January 25, 2016
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| Muskrat Walking on Ice |
This week's account,
I'll be honest, may come out a little scattered. A couple of days were a
blur, but all in all just know that each moment I was making my best effort to
do what's right and love others.
We'll start with an experience on the more
humorous side; the Elder's Quorum activity. Our ward had planned a
bowling activity for this week end and me and Elder Trotter were really looking
forward to it. Elder Trotter was
especially excited because he bowls at a pretty high skill level. We
arrive at the lanes and well, we had one member there...and then no one else
came. So we made the decision to go bowling anyway and we had a great time! I
scored almost as much as Elder Trotter, haha.
Sunday was one of those days that I'll remember for a long, long time. Saturday night when we did our planning, it would be a normal Sunday schedule; first church, then a lesson, then some less-active finding. However, Heavenly Father always keeps in mind our best interest, and had a completely different plan prepared.
After the first church meeting, our ami cancelled on us so the 'empty time' alarm was going off in my head. Luckily I stayed calm and well, you'll see. By the second hour of church I felt down in the proverbial dumps, due to a story someone shared, how some great missionaries turned their lives around by talking to hundreds of people every day...I would not consider my people count in the hundreds...it's definitely below a hundred; so I continued to do what I really should not be doing, comparing my situation to a situation with very non-similar to my own. Then I was just struggling to feel excited about talking to members to schedule things with them.
Cue the miracles……. Jean-Christophe pulls us aside after church and asks if we have plans.. .”Nope, none at all!” “Perfect, 'I need to do a couple visits to members who need blessings and my home teacher isn't here today”. “Perfect Jean-Christophe, We’ll go with you! ” Before leaving to the visits, Christie Meijiah asked when we could over for dinner to teach her boyfriend. Then Sister Fieschi came in, saying 'I wanted to invite you over this week, there's a young couple I would like to introduce to you, I feel like they really need the gospel.' OOOHHH (angelic sound). We head home, eat food, then pass by the Ruiz family, we give blessings to the children, and then Jerome who was feeling very sick. At the moment we finish visiting Jerome, we just prayed for some guidance on the next step of our day, and the E. Family calls, wondering if we can stop by. Of
course we can. Good thing Jean Christophe had a car because if not our visits would have taken the entire day! We arrive at the E. family's home, and find not one, not two, but TEN Asian people at their house to teach. The whole family was there because of a funeral of a close family friend, and so we decided….. why not teach the Plan of Salvation? So we pull up some chairs and they all gather around, once again there's all these people intently staring at us, and so we're blown away by the opportunity God has given us and we start teaching. The lesson, which turned into a crazy cross-way conversation, was going pretty well, and centered on the plan of salvation. The best moment was when things were getting confusing, and I was ready to try and logically explain something about...oh I don't remember. All I remember was everything else left my head and I had this feeling to talk about the importance of Jesus Christ, and at that point everyone stopped talking and just listened, and of course....it was God who led the discussion that way. Our job was just to trust the feelings that came to us, and I'm extremely glad we followed it. The reason I loved this day was that God pulled through for us...not only did he pull through for us, he pulled us, then picked us up, ran past the defenders and scored a touchdown...and the crowds of angels went wild.
So many other things happened this week. We did a pass by and she answered, told us to come back, but I followed this feeling that told me to go to apartment 99, and as we mount the stairs a lady is standing in her doorway talking to her neighbor, this is apartment 99. We introduce ourselves and introduce our message, and she let us pray with her! Brother Petion came with us to visit a less active sister recovering from sickness, and the mere fact he could help was a miracle because the previous night we had called many people and no one could come. Saturday morning we talked to Amos, a man in the park who had a vast knowledge of Jesus Christ, who agreed to see us again. Kevin who's a friend of Christie Mejiah agreed to meet with us, and he's progressing slowly, but surely. A bunch of difficult, hard things also happened this week: our ami with a baptismal date couldn't see us and we may have to move his baptism. We haven't heard from multiple people. Sometimes amis just fall off the side of the earth. My comp doesn't always feel as up to contacting as I do. BUT DESPITE ALL THIS, I don't know how God does it, but he pulls through. He does and we just have to keep the spirit with us, and patiently, calmly endure what's thrown our way. Heck it's not easy, but it is doable for all the imperfect people out there, myself included. I love you guys and have a super week. God shows us miracles, It's TRUE. SO TRUE. Thank You!
