Follow the Prophet

Hello hello!

We are at the bowling alley right now so if my thoughts are a little scattered, I am sorry. I have some notes from throughout the week I will mention as well :)

This was a really awesome week. I was quite fond of it. I spent a lot of time pondering my mission and have felt the beginning of peace...the timing of the Lord is beginning to feel right. I am ecstatic about the upcoming weeks and all we can do with the Lord this last little bit. I love this work. I dunno how to accurately describe the joy and gratitude I have felt the last little bit and I am starting to feel peace with my work. I'm beginning to feel the Lord has accepted all I've tried to give Him and am excited to see how we will finish this together.

I have one insight to how the last little bit will end. This Friday we have the baptismal service for Anis! We are pumped. She is so excited... I just love her. The branch is excited and another of our investigators will be coming to the baptism. She has really really been thinking hard about it. We are hopeful to get her on a date this week. She could literally be baptized tomorrow if she stops with the one cup of coffee. She's just stuck there haha. She is amazing. I love the people so much.

We were walking back to the car after knocking last week and this Hispanic man was walking towards us. I said, "Hola, como esta?" and he literally jumped ten feet. Haha. We also ate at this little diner and the waiter was Hispanic as well. He asked us about what our tags were for and we got to plant a pretty solid seed haha. So many people are telling me my Spanish is actually good but now I'm finished 😂  It's been a blessing serving this people and adopting their culture a little bit. I love them.

AAAAHHH a funny moment. This was hilarious. Especially in the moment. Here it is: When your role plays are so real you are convinced you extended a commitment to read the BOM to one of your investigators and that they asked you to send them reminder texts at night so then you get to the evening and spend 15 minutes trying to remember who the investigator was you needed to send a text to until you realize it wasn't real cause it was a role play #whenyouhavenogatorssoyoumakethemupsoyouhavepeopletohelp #laughedfordays #absofsteel

We felt really good about this week even though our pool has gone a little crazy haha. We've been doing our best to try and find; the Lord has blessed us. We had a really intense lesson with one of our investigators this week. Wow. We followed the Spirit though and it ended well. She came to church on Sunday. We are happy for the progress the Lord has blessed us to see with those we are teaching. I think that is the biggest blessing of working so closely with the people is that we get to see them change; we get to see the Atonement in action. It is awesome.

One of the coolest things I have seen from my mission, or one of the biggest blessings I should say, is learning how the Spirit speaks to me. I have learned all these different patterns He has with me and I get excited every time we come to studies because I know the promises of the Lord to be true that if we seek Him, He will reveal Himself to us. If we seek knowledge and understanding of Him, He will open our eyes. I've had a few of those moments this week and have loved being able to express that gratitude to Him and record those moments of inspiration and revelation.

My subject line is inspired by the common theme of this week. I dunno why, or why this week specifically, but it seemed literally everyone was attacking the prophets: Investigators telling us Nephi wasn't a prophet but the BOM was true; Adam wasn't a prophet; Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet; President Monson... Everyone we were talking to was so convinced the Bible says there will never be any more prophets. We thought, "What is up with this?? Have these people read the Bible??" We took it upon ourselves to investigate. One door knock gave us a bit more of a clue as to what scripture they were so poorly interpreting when he said John was the last prophet. Come to find the whole world takes Luke 16:16 completely out of context (because with or without the Joseph Smith translation you still come to the same conclusion if you know the scriptures) and uses that as their only basis for God ceasing to reveal His will through His prophets. We were more than a little miffed.

There will never be a time when logic will give someone a testimony. You cannot reason into faith and you cannot reason the teachings of Christ. Every person must decide for themselves. The invitation is always the same... Experiment on the word and see for yourself. I know President Monson is a prophet and that the true church of Christ is restored. What a blessing that testimony has been to me. I love my mission and am thankful for the hope of change and improvement that is possible through Jesus Christ. I love you and hope it has been a great week!! Take care, I'll see you soon :)

Muchísimo amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley