Hello friends! I only have about 20 minutes to write to you all today, so forgive me if this is short, but life is ridiculously busy right now!
Ok, so I want to talk about Sunday. We have church at 9:00, so we got there at 8:40 or so to greet and set up the headsets for translating the meetings into Cambodian. Sister Johansen was speaking in Sacrament meeting, and the four of us were supposed to teach Relief Society. At about 8:50 we get a call from the sisters in the Lincoln Ward, which shares our church building but covers a different geographical area. It turns out that one of the sisters was very sick and could not make it to church, but one of their investigators had gotten baptized the day before and was going to be confirmed (the second part of baptism) in their Sacrament meeting at 11:00, so they really needed to be there for her. So, Sister Johansen stayed to give her talk with a ward member designated to be her companion, and Sister Rydalch drove us to the Lincoln sisters's apartment (you will remember from last week that neither Sister Humphereyes nor I can drive). Sister Humphreyes stayed with the sick companion, I became Sister Peters's companion in the Lincoln ward, and Sister Rydalch went back to our ward to be with Sister Johansen again. In the midst of this, no one was translating for the two Cambodian grandpas who speak no English!
Well, needless to say, I was a little thrown off. I was glad to help put, but I was feeling very frustrated because I had to abandon all of my plans to meet with my investigators to do work in the Lincoln area, and I went to a total of 5 hours of church. I was beginning to feel like it was going to be a wasted day and I wasn't going to get any work done. Then cam our 5-7 knocking hours, which I was just not in the mood for, but I decided to just buck up and deal with it because being grumpy about knocking wasn't going to change anything. Sister Peters picked a street, and we just went for it.
And I cannot believe how amazing the next 2 hours were.
The very first house we knocked on, a lady answered the door with her 5 year old daughter. We started to see if she was interested, and she cut us off. It turns out she had lost her phone and she was panicking about finding it in the dark. She asked if we could call it for her, and of course we did. We then spent a few minutes with our flashlights trying to find it. It eventually turned up, and Jessica (the lady) thanked us. Then the cool part came. She said "you know what's weird? I was just wishing I had someone to call my phone when you showed up. I had been praying to find it, wishing I had a flashlight, and then you showed up with 2 phones and 3 flashlights. Isn't that crazy?" We then spent 45 minutes with her talking about the miracles that Heavenly Father gives us every day, and how He had answered her prayer. She is now scheduled to be baptized on January 2nd, and we never even went in her house!
At this point I was feeling tons better, and everything that hadn't gone my way that day would have been worth it just for that experience with Jessica. But Heavenly Father has promised to bless us beyond our sacrifices, and so the miracles continued.
A few houses later, a woman opened the door who turned out to be a member of our church who hasn't attended in several years because her husband is not a member. We had a great talk with her, and she told us that she thinks it is time her husband learned bout our church. She said he is very open to it, but that his father is a pastor of another religion, and her husband doesn't want to offend his dad by looking into other religions, but she wants to start having the missionaries over to see if he is ready yet. We prayed with her and her 3 sons, and the power of the Spirit was so strong.
Almost to the end of the street, we knocked into a lady named Rebecca who looked like the kind of people who usually yell at us and slam their doors. Think lots of tattoos, facial piercings etc. (I'm sorry for stereotyping, but I learned my lesson). We asked what her experience was with religion, and she told us that when her dad died when she was 7, she started distancing herself from God because she felt angry and betrayed. She rebelled for a long time, but recently, with her kids births, she decided to start building that relationship with God again. She said she had started praying and she reads the Bible every day by herself and every day with her kids. We talked to her about the power of scripture, and about how she can feel that same power while reading the Book of Mormon. She agreed to read it and pray about it, and was really excited that there was more scripture available to her. We also talked about how families can be together forever, and how she will have the chance to see her dad again. She also wants to be baptized, and the Spanish speaking elders are going back to meet with here again tonight.
So, in summary, here is what I learned:
1. Obedience brings blessings and miracles.
2. God answers prayers, and sometimes He will answer them through you.
3. I should not try and guess who is ready for the gospel and who is not.
4. No matter how great my plans for myself are, or how frustrated I might be when my plans get interrupted, God knows what I need and He will put me where I need to be when I need to be there. I just have to trust Him.
