August 26, 2013

August 26

Hello Everyone!!

I hope that you have had a wonderful week! It is always good to hear from you and to hear all about your adventures and your week! Brightens my day. 

We had a GREAT week! Lots of good things happened. It felt so good to actually teach people. Sister Mattingley is a great missionary and has the spirit with her as she bears testimony. She knows exactly what to say to those that we are teaching. It has been so much fun to see her grow. We were able to find two new investigators this week. We are teaching Sis. Dow. Her husband is a member, but has been less active for a long time. She has taken the lessons before and knows that she needs to be baptized, but she doesn't want to get baptized until her husband can do it. We had a great first lesson with her and set expectations and shared with her Matt. 7:7. It says that we need to ask, seek, and knock. We talked to her about finding these things out for herself. We don't want her to be doing this because of her husband. We want her to know that this is what she is suppose to be doing and for her to gain a testimony for herself. The spirit was with us that night and it was pretty powerful. She also has been coming to church every Sunday and loves it too. I am excited to be teaching her and to helping her understand the Doctrine of Christ. 

We are also teaching a 9 year old boy. His mom is a member and also has been less active for a little while, but wants to start coming back to church because she misses the peaceful feeling that you have when you are at church. She really wants this same thing for her son. It is so neat to see people want to come back to church after they have been gone for awhile. It is amazing to me to knowing how the spirit feels and then how it feels when the spirit is not with you. I have had many instances where the spirit has left because of a conversation we are having with someone or even because we don't list to the spirit. It is not a good feeling and it makes me super happy to see that Sister Estrada wants to have that sweet spirit back in her life and in her home as well. Seth was so excited for us to come and to teach him. We taught him the Doctrine of Christ with my jenga blocks that I made to help visualize the path that we need to take. I was so surprised. This little boy understood what we were teaching and knew a lot of what he needs to do to be like Christ. I love teaching little kids. They are so ready to hear the gospel and they already have that sweet spirit with them. He will be getting baptized in Sept and we are super excited for him!

We also met a guy at the park. This was a neat experience. So we had a half hour before dinner and we just didn't know what to do so we decided to go to the park and put up flyers for a free Book of Mormon. As we were doing that, we saw a guy walking his cute little niece.  I had this thought come into my mind that we needed to talk to him. We stopped and talked to him and to much of my surprise he was really friendly and open to talk to us. He was telling us about his religion and how he is Christian. He said that he was really proud of us for being out on missions and spreading the good word around. He then told us that he had dated an LDS lady and was meeting with the missionaries. Another thought came into my mind that we needed to invite him to take the missionary lessons again. As we invited he gladly agreed. We got his number and we have something set up with him for tomorrow. It was something that we needed that day. It showed me how precious God's time is. We cannot afford to loose the time that we have to find those people that the Lord has prepared for us. I know that because we didn't waste any of our time and kept working our hardest that we were able to see that blessing from the Lord.

We had a another cool experience this week. Our district leader called us and asked us to pray for an opportunity to shard the Doctrine of Christ and to shard this experience in district meeting. Well we had been praying and seeking for that one great experience and we just couldn't find anyone to teach or everyone that we had planned to share this with would cancel on us. It was a little discouraging, but I fought that off and tried really hard to not loose my faith. It got to be Wednesday night. We only had a few hours left of our day and we still didn't have an experience to share for the next day. I was constantly saying a prayer in my heart. I kept saying please guide to someone who needs this lesson tonight. We only have a few more hours and we need to share an experience. I was so worried that we weren't going to have one for district meeting. Well we had a lesson with one of our recent converts and we had planned to teach him the Doctrine of Christ. I was so amazed at the spirit that was in the home with us. His mom who is a less active and her boyfriend were also present in the lesson with us. It was just amazing to see that this little boy knew so much and knew what he needed to do and to keep doing now that he is baptized. It was a great opportunity for his mom as well and we asked her how the gospel has blessed her life. I wish you could have been there. What happened that night is just so hard to describe in words. I know that this was the experience that we needed to have. It made me think of faith a the faith test that we like to show people. The Lord wants us to have faith in him and wants us to do all that we can and when we feel that we cannot do anymore then he is there to help us. It is like the scripture in Ether 12:6 ..."ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." I feel that we needed to go through this trial and that God needed to see our faith. I learned so much from this and I know that when we have faith all things are possible. I am so grateful for this experience that I was able to have and It did indeed help my faith be strengthen. I am grateful for the trials that we are given so that we can become stronger. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of what we need and knows what the best things for us are. I love this gospel so much and grateful for the wonderful blessings. 

I hope you have a wonderful week. Love you all!

Sister Ackley