My challenge to y'all, look for those golden Ferrero Roche moments even if it was a gutter day. I want to share the golden moments from my week with y'all. Because they were there glittering, golden, and made me so happy, oh so very happy.
FERRERO ROCHE GOLDEN MOMENTS:
Monday
I was able to chat a little back and forth with my dad which I loved
A lady in the ward gave us a 8 trash bags full of old clothes to go through and I found footie PJ's and a cute striped shirt, score
We had pumpkin bread yummmm
Tuesday
District meeting was so on point with what I needed to hear, a good reminder of how we develop as missionaries over time but that we commit every day to be out here, daily commitment.
We got to do service at a farmhouse where one of our investigators is going to live with her fiancee (who is a member) they got married on Saturday woot woot more to come on that later. But I loved picking up walnuts and sweeping up the barn and basement in preparation for their new start together.
We had dinner at a members house wirh another investigator who just got married to a member named. Lots of part member scenarios here which are the best!!!! But it was a great night, they had some awesome fellowship and a great conversation about family, marriage, and conversion.
Wednesday
We met a lady at a gas station that remembered receiving a pass along card in her door and accepted a return appt
Even though a lady wasn't all there we said a prayer with her and she sobbed as we hugged her bye and left
I had this aha moment. People around here always talk about how judgmental people are at churches and so they don't want to go places where people are hypocrites. We always talk about how church is a "hosptial for sinners and not a country club for saints" and that we all have things we need to be better and work on, and we all pass unrighteous judgment blah blah blah but this was my aha moment: Judas betrayed Christ. Even Christ's apostles weren't perfect and betrayed Him. If we go looking for perfection and christlike goodness all of the time we won't find it.
Thursday
COOLEST thing, we had to drive to the mission office two hours away to get our car fixed, any way long story short we are in the office and this guy walks in selling wooden crosses to support an addiction recovery group he is a part of, we were able to whip out a resto pamphlet give him an overview and contact info and tell him we could help get him set up with missionaries where he is from in Mississippi it was so cool to have someone just fall into your lap! He later texted us saying he was going to read the pamphlet and gave us his number to stay in touch. It's just so amazing to see how the Lord works through imperfect people like you and me.
Said a prayer to decide whether or not to stay in an area where we were looking for some less Actives no one knows. We decided to stay and we ended up finding two new investigators, the Lord knows where people are and He uses us to find them
Met some members while we were in Knoxville and they were cousins to a kid that I went to high school with that just got home from his mission, what the heck?! Small world...
Friday
Ah man every Friday morning we go to the local food bank and volunteer there. I just LOVE the cuties we work with men and women all in their 70's and 80's ugh they are my fav. The guys all love that I can talk guns and hunting with them and I always sneak in Book of Mormon verses when we have the chance they are all pretty set in their beliefs and churches but are also so welcoming and kind, I just love em!!!
OHHHHHH MY GOODNESS oh my goodness oh my goodness our long hair guy is not a long hair anymore HE CUT HIS HAIR!!!!! So get this... He went into the mountains to read scriptures and pray and as he read from the Book of Mormon he knew he needed to cut his hair, so he walked to the barbershop chopped it all off, buzzed it, and donated it, HE IS A CHANGED MAN!!!! So incredible to watch. Haha and oh my how can I forget, he asked what it meant to be an "investigator" because apparently it was mentioned in church and when we explained what it was he was all "that's exactly what I'm doing! Investigating this church, trying it out" he was so pumped up I loved it. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and after we got through with it he said "Wow, how do you guys do this all day? I'm so burned out after that, I'm like way tired." SO true, I definitely get burned out after an intense lesson, spirtual exhaustion is unlike anything else
We had to use the bathroom at this dumpy little dollar store and it was so disgusting, but before we went in we said hi to this lady who was sitting in her truck. It was just in passing but as we got up to the doors Sister See felt like we needed to go back and talk to her. Turns out she had seen us at her apartment complex when we were following up with people but either we didn't get to her apartment or didn't talk to her, either way we didn't recognize her. But she was interested in us coming back and talking more with her and her family. We set up a time to come back by and she sped away after remembering she was baking something in her oven. I just love a good u-turn prompting to go back.
Saturday
It was our invrstigator's wedding!!!!! The moment we sat down in the middle of a field under a willow tree with rolling country hills in the background and an Adele song started playing I had this surreal feeling wash over me, part of it was the realization I could be living a scene from a movie, but a larger part was the thought and recognition that I was exactly where I wanted to be. Not just needed to be but wanted to be, sometimes as a missionary those times aren't frequent or pronounced. It's easy to get caught up in the days past, home life, or even future. But watching this couple start their life together and realizing we were helping them start it with Christ at the center. Wow. Nothing I've ever experienced before. And you know what? I know that those experiences aren't unique to me. Something like that WILL happen to you. And you'll recognize it, but something an old wrestling coach told our former mission president's son is "YOU CAN'T CHEAT THE GRIND!" There is no such thing as bypassing hard in order to sit down and relish in the happy and blissful moments of life. We have to experience rough to experience worth it. But the "worth it" times will come, I promise you that.
We tracted an area after going to look for a referral who ended up not being home. We were bummed because she was in a random part of our area so we made the trip out to find her and she wasn't there. But not all was lost, we stayed in the area, walked down an old country windy road and tracted some farm houses, and double wides, we found two new investigators and ended up coming back to where the referral lived and guess what? She was outside her house with her dog! And we talked to her and she was way cool, and wanted us to come back this week. She has a young family and is super sweet. Wow it just so pays to stick around and see what the Lord will make out of your day. We had prayed for Him to magnify our day because when we make plans it gives Him something to work with, even if all of them fall through it's an opportunity for us to trust HIS plan, because it's always way better, but it takes a heck of a lot of faith to turn things over to Him, gotta beat that natural man, that toddler "I do it" response. As soon as we want to just do things on our own it's like Peter walking on water, we sink and feel like we are drowning, keeping our eyes set on the Savior and our trust in Him is the only way to keep from being beat up from the storms of life or drowning in the depths of uncertainty and doubt.
We had dinner with a less active and her non member husband we are working with. To say the conversation took a turn from where we wanted it to go was an understatement, tangent after tangent story after story all stemming from the question how has Christ blessed your life? We ended up reeling it in by sharing with them the family tradition of good ol' "peaches and pits" sitting around a table in a trailer in backwoods Tennessee eating broccoli pasta and sharing the peaches and pits from our week with this family was an experience I'll NEVER forget.
Sunday
I guess I can't call him our long hair anymore because he is clean cut!!! But he came to church again and during our gospel principles lesson he turned to the investigator that the Elders brought with them (we share an area and ward with Elders) but he turned to this guy and said "isn't being an investigator great?!" He is SO awesome I just love him, everything he says I just can't even handle!
Ok this is a random one but we found this dog at this house we were following up at and it had the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen, I'll send pics it was SO cool! Also at the other house we followed up with the lady called us "darlins" and I just LOVE southern terms of endearment, so cute!
And finally, We went with some members to a Joseph Smith family devotional where a direct descendent came and shared her conversion story and some family information clarifying rumors and false accusations about Joseph Smith and the church. It was really cool the spirit was so strong and there was a lady who was signing to a deaf person and as we sang the opening song "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and I watched this woman sing and sign I felt the spirit so strong confirming again that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God, the prophet of the Restoration. One thing his great-great granddaughter said (and mind you this lady was amazing she had no idea who Joseph Smith was for a good portion of her life but she discovered him through a family member and went to Nauvoo and also to an Osmond family concert and long long story short the oldest Osmond, Allen? Maybe? I don't think that's right... But anyway he baptized her! How crazy is that, QUITE the conversion if you ask me) but anyway one thing she said that struck a cord with me is "The Holy Ghost trumps EVERYTHING! If the Holy Ghost has testified of truth and you encounter something thst confuses you or causes you to doubt... you need to kick it out the door." It was apparent to me in that mmoment that I just had a reconfirmation experience that I knew Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration, so no matter who I encounter this week this month, the rest of the year the rest of my life I can't let thst DETER or sway me because the Holy Ghost trumps everything. No one can take away a spiritual experience from you, only YOU can let it go. So don't do it, never ever never.
So there ya go! Lots of golden moments this week. Not to say that there weren't gutter moments too because there were, an entire morning one day... But it's all about the outlook, it's all about perspective and it's all about trusting in the Lord. Because this is His work, His world, His plan. For each one of us. And when we are down in those gutters of guilt, confusion, sorrow, bitterness, offense, sadness, depression, we just need to remember "He who descended below all" He has sunk into gutters much deeper much longer much more horrendous than anything we have and not only did He go there, He got out of there and will help us to do the same. If only we trust in Him.
Keep looking for those golden moments, they're around. I promise.
Love y'all!!!!
Love,
Hermana Hall
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