Wintery, Wet, and Wonderful to Me
February 17, 2015
Y'all!
Y'all!
Well, the nice wintery days have been a little more on the wintery end lately! The power went out last night, so we taught one investigator with flashlights and another lesson by candlelight. The South has this phenomenon...ice rain...so it looks like a frozen winterland on the trees, even though there's no snow. The roads are fine, so I'm not complaining. I'm sure enjoying the fact that 30-something degree days are occasional! Georgia is beautiful all year round.
I ended up chopping off Sister Porter's hair this week! She decided to on a whim, so off we whipped 14 inches. It's sassy and adorable and totally her. I'll send a picture next week when I have one. :)
We had a miracle teaching Pam this week. She had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet to prepare for our lesson. When we arrived at the member's home where they were waiting for us, the current topic of conversation was scriptural accounts of teleportation....not exactly a very productive conversation to start a lesson with. Pam was very stressed and overwhelmed. She felt like what she'd studied made no sense and was pulled from thin air.
The Spirit guided us completely. We sat down, began with a prayer, and calmly and simply began teaching the first basic concepts of the lesson:
that God is our loving, Heavenly Father;
that we lived with Him before we came to earth;
that He loved us, and we loved Him;
and that we chose to come here to earth so we could experience mortality in a physical body, be faced with opposition, and therefore learn to choose good when faced with good and evil.
The stressful environment made a complete turnaround. As we testified and taught simply the basic doctrines, the Spirit testified to Pam that the things we were teaching were good and true. We asked her how she felt at the end of the lesson compared to the beginning. She said she felt enlightened, calm, and peaceful. We helped her understand that that was the Spirit helping her know that what we'd taught was true. We invited her to pray to know for herself that it's true, and once she did know, to be baptized on March 14th. She said she'd pray about it.
We walked out feeling whole and enlightened ourselves, and grateful for having what could have been a stressful, chaotic, unorganized lesson turn out so simple, pure, Spirit led, and clear. She was at church again this Sunday. After the Sunday School lesson on tithing, she asked if she could pay tithing. (Since the Church is run by a lay (unpaid) ministry, tithing funds in the Church are used to build and maintain church buildings, temples, support missionary work, and aid in humanitarian efforts worldwide. It's an incredible opportunity to give of yourself to God, and to see that giving do so much good in the world! I love tithing.) Pam's son is very opposed to her investigating the church, but we're praying that she'll have the strength to recognize and hold onto the truth she's learning.
We walked out feeling whole and enlightened ourselves, and grateful for having what could have been a stressful, chaotic, unorganized lesson turn out so simple, pure, Spirit led, and clear. She was at church again this Sunday. After the Sunday School lesson on tithing, she asked if she could pay tithing. (Since the Church is run by a lay (unpaid) ministry, tithing funds in the Church are used to build and maintain church buildings, temples, support missionary work, and aid in humanitarian efforts worldwide. It's an incredible opportunity to give of yourself to God, and to see that giving do so much good in the world! I love tithing.) Pam's son is very opposed to her investigating the church, but we're praying that she'll have the strength to recognize and hold onto the truth she's learning.
We had four investigators at church on Sunday, including Chris and his girlfriend Whitney! Whitney needed to leave after Sacrament meeting so they only stayed an hour, but Chris really liked it. So far he's keeping commitments to read the Book of Mormon, pray, and come to church. We had a Spirit-filled lesson with him on Wednesday when we read the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 14) together.
Kaylee is coming along smashingly in preparing for her baptism this Saturday! We had a particularly good lesson about the Priesthood on Sunday. She's blossomed in the last three weeks or so. She'll be a wonderful member.
We got home at 8:55 one night and faith walked around our complex for the remaining five minutes (we're asked to proselyte till 9pm every day). We ran into a girl walking to her car who'd met other missionaries before, and had a great conversation! I felt blessed for having used every last minute to share the gospel.
We also had a miracle on Valentine's Day, when we had planned to heart attack (taping hearts on doors) two of our investigators who had no one to celebrate with. Both have loud dogs that bark when someone approaches the door. The first one went smoothly, not a sound from inside. When we turned into the neighborhood of the second one, we saw our investigator just turning the street corner with her dogs, leaving for a walk! We knew that her walk would be the only time that entire day she'd be away from the house. The timing was perfect and we were able to heart attack successfully with as much stealth as two sister missionaries could muster. :)
I actually had a few hard days this week. Negativity, anxiety, and unhappiness are feelings I don't have very often, but they were plaguing off and on for a couple days. I was not myself. I was reminded by Sister Porter that even great missionaries have hard days when they feel, and are, weaker than other days. I didn't like feeling down, but as I continued to work, pray, and turn to the needs of others more than my own, I felt better in the down moments. I had a good spiritual experience while taking the Sacrament on Sunday. I was feeling guilty and sad for having let Heavenly Father down by having a worse attitude than my usual cheerful one, but as I prayed, I felt guided to have gratitude for how the Savior had helped me overcome those sour moments throughout the week.
As the water was passed and I took it, the Spirit came strongly to my mind and said: "You are clean." That was subtle, yet powerful, and so comforting and reassuring. I'm grateful that Christ doesn't judge us for our moments of weakness-- he knows our potential and deepest desires are better than that. He simply helps us up and on our way, forgivingly teaching us and strengthening us for future experiences. I'm so grateful for His and Heavenly Father's understanding and great love for me.
As the water was passed and I took it, the Spirit came strongly to my mind and said: "You are clean." That was subtle, yet powerful, and so comforting and reassuring. I'm grateful that Christ doesn't judge us for our moments of weakness-- he knows our potential and deepest desires are better than that. He simply helps us up and on our way, forgivingly teaching us and strengthening us for future experiences. I'm so grateful for His and Heavenly Father's understanding and great love for me.
Have a marvelous week!
Sister Taylor