What a great week! The Lord blessed us with five scheduled return appointments with five new investigators as we've contacted our referrals and worked harder in our efforts to open our mouths as we knock and look for people to teach. I went on my first split and exchange this week. Both great and exciting experiences!
For those who don't know, to go on a split means that between the two of us in our companionship, and two members that we invite to come to lessons with us, go to two appointments at the same time, but with each member. (Any questions?) I'll talk a little more about my splits later. To go on an exchange means to temporarily trade companions with the leaders in your zone— or the Sister Training Leaders (STLs), in our case. Our STLs are in Kennewick, and I got to go to Kennewick while the Sister from Kennewick came to be with my companion. Between the four of us, we had a productive and SUPER FUN day! Because of lack of time, I'll send you what I wrote to my mission president today to let you know what's been going on!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Sister Nielsen
President Ware!
This week has been such a blessing. I've been feeling so much better about being on my mission. That's not to say that I never felt good about it, but as a new missionary, I was having a hard time adjusting. I missed home, I was doubting myself as a missionary and my abilities, and as a result, I was really critical toward my companion and questioned a lot of what she taught me. But I have been so humbled and so blessed to have overcome a lot of the obstacles I've been facing by being able to see the error of my ways. Truly, the Savior was called to earth to teach his gospel and give us the way. It's been amazing to me to see his counsel bless my life.
In the New Testament he teaches, "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." This has been so helpful in my relationship with my companion. Now, it must be understood: I have never and do not see my companion as my enemy. Have I misunderstood her criticism? Have I murmured against her counsel? Yes. And it was me that was in the wrong. Is my companion perfect? No. And neither am I. But when I wasn't seeing clearly and I felt picked on and alone, I began to pray for her. I trusted that she was probably and more than likely going through hard things, too. Yeah, I'm a new missionary. Yeah, I can get pretty homesick. Yeah, I don't always believe I'm a good teacher or that I have anything to say that's going to bless these people, but my companion is probably going through the EXACT SAME THINGS that I'm going through. Only worse! Imagine being a trainer and taking on so much responsibility. Imagine knowing that, as a missionary's first trainer, that much of what you teach her will carry through her whole mission. Imagine knowing that you're not perfect and praying every night that your weaknesses and imperfections won't carry through that missionary's whole mission.
As I prayed for my companion, I started to see things from her perspective, and I started to have a desire to serve her and lift her up instead of being so critical and expecting so much of her. As I started to exercise the Savior's teachings, I started to see our relationship improve, and that means the world to me. We've started to trust each other and we're starting to have a TON of fun together. Not only that, but we've started to work so much harder and we're starting to reach and exceed our goals. We're starting. You know? And I think that's the key in any relationship: starting to improve together. Working harder and harder each day and repenting and trying. President Monson said, "Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" And that's the doctrine of Christ. Having faith to know that we can repent each day. Enduring to the end is to "try again tomorrow." And I love that we're starting to see that as a companionship.
The Lord gives us so many miracles each day. It's been so humbling to see the things that don't work out and to see the way the Lord makes other things work out. On many occasions this week, we've seen things fall through just to see something else open up. It's hard to recount every instance, but for example: This Friday we went on our first splits! It was such a great experience to watch the members that we both went with testify of the blessings of baptism, the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as the blessings we see through family scripture study & prayer. Having a member in lessons is such a blessing! But interestingly enough, we'd had a lesson scheduled that night during the time we spent during our split. If we had gone to the lesson that fell through, who knows what things would have been denied the people we taught, who so needed the message we had to bring?
It's been a miraculous week, for sure. Through our increased efforts, and through the grace of our Savior, we scheduled return appointments with five people. Five new investigators!
- Milo and Sammy have been taught by the sisters (and elders) in this area before. They invited us to come back and start teaching them again when we found them home one day this week. They've set a marriage date for July 4, and are excited to work toward getting married and being baptized. Sammy is still looking for a lot of answers about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When we met with them yesterday, we bore testimony of the power that scripture study plays in helping us find our answers and challenged her to read her Book of Mormon and study it out through prayer. Milo is working with his stake president and bishop to get ready to be re-baptized.
- Angie was a referral from the Weiblings in the 1st Ward. Sister Moetala was able to take Sister Allred with her to contact the referral and they had a lesson about the Restoration on her doorstep and scheduled a return appointment for this Thursday.
- We taught Dianela about the Restoration on her doorstep yesterday! We knocked into her husband Javier while tracting, this week, and he asked us to come back Sunday for a return appointment. When we came over yesterday, Dianela answered the door (since Javier was out fishing... apparently he forgot about us! Haha.) She and her family are starting to go back to church, and she was very open and receptive to everything we taught! We gave her the Restoration pamphlet and left her with un Libro de Mormon (a Spanish Book of Mormon) and an invitation to read the Introduction and 3 Nephi 11. We have a return appointment with her on May 4.
- We found Heidi when we contacted a referral from the 1st Ward. Her mom's neighbor was the referral, but we knocked into her mom's house (to discover that Heidi's mom doesn't speak English), and got to talk to Heidi while she was visiting her mom. We started talking about the Restoration and asked if we could come back to teach more. Heidi seemed very receptive! She asked us to come visit her house in the 10th Ward on Friday, and Sister Moetala was able to go on splits with a member from the 10th Ward. They had a GREAT lesson! The member, Sister Yaunt, was so helpful in the lesson. They invited her to be baptized and she wanted to pray about when she should be baptized. We have a return appointment with her this Friday (or next Friday? I'm not quite sure right now).
The cute cocker spaniel that we got to hang out with at dinner this week :)
This is us and Sister Weibling! She let us wear her aprons for dinner because she didn't want us to get spaghetti on our white shirts! (Later, she MADE US OUR OWN APRONS! We'll have to take a picture and send them soon!)
Our district leaders live above our apartment. We have a little bucket system where they lower down this Halloween bucket when they want to send us candy or food or pamphlets and supplies that we run out of. We have a lot of fun with the elders! :)
Elder Clarkson bringing up the bucket!
These stoplights are ALL OVER Pasco. Not necessarily in our area, but when we have to find people in the YSA in different parts of Pasco! Weirdest stoplights ever.
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