Hello world!!
We had a lesson with our investigator,
her name is Sabina, and she's so amazing. We've taught her a few times
and each time she has opened up more to us. And she's been reading the
Book of Mormon consistently and praying about it. We taught her about
the Plan of Salvation, and when we explained about how we lived with
Heavenly Father before this life, she started crying because everything
we were teaching her was things she had thought about and believed to be
true, but she just didn't know if they were right or if anyone else
believed in them either. It was such a miracle. Through her tears she
told us, "yes, this is true. This is what I've thought my whole life,
and I now I know it's right." Ohhhhh the Spirit there was so strong as
we testified and told her this was everything she had been looking for.
BUT WAIT, THERES MORE. The
other day we were teaching a lesson outside her apartment complex to
someone else and as were heading to our car to leave, we saw her. We
literally ran over to her and gave her hugs. Lo and Behold she was
holding the Book of Mormon in her hand! She said that she had been
reading it and that it was a "testament" to her of God's love. OH SHE'S
SO PERFECT. Then we saw her again
yesterday just quickly and she had finished reading chapter 8 of the
Book of Mormon where it talks about the vision of the Tree of Life, and
she started relating it to herself and the experiences she's had in life
and Sister Morgan and I were just sitting there SO happy about how
much she loves reading the Book of Mormon.
Okay
okay, and now I have to attach some of what Sister Morgan included in
her email home, because it's just too perfect and her narrative is so
much funnier than mine, so here's your mid-Monday treat via Sister
Morgan:
"Saturday
was one of the craziest days ever. We went to the funeral of Katie's
dad (Katie is the girl that the Elders baptized). It was non religious.
very simple. Nice. I enjoyed some Perrier in memory of Mom.
After
the funeral, we had been invited by a potential to come have dinner
with her family and some friends. Her name is Tina, she's Egyptian and
really nice, but quite dramatic.
We
got to her house and met her son and his girlfriend. They were drinking
wine, and asked us if it was okay because they knew we didn't drink.
Looking back, I wonder if the alcohol consumption had anything to do
with what happened next.
Tina had made So. Much. Food. In short, a feast.
Her
son piled our plates with everything and kept saying, "these women are
American, they're courageous, they'll try everything!" At one point when
my plate was sufficiently filled, I turned my head only to look back
and see that the son had heaped a spoonful of beats onto my plate to add
to the mix. It was very overwhelming. My companion and I figured we
were going to die. By this point a friend had shown up with her two
daughters. There was Christmas music playing in the background, of
course (just thought I'd mention that for your own imagery).
The
son loved us and told us to share all we knew with his girlfriend. He
kept saying how we had such high IQ's and we were so wise. Then a member
of our ward showed up and sat with us. As we tried to share bits about
the Gospel with Gabbi (the girlfriend), Bernie (the member) interjected
and started talking about Joseph Smith's life. It was super distracting
from the conversation of the gospel but we tried to bring it back the
best we could.
It was getting later
and we told Tina we needed to leave. At which point she brought out a
pie, fruit salad and a cheesecake followed by a Costco cake accompanied
with a happy birthday song. It was no ones birthday. But because we
decided attribute the birthday song to Bernie (whose birthday is in
December he informed us) the son lifted him up in his arms in all the
excitement. Crazy.
We finally
managed to escape and Sister Thomas and I resolved that we never wanted
to eat again. Needless to say, it was a good experience.
Last
night we had a cool experience. We were walking around our neighborhood
(which is what we usually when we don't have anything scheduled at the
end of the day) and we met this guy named Michael. There is a hospital
right next to our apartment and we found him at the bus stop nearby.
Apparently his brother had stabbed him in the hand by accident and he
had ridden the bus to the hospital to get treatment the day before. They
had kept him for a while I guess and he was just then waiting for his
bus ride home. He was big, black and Jamaican. We talked to him and got
an appointment to go visit him on Wednesday.
It was awesome! After we left him, Sister Thomas said something like,
"he had his hand stabbed, rode the bus to the hospital, was kept there
for a day, and was released right then so that we would have the
opportunity to talk to him." I'm not quite sure how the Lord works, but
the mission has taught me that there is no such things as coincidences
when it comes to missionary work."
My friends, Sister Morgan's account is true. Missionary life is crazy. BUT IT IS SOOO MUCH FUN!
Alright everyone, I believe this email is long enough, and will suffice until we meet again next week.
Love,
Sister Thomas
P.S. This week we did a service project where we went around and collected a
bunch of food for the local Food Drive they were having. So a bunch of
missionaries were running around knocking on doors, but instead of
offering salvation they were just asking for non-perishable foods. It
was super fun.
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