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Lemon
Ok, so I want to talk about Sunday. We have church at 9:00, so we got there at 8:40 or so to greet and set up the headsets for translating the meetings into Cambodian. Sister Johansen was speaking in Sacrament meeting, and the four of us were supposed to teach Relief Society. At about 8:50 we get a call from the sisters in the Lincoln Ward, which shares our church building but covers a different geographical area. It turns out that one of the sisters was very sick and could not make it to church, but one of their investigators had gotten baptized the day before and was going to be confirmed (the second part of baptism) in their Sacrament meeting at 11:00, so they really needed to be there for her. So, Sister Johansen stayed to give her talk with a ward member designated to be her companion, and Sister Rydalch drove us to the Lincoln sisters's apartment (you will remember from last week that neither Sister Humphereyes nor I can drive). Sister Humphreyes stayed with the sick companion, I became Sister Peters's companion in the Lincoln ward, and Sister Rydalch went back to our ward to be with Sister Johansen again. In the midst of this, no one was translating for the two Cambodian grandpas who speak no English!
Well, needless to say, I was a little thrown off. I was glad to help put, but I was feeling very frustrated because I had to abandon all of my plans to meet with my investigators to do work in the Lincoln area, and I went to a total of 5 hours of church. I was beginning to feel like it was going to be a wasted day and I wasn't going to get any work done. Then cam our 5-7 knocking hours, which I was just not in the mood for, but I decided to just buck up and deal with it because being grumpy about knocking wasn't going to change anything. Sister Peters picked a street, and we just went for it.
And I cannot believe how amazing the next 2 hours were.
The very first house we knocked on, a lady answered the door with her 5 year old daughter. We started to see if she was interested, and she cut us off. It turns out she had lost her phone and she was panicking about finding it in the dark. She asked if we could call it for her, and of course we did. We then spent a few minutes with our flashlights trying to find it. It eventually turned up, and Jessica (the lady) thanked us. Then the cool part came. She said "you know what's weird? I was just wishing I had someone to call my phone when you showed up. I had been praying to find it, wishing I had a flashlight, and then you showed up with 2 phones and 3 flashlights. Isn't that crazy?" We then spent 45 minutes with her talking about the miracles that Heavenly Father gives us every day, and how He had answered her prayer. She is now scheduled to be baptized on January 2nd, and we never even went in her house!
At this point I was feeling tons better, and everything that hadn't gone my way that day would have been worth it just for that experience with Jessica. But Heavenly Father has promised to bless us beyond our sacrifices, and so the miracles continued.
A few houses later, a woman opened the door who turned out to be a member of our church who hasn't attended in several years because her husband is not a member. We had a great talk with her, and she told us that she thinks it is time her husband learned bout our church. She said he is very open to it, but that his father is a pastor of another religion, and her husband doesn't want to offend his dad by looking into other religions, but she wants to start having the missionaries over to see if he is ready yet. We prayed with her and her 3 sons, and the power of the Spirit was so strong.
Almost to the end of the street, we knocked into a lady named Rebecca who looked like the kind of people who usually yell at us and slam their doors. Think lots of tattoos, facial piercings etc. (I'm sorry for stereotyping, but I learned my lesson). We asked what her experience was with religion, and she told us that when her dad died when she was 7, she started distancing herself from God because she felt angry and betrayed. She rebelled for a long time, but recently, with her kids births, she decided to start building that relationship with God again. She said she had started praying and she reads the Bible every day by herself and every day with her kids. We talked to her about the power of scripture, and about how she can feel that same power while reading the Book of Mormon. She agreed to read it and pray about it, and was really excited that there was more scripture available to her. We also talked about how families can be together forever, and how she will have the chance to see her dad again. She also wants to be baptized, and the Spanish speaking elders are going back to meet with here again tonight.
So, in summary, here is what I learned:
1. Obedience brings blessings and miracles.
2. God answers prayers, and sometimes He will answer them through you.
3. I should not try and guess who is ready for the gospel and who is not.
4. No matter how great my plans for myself are, or how frustrated I might be when my plans get interrupted, God knows what I need and He will put me where I need to be when I need to be there. I just have to trust Him.
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Lemon
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