July 18, 2016
Sister Stephens drew me!
HEY EVERYONE!!!:D
Ok, so I forgot to tell y'all about something that happened last week that was really cool! There's this family that we're sorta teaching. Alma and Mario are the parents and they have 3 children. All of them are grown up. The youngest is married, and lives with her parents, and her name is Hope. Anyway, we dropped by theie house last week, planning on just sharing a scripture because they're the type of people that you have to get to know first and become good friends before you can really teach them. Also, they're really into the church they go to. We went to their house planning on talking to Alma and Mario more, but Alma wasn't feeling well, so we only talked to her for a few minutes. We ended up talking to Hope and sharing a quick scripture with her. Hope showed us her Bible that she absolutely loves:D I'm not sure how, but somehow we started talking about the Priesthood and she had a lot of questions about it. We actually started teaching the Restoration and throughout the whole lesson she asked us a ton of good questions! It was awesome to see the Spirit work with Hope, especially when we bore our testimonies. The Spirit led and guided that lesson, we had nothing to do with it. She's not super interested yet, but she did become a lot more open because she realized that we are Christians. lol
This last Wednesday we had ZTM which is Zone Training Meeting, and it was soooo GOOD!!!! We talked a lot about fasting and praying, and it really helped me understand the purpose and power of fasting! And it made me really excited for the next time I fast! They also talked about other things like being bold and confident when inviting people to make commitments and following up with people. This week I'm trying to apply the things they taught us. And not just people we're teaching but people we just met or only talked to for a few minutes. Yesterday Sister Stephens and I had planned on tracting and both of us felt really good about a particular street in Queen City. We started knocking some small duplexes, and on the 3rd knock we met this super nice lady named Tisha. We talked to her for a few minutes and said a prayer with her, and after the prayer we started to teach the Restoration. The whole time she was super open! Tisha has incredible faith! She told us about her life and the changes she and her husband had made not too long ago. When we got to the Book Of Mormon and told her how wonderful it is and its power to change lives, Tisha asked for one. We didn't even have to offer. We then asked her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding that Priesthood authority, she said yes!! She told us that her and her husband had been talking about it a few days ago and would love to be baptized!! Tisha is so prepared!! She's the reason Heavenly Father led us to that street and if you're willing to put your trust and faith in him, he always provides a way. :D
This week we had another experience where Heavenly Father provided us someone new to teach. We met this guy named Charles, and he's super awesome! How we found him is a really cool story! Tuesday we went and knocked doors, and we finished this skreet in about an hourish. We got in our car to drive away, and we saw that we had missed one house at very end of the street. We weren't sure if we wanted to knock it or just wait till we came back to that street, but we decided to parked agai,n not wanting to miss a chance to meet someone awesome. While were knocking on this person's door, we saw that there was a car next to ours and somebody seemed to be looking at it. We walked back and this guy introduced himself as Charles and asked us if we were missionaries. We told him yes and literally the next words out of his month were, "I'm interested." In my head I was like, "what?! your interested?? we haven't even said hardly anything!" We talked to him for about 30 minutes set up a time to see him on Friday. He told us that his brother had passed away a few months ago and that he was looking for further direction and guidance in his live. He told us that God must of prompted him to stop and talk to us. Charles is awesome and so prepared! I know that God answers prayers and if we do our part and go out and work he will bless us and help us. It was a huge blessing that Heavenly Father prompted us to knock that last house, and if we hadn't, Sister Stephens and I wouldn't have met Charles. We met with Charles Friday and taught the Restoration and set him with a date! We had a social/movie night and watched Meet The Mormons and invited everyone we could to it. We had planned on seeing Charles before it, but he forgot we had an appointment. We called him and invited him to the movie night, and he told us he could come to it. We taught him the Restoration after the movie, and that's where we asked him to be baptized. Charles is awesome and seemed to understand it. He told us he's willing to do anything and that he's excited to be baptized!:D
Last story!:D We went and saw Alma and Mario a few days ago and Alma asked us to help her organize her closet in her bathroom. We did that in 45 minutes and then we went to town on the rest of their house! So I'm never in a cleaning mood, but for some reason that day I was. lol We cleaned their house for 4 hours, and it was so fun!! Half of the time we sung hymns and primary songs:D The cool thing is Alma and Hope told us later that they had talked about who they could call for help, but no one came to mind. And then we show up a few hours later and cleaned for hours! They really appreciated the help and thanked us several times. Although the thanks really goes to Heavenly Father not us. Its was a blessing to help them and brought us joy:D "When you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God" Mosiah 2:17
I love love love love this work!! I love my Savior and it's an honor to be serving him and serving my brothers and sisters! If any of you are thinking about going on a mission, DO IT!! It will be the best decision you've ever made, and it will bless you for the rest of your life! There is nothing more fun, amazing, random, stretching, spiritual, intense, exhausting, wonderful, incredible, and rewarding than a mission!!! I know that this is Christ's restored church and that we are members of his kingdom. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and that he saw and spoke to God the Father and his Son. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true and that God answers prayers! I LOVE this gospel with all my heart and I know without a shadow of a doubt this is God's work. Love y'all and have a great week!!!!:D
Love,
Sister Keables!
