PLEASE WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE ASAP! It was amazing! All they did was be straight up with the entire church, President Monson got apposing votes when the church was sustaining the prophets and it was so crazy to hear people literally in the audience shout "NO!" What?!!?!?! what is this world coming to!?! We couldn't believe it but hey the greatest of good always has to have an opposing side right?
P.S. the apostles repeatedly rebuked us all for using our electronic devices in sacrament meeting!
Happy Conference & Easter
(Sister Jones): Well this week has been a crazy weird one! Because most of our investigators are EKU students and spring break has KILLED our teaching pool-no fun! But hey the Lord's work isn't just done with educated youth at EKU, its done with everyone around us!
(Sister Hannah): This week in Richmond was spring break for EKU and all of Madison County Schools. EVERYONE it felt like was out of town! Nonetheless, the Lord still blessed Sister Jones and I! Not too much happened, but here are some cool experiences and funny stories from the week:
IT WAS in the low 70's and BREEZY this week! :) LOVE. It seriously felt like a California day. I was at home, in love. Sunshine makes missionary work that much better. People are in happier moods and are more receptive!
(Sister Jones): We got an opportunity to finally find an investigator that has been out of contact for a while and we found her at this trailer park a mile or so away and we knocked on her door and walked in and sat down with her. We were there for the longest time talking with her than finally we asked her what her plans are for learning with us. She said she would like to learn more but becoming a Mormon is off her radar. We were disappointed but told her that she needs to start reading from the Book of Mormon again. She accepted and than a few days later she texts us to tell us that she doesn't want to learn anymore and doesn't want to become a Mormon. HEARTACHE! We tell her that we only came to help her to salvation and bear our testimonies and walk away. I have learned so much this week about following God's commandments and making them a priority and what God is willing to give/bless us with when we do follow his command. This investigator, like many others, was not desirous to put forth the effort and expanding her faith. It is hard for all of us to know what to do when we do not put forth the needed effort and its even harder for Heavenly Father to be bound to us for blessings when we were not obedient. And then the general authorities speak about that exact thing! Ha-ha funny how when we are going about our days that the Lord is ever mindful of what we are doing and then the general authorities know but they are filled in from the Lord! Super Funny!
(Sister Hannah): We taught a less active member, Lindsay, who is 18. After we finished her lesson, she asked if she could just "hang out" with us for the day... We told her that we would be working hard and laboring in the service of God and she was like "Okay, I just want to get out of the house!" She ended up walking around with us for about 6 hours, teaching and testifying beautifully. She was a trooper. We walked everywhere that day and it was HOT. We went to go teach another less active girl, Destiny, who she didn't know and she bore such sweet, pure testimony! It was incredible! I love bringing less actives out to teach with us because it strengthens them so much more than us teaching them! It is the experience that allows them to grow and progress! :)
Beaming.
(Sister Jones): One day this week we had been walking around all day long and it was on and off raining and then humid! (Monsoon season!) So we decided to take our dinner break at Subway and as we waited in line a man says "Hi, Sisters!". I ,being the Greenie to the area, obviously said hi and than didn't think anything of it. He looks at us and says "you don't know who I am, do you?" than Sister Hannah freaks out and starts thinking super, super hard. Than she pipes up and says "Oh! we met you outside the bar a couple months ago!" He gives us this bewildered and humorously surprised look and than says "No but...you might have seen me at church a couple of times" Than he smiles and says that he is in the primary. Sister Hannah's face went soooo red and she apologized profusely for the mistake she made and now we have been hearing all about it from the Elders and other members of the ward about this funny mistake!
with Sister Hinton
So all week we have been anticipating the General Authorities and the Prophet's words received from Heavenly Father.On Saturday Morning we got all that we could done and we had an hour to go see if our investigators wanted to join us-they didn't. However, we were walking and a woman gets out of her car and begins to walk up to her house and literally all morning I have been singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and we walk up and talk to this woman and she is so sweet and kind and asks what church we belong to and we tell her and than we explain the Book Of Mormon, ask her a question and than she says she built her faith in Jesus Christ through prayer. DING! DING! DING! It finally snapped in my head and I ask her if I could read a song that talks about a specific prayer. I read it and then she says that is a nice song and we tell her that it was a real experience.
We didn't end up setting a return appointment but we were able to demonstrate the belief that we have and how it could bless her and it was awesome to be led by the spirit in that moment! :) ------Anyway we keep on walking and get to the dollar store, grab snacks and walk as swiftly as we can back home so we can get picked up for General Conference. Once we get to the church building, we sit down and our snacks, plus the Elders' snacks are laid out perfectly on the chair by us. Throughout conference we continually hear this CRUNCH and shuffling in the bag right by us and the Elders are repeatedly grabbing out of our food! Too funny but we were excited and glad to hear the throw down that the General Authorities have to give all of us. And we could sense a common theme throughout conference and 3 NEW TEMPLES! WHOO! It was awesome to hear about it because last conference President Monson said that he wasn't going to announce anymore temples for a while , and lo and behold Heavenly Father changes that and gives the people of Haiti, Thailand and the Islands somewhere in the Pacific an opportunity make covenants with Him and help push the work along! SO cool!
Later in the evening we watched the second session of General Conference at Sister Bryner's home and since it was her birthday, General Conference and Easter the next day-we have a Bar-B-Q with many members in the ward! So we played football with the kids and the Elders and then have hamburgers and laugh like crazy! It was one of the funnest evenings out here!
(courtesy of) Sarah Bryner
Sunday morning we woke up to a real bad smell in the house and went over to the corner of the house where water came through the carpet on one of the really bad rainy days. It was growing black mold! and we see that there is a surface crack on the cement and that was how the water got in! So we call the maintenance man and he calls our landlord and they got everything figured out and luckily we are now handling the situation and are in the process of getting it cleaned up and back to normal.
(Sister Hannah): All is well in Richmond, KY. Sister Jones and I are having a BLAST. Even though our shower doesn't drain and our house flooded from the rain (and we might have black mold), I KNOW that God is MINDFUL of ME. He knows me personally and all of His children personally. He is in the details of our lives and He desires to bless us. Look for Him, Come to Him. Let Christ Change You!
(Sister Jones): We head out to conference and watch the morning session at the church. Than we come home for an hour and a half and get picked up for the last session. We head over to the Russell's home and get to watch it in their downstairs theater where they have nice electronic leather chairs and a huge screen in front of us. Luckily we didn't fall asleep but we were glad to be awake the entire time frantically trying to keep up with listening and taking notes of what they all have to say. We get a text message during that time from our investigator, Blake, saying that he wont be able to make it to watch it with us because he is traveling back from eastern Kentucky. We were disappointed but hopeful because he then sent another message saying that he would watch it on the computer when he got home! It was so cool to hear that from him and that he was still determined to watch it no matter what and hear what the prophet had to say!
All in all this week was one of those slower ones but once it got to Saturday and Sunday, it sped up! But I have learned many lessons of pray and faith and what it can do and how Heavenly Father helps us! I hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope you all take the words from the Lord's prophets and apply it more fully!
~Hearken To IT, then DO IT!
Sister Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment