Bug Bites
The bug bites are back!!! Remember when me and my companion thought we had scabies...well it went away for awhile and now its back... and i have it worse :0 People first told us it was scabies...then fleas...then a food allergy...then bed bugs...and now mosquitos. So we have tried everything from bug killer, scabies lotion, to not eating fish to try to get rid of these bites. Now we cover ourselves in bug repellent before we go to bed to see if it works. I did last night but didn't do my neck or face and today i have two bites on my neck...it must be mosquitos then....we aren't really sure:)Spiritual Lessons
This was a special week! We taught some really great people and had some really spiritual lessons. More this week than at any other time in my mission people understood what we were teaching.Three memorable experiences from this week:
1) We taught a 15 year old young man and watched the Restoration video with him. After, we asked him what he thought. Usually people give an answer like, it was nice, amazing that he could receive an answer from God...this young man answered, ''The truth? How I'm really feeling? I'm a little conflicted. I feel something different but good. Everyone has told me that what I saw is impossible (that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and they called him to be a prophet), but I feel something special, and so I'm not sure what to think.'' We invited him to pray and ask God what was true. Four days later we had another great lesson with him, where he said that he prayed and God answered him. He knew without a doubt that God is aware of him and that this was true.
2) We have been working with a family for a couple months now. The father and son are members of the church, and the mother and daughter are investigating the church. Last night we wanted to re-teach about the Restoration, we decided to watch the short Restoration video with them. We did and after the mom was full of questions (in our first visit she told us that she would never go to church because she didn't like how we talked about Joseph Smith). But after the video she was asking really good questions that showed to us that she understood.
At the end of our discussion she said, ''So the reason people talk about Joseph Smith so much is because of the Restoration? It's because through him Jesus Christ restored the true church? That's why?'' YES! We were so excited that she understood. Then we invited her to pray to know if this was true, we prayed with her and her daughter right then, and the mom offered the most sincere, heartfelt prayer I've ever heard. In her prayer she asked God to help her know if these things were true, and if they are true to have the strength to live the Gospel with her family, to be a better mother and wife. It was an extremely special moment, one I will never forget.
3) Yesterday, my companion and I had about three hours of open time. We wanted to use this time to look for new people to teach, but we didn't know where to go look. Our sector isn't that big and so we feel like we have worked all over. In our nightly planning Saturday night we decided to choose some inspired streets to contact. We prayed for inspiration and then individually chose 5 streets that we wanted to go to. Then we came together to see if there were any that were the same. There was only one.
So Sunday afternoon we went to that street and began to knock on doors and talk to people. In the morning before leaving the house we had prayed for help to find three people to teach, and within 20 minutes of talking to people on this particular street a family of three (mom, dad and teenage daughter) invited us in to share a message. As a family they want to do what is right and teach their daughter good principles. We taught them about how following Jesus Christ helps us to have a better family life and reach these righteous goals. We invited them to begin walking in this path of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by being baptized and they said they would start preparing! The dad said he had never understood why Jesus was baptized by immersion, and said they wanted to be baptized to follow better the Savior. We left their house and I felt overwhelmingly loved by Heavenly Father, that He trusted us enough to lead us to this house to help this family.
This week throughout these experiences I learned that God has you where you are for a specific and important reason. It is our responsibility to do our best so that we can do what He has sent us to do. This applies to all of us, not just missionaries. He puts us in places, with people who need us, or with peole that we need to learn from. But if we are spiritually aware and sensitive we can take part in the work and glory of God, by helping our brothers and sisters prepare for eternal life! If you feel like you don't know why you are where you are, ask God to help you see who needs you right now, and then go help them in the way the Spirit prompts you.
Love, Hermana Bowns
(p.s. everyone here calls my companion hermana kem piña because there is a soda called kem piña and my companion's name is kemp, the other day we told a lady that and she looked at me and said, 'if she is hermana kem piña, what are you? hermana coca cola?' hahahaha yes, i am hermana coca cola:)
No comments:
Post a Comment