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| Elder Trotter Pondering life |
Sunday was one of those days that I'll remember for a long, long time. Saturday night when we did our planning, it would be a normal Sunday schedule; first church, then a lesson, then some less-active finding. However, Heavenly Father always keeps in mind our best interest, and had a completely different plan prepared.
After the first church meeting, our ami cancelled on us so the 'empty time' alarm was going off in my head. Luckily I stayed calm and well, you'll see. By the second hour of church I felt down in the proverbial dumps, due to a story someone shared, how some great missionaries turned their lives around by talking to hundreds of people every day...I would not consider my people count in the hundreds...it's definitely below a hundred; so I continued to do what I really should not be doing, comparing my situation to a situation with very non-similar to my own. Then I was just struggling to feel excited about talking to members to schedule things with them.
Cue the miracles……. Jean-Christophe pulls us aside after church and asks if we have plans.. .”Nope, none at all!” “Perfect, 'I need to do a couple visits to members who need blessings and my home teacher isn't here today”. “Perfect Jean-Christophe, We’ll go with you! ” Before leaving to the visits, Christie Meijiah asked when we could over for dinner to teach her boyfriend. Then Sister Fieschi came in, saying 'I wanted to invite you over this week, there's a young couple I would like to introduce to you, I feel like they really need the gospel.' OOOHHH (angelic sound). We head home, eat food, then pass by the Ruiz family, we give blessings to the children, and then Jerome who was feeling very sick. At the moment we finish visiting Jerome, we just prayed for some guidance on the next step of our day, and the E. Family calls, wondering if we can stop by. Of
course we can. Good thing Jean Christophe had a car because if not our visits would have taken the entire day! We arrive at the E. family's home, and find not one, not two, but TEN Asian people at their house to teach. The whole family was there because of a funeral of a close family friend, and so we decided….. why not teach the Plan of Salvation? So we pull up some chairs and they all gather around, once again there's all these people intently staring at us, and so we're blown away by the opportunity God has given us and we start teaching. The lesson, which turned into a crazy cross-way conversation, was going pretty well, and centered on the plan of salvation. The best moment was when things were getting confusing, and I was ready to try and logically explain something about...oh I don't remember. All I remember was everything else left my head and I had this feeling to talk about the importance of Jesus Christ, and at that point everyone stopped talking and just listened, and of course....it was God who led the discussion that way. Our job was just to trust the feelings that came to us, and I'm extremely glad we followed it. The reason I loved this day was that God pulled through for us...not only did he pull through for us, he pulled us, then picked us up, ran past the defenders and scored a touchdown...and the crowds of angels went wild.
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| CREME BRULEE: 1st time |
So many other things happened this week. We did a pass by and she answered, told us to come back, but I followed this feeling that told me to go to apartment 99, and as we mount the stairs a lady is standing in her doorway talking to her neighbor, this is apartment 99. We introduce ourselves and introduce our message, and she let us pray with her! Brother Petion came with us to visit a less active sister recovering from sickness, and the mere fact he could help was a miracle because the previous night we had called many people and no one could come. Saturday morning we talked to Amos, a man in the park who had a vast knowledge of Jesus Christ, who agreed to see us again. Kevin who's a friend of Christie Mejiah agreed to meet with us, and he's progressing slowly, but surely. A bunch of difficult, hard things also happened this week: our ami with a baptismal date couldn't see us and we may have to move his baptism. We haven't heard from multiple people. Sometimes amis just fall off the side of the earth. My comp doesn't always feel as up to contacting as I do. BUT DESPITE ALL THIS, I don't know how God does it, but he pulls through. He does and we just have to keep the spirit with us, and patiently, calmly endure what's thrown our way. Heck it's not easy, but it is doable for all the imperfect people out there, myself included. I love you guys and have a super week. God shows us miracles, It's TRUE. SO TRUE. Thank You!
Love
Elder Jones
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