use of both of his hands. He wasn't interested in learning about the gospel, but he sure was an interesting person to talk to.
That same evening we had a great experience walking back to our car after tracting. We saw a man and a woman out walking and I introduced ourselves and gave her a Finding Faith in Christ pass along card and we kept talking and turns out a lot of her family is Mormon. She's been to a Mormon church before and is at a point in her life where she is looking for direction and is trying to find her way back to the path. We got her number and address and will be teaching her and her boyfriend on Tuesday! It was a great tracting experience. And it helped me to see that God really is preparing people who are ready to hear the gospel!
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson
