Dearest Familia y Amigos,
....No we didn't stay up till Midnight, but I did wake up
around 1:00AM (don't know why) and muttered it to myself haha.
Short summary of me from the past week:
In my personal study I've been going through the Attributes
of Christ (Ch. 6 of PMG) and I'd been feeling lost on where to start on
improving all these areas that need soooo much work (haha), but President
Hanks' e-mail helped me realize I just need to take it slow and do all I can
through Christ and His Atonement. I'm never going to get it perfectly, but I
can come as close as possible through Christ.
Work-wise, we had several great experiences this week.
We were doing area-book work the other afternoon, and Sister Acosta found a girl named "Veronica" that is very interested in hearing our message, but doesn't remember meeting missionaries. Odd. We taught the Restoration over the phone and she wants to learn more in the future.
Same story as above, but with a man named Eduardo, and he remembers the missionaries. We are hopeful that now is his time.
Last, the best of all the Elect, Suheimy! We were in the Boxwood Apartments to stop by the Marshallese family's home and see if they had time for us to come to by either then or later. Afterwards, we went past a door that Sister Acosta and Sister Johnson had tried to contact several times because they knew a woman from Puerto Rico lived there. Instead, her daughter answered, said her mom would be home soon, and invited us in to share the message with her instead. So, we taught God is a loving Heavenly Father, He gives us families, prophets, Christ and His atonement to make it possible to be happy and find the way back to Him, and then we covered the Apostasy. Then she stopped us, and started saying that she agreed it was so sad that the authority had been taken away and that humans are so violent and don't deserve the Priesthood, etc etc.... and then she said, "I guess what I want to know is... Will we ever get that authority back?"
I have never been so excited to share something in my entire life. We skipped a few parts of the Restoration pamphlet and jumped straight into Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She soaked up everything. We invited her to be baptized by this restored authority and she said YES! I finally understand the joy of having someone accept the Gospel after they've been looking for it. We also got to go over the Atonement a bit with her. She has such amazing questions, one of which was "Do we really deserve God's forgiveness?" So I got to feel the Spirit bear witness to her while sharing my testimony that even though, No, we really don't, He loves us enough that He forgives us anyway because He knew we were going to make mistakes and learn our entire lives- that's why he sent our Savior.
We're still trying to get time in with Dustin,
Jaquelyn, and Derrick/Amber to help them keep commitments and such. I still
have hope for them though we have some evidence that would make us doubt.
I'm very excited to share this Gospel more fully with others
and help them receive the blessings in store for them! Alma 29:9 anyone? ;)
This work is clear evidence that true happiness comes from serving others and
helping them receive the Gospel. Mark 8:35- "For whosoever will save his
life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the
gospel's, the same shall save it."
Finally, for the New Year, I want to extend our Mission
President's Challenge to all who read this:
Set BHAGs!!!
Big
Hairy
Audacious
Goals
This is from President Hank's e-mail to us a few weeks ago:
"PRESIDENT HANKS’ GOAL: That you, your children, and their children remain Steadfast in Christ and
Champions for the Lord.
I dream that someday, Sister Hanks and I will be holding hands walking through Temple Square (or perhaps in your city), and you and your eternal companion will walk up to us. We will hug and reminisce and then your cute little 6-year old daughter or son, (appropriately missing a few front teeth), will pull on my coat and drag me down to her level, and say with a lisp, “President Hanks, our family is Steadfast in Christ!"
Set Goals! Dream Big!
I dream that someday, Sister Hanks and I will be holding hands walking through Temple Square (or perhaps in your city), and you and your eternal companion will walk up to us. We will hug and reminisce and then your cute little 6-year old daughter or son, (appropriately missing a few front teeth), will pull on my coat and drag me down to her level, and say with a lisp, “President Hanks, our family is Steadfast in Christ!"
Set Goals! Dream Big!
Philippians 4:13
The Church is true, the Book is blue, and God loves you- so let's be true!!!
Hermana Laurel Martin
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