28 January 2013

Hello family and friends,

This week has been busy again. We met with a less-active member Sister Lofgreen. She’s had a lot of trials in her life, but she will not deny her testimony she has of this Church and Joseph Smith. She has stuck up for her religion even though she is not a picture perfect Mormon. She is having a very hard time in her life right now. We were able to help bring some hope into her life. She told us that when she is able to get back on her feet she wants us to help her to quit smoking, so she can return to church. I told her that she is welcome to come to church whenever she wants to.

 

We met with the Brother and Sister Deaton twice this week. The first time we confirmed our appointment they told us that they were excited to see us, which is new. So we went and we had a very good discussion with them. They had lots of questions about the scriptures they had been reading. They are starting to read more. We also had a church tour with them. Sister Deaton stopped coming to church because when she moved here from Florida, she came to church and felt judged by  the looks she was given. She had her arms crossed for most of the time. When we made it to the chapel she relaxed. I think she could remember the peace that is in the church. We were able to talk to them and she opened up. They won’t be at our church this Sunday because of work, but they will come the next Sunday. We are super excited to get them to start coming again.

 

We met with Sister Hancock. She has come to church every Sunday for four or five weeks in a row now. She hasn’t been to church in 10 years. She told us that with how wicked the world is becoming she wanted her children to grow up in the gospel and it was time to come back. We gave her the “Forget Me Not” talk by President Uchtdorf. She was excited to read it. One of her best friends is not a member, so she invited her and us over to have lunch together. She just started coming back and is sharing the gospel with her friends. She is amazing. Her son is nine and he realized that he isn’t baptized. She is planning on talking to her husband about it. Her husband was almost anti-Mormon, but he told his wife he might come to church with her sometime. We are seeing a lot of potential and good coming from this family.

 

We tried going over the Sister Magallons multiple times this week. She also hasn’t responded to any of our calls or texts. We finally saw her. When we asked her about missing church, she told us that her friend never came to pick her up. She said that she was going to take her this week. We told her that if things fell through this week to let us know and we would set up a ride for her and her family. Well Sunday came and no Magallons. I don’t know what else we can do. If they don’t make it to church they can’t be baptized, and Sister Magallon keeps telling us how important it is to her.

 

Exchanges went very well. After study in the morning we went tracking. We met with a Jehovah’s Witness who was interested in what we, as missionaries, do. We also met with a lady who wanted us to drop by another day, so we got her information. We also met a young man, Jesse. He had a lot of questions about prayer, God, and life. I was able to testify about Joseph Smith and just like he prayed to know so can we. We taught him the order of prayer and he asked if we could come back in ten minutes because he was feeding his niece and nephew lunch. We did and his girlfriend also joined us. We answered all of their questions the best we could and set up a return appointment. We gave them a pamphlet and Jesse said, “I’m going to do my research and read this, you need to do your research too!” We told him to write down any more questions they had so we could answer them.

 

We also met with a recent convert Sister Frick. She is so sweet. She has given up on the hope of finding love and having a family because she is 56. I told her not to give up that Elder Oaks wife was single until she was 53 and then she married Elder Oaks. She just magnified her callings until she found her husband. She told me, “Well I’m too old to have kids now.” I told her that my aunt didn’t get married until after she couldn’t have kids anymore, but my uncle had 3 boys from a previous marriage and she loves them as if they were her own. We were able to show her there is hope. She also told us her conversion story and how she is worried that her dad is mad at her because when she was little she promised him she would never change her religion. She didn’t for many years, until this September when she was baptized. I told her, “At one point you had to pray to know if all of this The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the whole thing is true. Who’s to say you can’t pray to know if your father is okay that you’ve changed your religion?” She told us she was afraid of the answer. I told her to start with praying to know that Heavenly Father loves her and I bore testimony that he does love her and is proud of the decision she made. I hope she receives her answer.

 

This work is amazing. We are meeting with so many different people. I love seeing the light that comes to or back into those people who awaken that realization of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had some insight during my studies this week. I was reading in 3 Nephi 18:11 about the sacrament prayer. We only have His Spirit with us WHEN we remember Him. The Holy Ghost is a conditional blessing based on our thoughts. So the goal is to always have His Spirit to be with us. I accomplish this by always remembering Him. Nothing huge, but having the Holy Ghost with us is easier than I thought. When my thoughts are turned towards Him, His Spirit is with me.

 

Love, Sister Malinda Bennett