This has been quite the week. I got this letter thing sent to me from Hermana Mejía that I've been reading and it's just awesome! It goes really well with the consecrated missionary talk I read before in
Dyker. I just really want to make sure I give this everything I have to give it. The time is going so fast, I feel like it sped up since I've gotten back.
Anyway, with that little intro haha, this week was pretty good! We had zone training meeting on Thursday and that was awesome. We have Bermuda in our zone so we skyped them in to our meeting. We had these two members from the area next door come and teach us how to do better
knocking (they're managers of sales teams for Vivint). That was awesome! We learned a lot of new techniques and approaches that work way better than what we were previously doing. We tested out what we'd learned that night during prime time and the next day around one. While we were practicing Friday, I knocked a house and gave the little "pitch" thing and she was just kinda listening standing there. I was like, "I guess I can keep going....??" I said a bit about the restoration and was like, "can we...come back and share more....with...you...?" And she comes out and is like, "yeah I got
time right now!" .....that's...never happened before...! I was so excited! So we taught her the restoration and have a return appointment with her this week. #blessed
We had an awesome lesson on Sabbath Day observance. One of the hermanas had to run to the bathroom and she comes back and said we all needed to take a tour. In this little house, this was a ridiculously large bathroom, it had a jacuzzi and a sauna! It was crazy! Haha, so that was a interesting little thing. My compañeras took a picture of it haha.
We also teach this lady named Maria. We arrived at her appointment and ended up helping her with her naturalization test a bit. Those things are crazy! That test is so intense...it blows my mind!
I also had a cool personal experience this week when we were out knocking. We were finishing up and heading to the car to go for an appointment when we saw this group of five or so people on their porch talking. I decided we were leaving anyway and I really didn't want to talk to them (they were a little rough around the edges to my non-missionary eye), so I thought we'd just keep going. Not today! Hermana Mejía turned at their driveway and I was just bracing myself for the probable outcomes I had already sorted out. This is when the Lord normally steps in and gives you a chance to rethink and be humbled a bit. We started to talk to them and they were really kind and attentive. We showed them the video "Because of Him" and they were really interested in it. I mean it's not like the whole family is now taking the lessons and coming to church, but we did have a really nice talk and it was a good lesson for me to relearn. To see everyone as who they really are: children of God. I need to remember to always look at people how I did before in the first month of my mission. I made it a goal to always see people as who they could be. Look at them in white. That's the cheesy phrase they always use out here but it is so true. This was a good opportunity for me to relearn that lesson, I am very thankful God gave me that opportunity.
Last Tuesday we took two of the young women out with us knocking and a little miscommunication here and there, we dropped them off at the same house to "catch Pokemons" (apparently there's this new interactive Pokemon game...?). We received a text that night --three hours later-- from an hermana (the mom of one of the girls): "Hello. Where is my daughter. Its 9:30." We were told the yw had told her mom she was going to the other girls house, she had not. We said we were sorry and decided we would make hermana apology cookies the next day. Well....we tried to make her cookies haha...it didn't work very well, so we ended up buying her cookies and when we dropped
them off we told her the story of our attempted apology cookies. She laughed at us. A lot. But needless to say, we were forgiven haha!
We were also asked to teach the primary this Sunday, so Hermana Cortez gave us brownie mix to make their "snack". We didn't have a brownie pan, or any pan to be honest, so we called the elders and they had a cake pan. We decided that would work. Now, we drove over to get this pan and it looked like it hadn't been washed in five years (it probably hadn't). Hermana Mejía worked hard on that and we ended up getting it pretty clean. We took a half way photo of its before and after journey. It was pretty nasty.
So, I have been composing this email over about the last four hours...thus, I'm sorry if it is crazy scattered. We are all at the church (our district) celebrating Elder Broadhead's birthday! He's not a baby anymore haha! (Turned 19) so we've been eating, playing games, and just kinda hanging out! Entonces, sorry familia...
Also! There was a really cool experience I had this week in teaching someone we found knocking a few days before. We were teaching the restoration and I hadn't said much during the lesson aside from the opening prayer the lady had asked me to give. We were approaching the end when the lady's husband began murmuring in the kitchen under his breath. He was saying things (in English, the lesson was in Spanish) like, "she's not gonna change, you come here every week, you're always here, she likes where she is, she'll never change". He was quiet at first, then he began to get angry and started yelling at us. He used a few choice words in regards to the message we were sharing and almost out of nowhere I had the most overwhelming feeling of the Spirit. I opened my mouth as my testimony just came flooding out. I looked at her and just let it go. I felt like I was going to fall out of my chair the Spirit was pulling me so hard, I was so overcome by it. I testified to her that I knew the things we had taught were true and invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about our message. We closed quickly with a prayer and talked to her husband briefly. We have a return appointment for this week :) we got in the car and laughed about it thinking, just wait and see, they'll both get baptized! The Lord works in mysterious ways...
Anyway, all in all this has been a pretty great week. I have learned a lot and felt the Spirit so much. I was thinking the other day about how amazing being a missionary is and I realized how much I missed it when I wasn't here. I think that is my biggest motivation moving forward, how do I want to feel going home (for real) at the end of my mission? When I went home before I felt far from done. I knew there was more for me to give. I am working everyday to be better and improve through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know it is only through His Atonement and His grace that we are able to become what God wants us to be. I have such a strong testimony of God's hand in our lives and I know He truly is in the details of them. However, as a few of my favorite verses of scripture say (James 2:17-19), it's not enough to just "know" or to just have a testimony. It's what we do with it that matters. Knowing God has a plan for me and is intricately involved in my daily life means I can press forward without fear, "only believing" as the scriptures put it. I can trust that God leads my actions and will not lead me astray. Sometimes things don't go how we plan in life and we think, "why did I go this way/do this thing? Nothing came of this, was I not following the Spirit?" We can know that truly all things have a purpose in Him. I've learned that maybe His purpose at times is not to "test us", or for us to find someone to teach, but it is simply to see if we can be trusted. God doesn't need a slothful servant. What does that profit Him? He sometimes leads us to hard things, or nothing, to see if we will be obedient. If we will be faithful. If we will simply push forward and perseverar hasta al
fin, even --especially-- when it looks like nothing is coming of our efforts. I know this is true in every aspect of life. I've decided my reaction to what I'm given --blessings, trials, seemingly nothingness-- is what will build me or tear me down. As President puts it, "what dog wins the fight is the one that we feed the most".
I know with all I've got in me this is the true church restored on the earth, and I know that being here is the best thing I could ever possibly be doing. I'm so thankful for the opportunity my Father in
Heaven has given me to serve Him and for His trust in me. I hope this is a great week, family. I love you lots, act on your testimony sometime this week. Make a conscious effort to do something, to add
some works to your faith. Love you!!
Muchísimo amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley
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