Oi Familia!
Have you seen the new scriptures video?
I was so surprised when it was shown in gospel principles! I didn't
even know this video was being made or anything!
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/heritage?lang=eng#video
This week was another great one! Last
Monday evening we met a man named Au! We were trying to visit a less
active member, but it turns out we met his brother instead! The
original person we were trying to meet and his brother had moved in.
He is a nice man who is on house arrest, so he cannot leave his house
to come to church or anything! A neat experience was that as we were
testifying of the Book of Mormon and were trying to give it to him,
he was open, but would sway between being open and interested, to
being doubtful and bringing up arguments. I had the impression, "Put
the Book of Mormon away, and if he asks for it, give it to him."
We finished up our doorstep lesson and
were going to leave with a prayer, when he said, "I will take
that book" and pointed to my purse. So we gave it to him and set
a return appointment to follow up on his reading.
We went back on Saturday with two
members from our ward, a recent convert named J and Sister G from the
Relief Society Presidency. It went well. He had read the Intro and
the testimonies and accepted another return appointment. "I'll
be here. I can't leave, so I will definitely be here!"
We met a nice couple after that on the
same street or a street nearby. They were sitting in their front yard
and we asked if we could share a message about Christ. They listened
to the Restoration and they already had very strong faith and belief
in Christ. When we got to the apostasy, the man got a bit
argumentative and started quoting bible scriptures. I felt prompted
to just skip to the First Vision. We shared that which brought the
Spirit back. We testified of the Book of Mormon, and they accepted a
copy and the invitation to read. It seems like suddenly the husband
realized he was starting to believe what we were saying, so he kind
of snapped himself out of it and said, "Well if I were to read
it, it would just be to argue. So I don't want to waste your time."
He handed it back to us and then his wife gently took it back out of
my hand, saying to him, "Well, at least let me read it!" We
could tell during the lesson that she had been very touched by the
Spirit.
That was a neat experience to me, as
well as the one with Au, of the power of the Book of Mormon. When
people are in tune and open to the spirit, they can begin to feel
that the Book of Mormon is true before even opening it!
We have been meeting with a less active
member, P. It seems like she was just waiting to have someone reach
out! She loves the gospel and knows it is true! She and her husband
were both converted, baptized, and then sealed in the temple. After
that they had some questions and weren't quite sure where to turn for
answers. The ward they were in also got split into two wards, and
they eventually became less active. It reminds me how important it is
to focus on the daily simple things- scripture study, prayer, asking
questions and seeking answers, talking to church leaders. She loves
the gospel and still has a testimony. I'm inspired by her
determination to make things right with the Lord and become active
again. A miracle is that her husband said to her (seemingly out of
the blue) that he wants to come back to church. She had wanted to,
but he hadn't shown any desire to. Before he always said he knew it
was true, but that he didn't want any contact at all from the Church.
We received a referral from a member in
another ward this week. We met with her on Saturday. Her name is Ju
and she is great!! We are so excited to keep teaching her. She has
wonderful questions and a very open mind. Member missionary work is
so powerful!
Our investigator, Ra, came to a baptism
for another ward on Saturday night. That was great! He is catholic
and when he noticed that the baptism was done by complete immersion
in the water he said he liked it and that it was "old fashion".
I liked that! It is definitely old fashion - so old fashion that it
is the exact way God intended for us to be baptized since before Adam
even came to earth!
We saw so many miracles yesterday.
Church was wonderful!
We had made plans to spend a lot of
time on Blanco street. It is very long and has lots of apartment
complexes. We made a list of potential investigators and less active
members to visit. Before we could even knock the first two doors we
were looking for at the first complex, we met a young man named Jo.
We asked if we could share a message about Christ (he had a huge
smile on when we met him) and he said, "That's actually what we
were just doing! I just met Tim and he is sharing all sorts of things
that he learned with me!! He is blowing my mind! You're going to love
this! Let me ask them." So we went upstairs with him to Tim and
Ginger's house! They were very nice and welcomed us in! They had been
having a huge discussion about the gospel. Tim and Ginger had found
many questions and inconsistencies with different churches and even
their own previous beliefs. So, having faith in the promise that if
we seek we will find, Tim started studying - a lot! As they began to
tell us about what they were learning, they mentioned little tidbits
about the apostasy and the need for restoration, and how we need to
use the Spirit to discern from right and wrong, etc, etc. It was
unreal! They were talking about all of these things and the Light of
Christ, but just without putting the exact names to all of them. We
started with a prayer and shared the message of the Restoration. Jo
was practically jumping up and down saying, "it all fits
together!!!!" Tim was also very open, although we could tell he
is one who needs to study more for himself and seriously ponder and
pray before getting too excited. Tim had met with Elders before and
read some of the Book of Mormon (he still had his and knew exactly
where it was), but the elders had stopped meeting with him because of
all his questions. (It seems a lot of his questions were about
archeaelogical evidence and about how there weren't cows in the
ancient Americas, etc). But by the end of the lesson, they all
committed to read from the Book of Mormon and we set up return
appointments and they gave us their phone numbers.
Angels are literally preparing the
hearts of God's children to receive the message of the Restoration!
After that we went down stairs to try
the door of the less active members we were originally looking for.
She was sitting outside smoking and before we even realized she was
the person we were looking for, she looked up and said, "oh! oh!
You caught me!"
They invited us inside and really
opened up to us about how they were going through hard times. A
scripture came to mind and we were able to share a message with them
that addressed their needs.
I am learning on my mission what it
means for our faith and our diligence to be constant. While we are
being blessed with so many miracles, I know that my faith and
diligence should not be dependent on miracles. I am grateful for the
opportunity to be refined and taught and to serve the wonderful
people here in Texas.
Oh! At church on Sunday I got to meet
the Brazilian converts! They are moving back to Brazil in 2 weeks! I
walked up and got to speak Portuguese to them! They were surprised
and were so excited to find out I am going to Brazil! They said we
can come visit them this coming week to practice Portuguese. I've
only met about 6 Brazilians, but I feel connected to them. Texans and
Brazilians are special people! I love being here and serving. The
gospel of Jesus Christ is true and has been Restored!
Love,
Sister Greenall
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