Another week flew by in Phelan &
all of our investigators dropped us/we dropped them.
First off, this week we decided to do a
referral challenge to encourage us to ask for referrals from
EVERYONE! We kept a point system in our truck. Every time one of us
asked for a referral we'd get a tally mark. The goal is to have the
most tally marks at the end of the week & the loser gets the
winner something. We haven't decided what that something is yet, but
I won this week so I gotta think of something good! Since we were
focusing so much on asking for referrals we ended up getting 2
referrals! Sweeeeet.
Wednesday was a roller coaster day. In
the afternoon we got a text from M saying, "Sorry, my wife
will not be joining your group. Thank you." YOU'RE KIDDING. This
was a stab in the heart. I didn't want to admit it, but I thought
this might happen after her not coming to church/not answering our
texts. But I didn't want to say anything & have no faith. The
worse thing was that she didn't even text us that, HER HUSBAND DID.
Wednesday night we were talking to our
district leader, Elder Wurst, on the phone & explaining our
concerns about not know who we're supposed to see. He suggested we
fast & they were going to do the same. So that night we began our
fast.
Thursday after my dentist appointment, we did mormon.org/studied, dinner, and then we went tracting. We were feeling much more spiritually
strong & ready to go due to the fast. We knocked into a young guy
who is Buddhist. He grew up catholic & "just found"
Buddhism. He doesn't go to his local church because it's "sketchy".
We told him that we have a message about Jesus Christ &
introduced to him the Book of Mormon. He accepted it & said he'd
read it.
Here's the part of my email that
inspired my subject line...
After weekly planning on Friday, we
headed out to a road to go tracting. In my mind I was thinking this
specific neighborhood was tracting friendly, and by that I mean the
houses were close together, no gates, etc., but alas I was wrong. I
was feeling a bit down & discouraged, feeling like I didn't know
where to go or who to see. I was talking with my companion about it, and
it was about 15 minutes before our appointment. She said "okay, let's
try one more house". I thought to myself "I don't know
anybody that lives around here...we're not going to find a house to
stop at..." Again, feeling quite discouraged, sorry for myself, &
downright pathetic. We were driving down the road & I look to the
right & see a young kid outside of a house. I immediately thought
"a family" & felt prompted to stop. I ignored it. Again
I looked & again felt prompted, all the while I noticed Sister
Wagner looking at the same house. Finally, what couldn't have been
more than 5 seconds, but what felt like 5 minutes, Sister Wagner said
"what about that house?" I pulled over & saw she was
talking about the same house I felt strongly prompted to stop at, but
because of my mood & selfishness I would've passed right on by.
So we said a prayer & got out of the truck to see 4 or 5 kids &
an adult guy waving at us... So we walk up to them & introduce
ourselves. M & A are their names, & they have a
couple young kids. A walked out of the house & said "ohhh
elders!" Turns out he has friends that are Mormon down the hill
& used to go to church with them. He's very open to religion. He
started talking about all the craziness that has been going on in the
world lately, & as he was talking I knew I had to connect that to
the message we share. So I started talking about my life & how
the gospel has blessed my family even in troubling times &
promised him that it can do the same for him. Then he went on talking
more, & I felt impressed to ask him if he's read the Book of
Mormon before. He said he'd looked through it but never read it. So I
promised again that this book will bring the peace into his life that
he's looking for. He asked if he could have one & promised to
read & pray about it. We asked if we could come by & teach
him & his family, & he said to come by in a couple weeks.
This
experience opened my eyes to following the promptings of the Spirit.
I quickly had to repent of my apathy & commit to follow more
earnestly. The spirit is amazing & directs every aspect of the
work if the missionary is willing to follow it. I'm thankful for my
companion's courage to act on the prompting that we both received,
but would have gone unrecognized by me.
I've lived in Phelan for about 3 1/2
months & hadn't met our neighbors yet, so we decided to make them
goody bags (cookies, pass along cards, pic of Jesus, the Family
proclamation, how to be a righteous husband, & Pure religion) &
deliver them. We were able to meet the neighbors right next to us. They were super friendly & said if we ever need anything to let
them know. The next two neighbors' gates were locked/had mean dogs.
Afterwards we left to go visit mostly less actives we've never met
before. I think we tried about 6 or 7 & zero of them were
home....finally we went by to see Kevin A (Bro A's less active son) & it
turns out they were having a family get-together, so Bro & Sis A were there & let us in! Later
we had a bbq at the C's.
 |
| Happy 4th of July! |
So I can't really think of anything
from my studies this week, but I think I forgot to mention a couple
weeks ago when I had an amazing experience in my studies. I was reading in JSH 1:8 and 10. I never
would've thought these specific verses would still teach me much, but as I
was reading them I got the strongest feeling from the Holy Ghost
telling me that what I was reading was true. I know that Joseph Smith
was & is a prophet. I know that he saw God, the Father, & His
son, Jesus Christ, & that through him Christ's church & the
priesthood were restored to the earth in all its glory. I'm so
thankful for this knowledge & for the Holy Ghost reaffirming what I already knew to be true in such a powerful, yet gentle
way.
Love you! Until next week,
Sister Viraldo
P.S. I'm
a strong believer of everything happens for a reason. Heavenly Father
is in every aspect of our lives. This week we got a text from President
Hobbs that read "FYI, Elder Williams is doing well but has returned to
his home for surgery. He is a fine missionary and will be missed." I've
served around Elder Williams for almost 8 months, my whole mission so
far. We served in Chino Hills together, then we both got transferred to
Victorville B. Getting this text was surprising & confusing. We
didn't know what was going on. It turns out that he crashed his bike and
had signs of a concussion. When he went in for a CT scan, they found a
tumor on his brain. They were sending him home for surgery. How scary is
that. But to me, it's a huge testimony builder. If he hadn't crashed
his bike, who knows when they would have found the tumor. It's amazing
how God is aware of us at all times & in all places. Prayers for him
& his family would be greatly appreciated.
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