Nov. 20, 2017 "Never Give up on Him"

Never give up on Him

Hey everyone.

This week was just another good week out here in Missouri. It's been pretty cold here but the past few days it's warmed up.

This email is going to be a little shorter because we are going to the ZOO!! :)

Well this week I am very grateful. (#happythanksgiving) but really. I have learned so much on my mission and this week especially I felt blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord.

I'll be honest, in weeks past we have not really had a lot of success. And sometimes that can be discouraging ya know? Especially when you only have so much more time to wear Christ's name over your heart and testify of Him. HOWEVER, I also learned that the Lord is always mindful of us. And we must NEVER GIVE UP ON HIM. He never gives up on us.

I'll just give ya a litttle rundown. So with not a lot of success with people, we haven't had many appointments, which means a lot of finding time!! Woooo. But wow the spirit has led us this week! And the spirit led the zone leaders because they came up with the most amazing Zone plan. Basically they said that they felt like each companionship, if they dedicated one hour to an inspired finding activity, we would see a whole bunch of miracles. Therefore the #miraclehour.

So from 3-4 we would be finding! And Friday was our day to do it.

Our faith was wavering, but basically every scripture I've read this week said,

"6 O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.

15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth." (Mormon 9)

SO WE WENT TO WORK.

We prayed, and felt like we should go to the west side of our area, then we looked at the potentials and found someone who was way solid but the missionaries hadn't followed up with. So we went here and met Jarexy!! She was so sweet! Haha get this so we introduce ourselves and she's like oh, ok hold on! And we thought she was putting her baby down, but she comes back and gives us a whole bag of food, saying "here ya go, sorry we have a lot extra."

I was very confused but anyway we got to talking to her and told her about the Book of Mormon and she said we could come back PLUS she added us on Facebook right there!!

Next person we met was her neighbor... haha he was a funny guy, he didn't really wanna talk to us, so he just chuckled and took his rake for raking leaves and walked away.

BUT the next person we went to was this referral from a less active. We hadn't been able to see the people that lived there before BUT this time, we met one of the kids that lives there! We were talking to him all about the Book of Mormon and then his mom and sister drove up. Usually moms are not happy when they see two strangers talking to their son outside alone ... but she actually was way friendly and we were able to testify to her about eternal families and ask her if she would like us to come back over and she hesitated for a sec, then was like ... ahh sure why not. WOOO!!

LASTLY we were able to then talk with the nonmember husband in a part member family who we hadn't gotten in contact with for a while and he said WE COULD COME BACK TOO!

All in one hour!!!!!!!! Miracles man!

And it doesn't end there! Just one more thing: Later that night we were at jimmy johns having dinner with a member and I lowkey had this prompting to give the cashier a pass along card. But that's always awkward and sometimes gives off the wrong impression (especially if the guy is your same age and stuff) so I DIDNT act on it.

We had an appointment and we were running late, and in the car I told sister Licona that I felt we should give a card to him and she SAID SHE THOUGHT THAT TOO. So we vowed that we could go if our appointment fell through. But we didn't want it to fall through, but it all just worked out perfectly because we were able to see our potential with his neighbor who's a member, and we have another appointment tonight! And we were able to zoom back over to jimmy johns and in the car we were a little worried it would be awkward but i was like you know, maybe we aren't even there for that cashier, maybe we're there for his coworker or something. So we get back over there and give the card to the guy explaining what we do as missionaries and what the Visitor Center is all about and he's like, " ok I see this is just a sly way for you to give me your number, huh?" And I'm like "UH NO, SRY WE DONT DATE."

BUT his manager came over and she's like hey just bein a little nosy, who are you guys? And I was worried because I thought oh maybe she will get mad at us, but she as like No I see you girls in here all the time and you're all so nice and you have to back each other out! And so she was way excited and even excitedly asked US if she could get our card!! Anyways they both have our number and said they'd call us! And we were there at the perfect time for us to meet the manager.

Wow Heavenly Father truly is so amazing!

Seriously, just when we are about to give up hope, Heavenly Father shows us He is still there. Sometimes He gives us those trials or those challenges in our lives because in those challenges, we turn to Him more. And I know that if my mission was all easy breezy, I would not know my Savior and my Heavenly Father as well as I do because I have had to rely on Them.

Here's a quote that made me thing of that: "Elder D. Todd Christofferson explained what he learned from a personal trial: “Though I suffered then, as I look back now, I am grateful that there was not a quick solution to my problem. The fact that I was forced to turn to God for help almost daily over an extended period of years taught me truly how to pray and get answers to prayer and taught me in a very practical way to have faith in God. I came to know my Savior and my Heavenly Father in a way and to a degree that might not have happened otherwise or that might have taken me much longer to achieve. … I learned to trust in the Lord with all my heart. I learned to walk with Him day by day.” (trial of faith oct. 2012)

Love you all. Keep turning to our Father in Heaven. He is always turned toward you.