To be honest, this week started off pretty rough. Sister Morris and I weren't getting anywhere with our progressing friends (investigators) and we weren't finding anyone new to teach. We both felt pretty discouraged and it was getting harder to stay motivated. Satan definitely knows when miracles are about to happen because that's when he tries the hardest to make you feel like a failure. It wasn't until Wednesday night that we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
We were going around visiting less active members and former investigators. We knocked on this one house and a girl my age opened the door. She happened to be a recent convert and the only member of the church in her family. Her name is Tawni and we asked her if her family was ever interested. She said no but she does try to bring up the Book of Mormon a lot. The next day we get a call from her neighbor and he sounded super excited. He tells us that last night Tawni's mom came home feeling super sick and asked for a priesthood blessing! He and the bishop were able to go over and give her one just moments after we had left Tawni's house. We don't know what will come of it but it was super cool to see this mom with no interest in the gospel have enough faith to ask for a priesthood blessing.
On Thursday, we both received the inspiration to drop/stop teaching all our current friends. This was NOT easy and we went back and forth about making this decision. We have grown to love our progressing friends but if they aren't willing to live the gospel, there is only so much we can do. We decided that finding new people who are better prepared to hear our message was the best thing we could do. So we went by all of our friends' homes and made sure they knew how much we loved them, but we wouldn't be teaching them anymore. Some of them got a little heated and it ended in lots of tears on our part. I learned this week that missionary work truly isn't easy, but through Christ, our burdens can be lightened.
On Friday, I went to my first zone conference and it was amazing. Zone conference is when 2-3 zones get together and the mission president and his wife come talk to us. We learned about working with members to find people to teach. Members have such a big role in missionary work because they provide that foundation of friendship that makes it easier for people to meet with the missionaries. We decided we want to work with the members more this week and we can already see blessings from it.
The work is so good here. Since we stopped teaching our other friends, we have already found 3 new people who seem very interested. I know that our Heavenly Father blesses us when we follow the prompting of the Holy Ghost. I also know that He blesses us the most when life gets hard. I finally witnessed my first day of rain and it was CRAZY. One minute we were walking in misty air and the next minute, it was pouring rain! We were soaked from head to toe, but we call rain time miracle time. Lots of people felt bad for us being out in the rain, so they let us into their homes and we got to teach them!
I've been in the mission field for almost a month now and I love every second of it, even the hard moments. Today Grandpa took us fishing (my first time and I caught two bass!) and made us breakfast. I'm so lucky to know people like him. He is probably the happiest man I've ever met and he loves the sister missionaries.
Well, that's all for this week but please stay in touch! I'm grateful for you all!
- sister smith
my trainer
district group photo!
my favorite group of sisters
fishin'
the lake this morning wow
us and Grandpa!
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