This
week has been great! We had some crazy weather though. All the nice weather we
had a couple of weeks ago is gone.
On Friday we had to come home early as a mission because the wind was so strong.
There are so many trees and power lines that blew over in the wind. According
to one of the members we talked to, the wind was blowing 80 miles an hour (I'm
not totally sure that's just what she said) but the wind was really strong! And
today we are supposed to get more than a foot of snow. We aren't supposed to be
out driving unless we absolutely have to. But luckily the weather hasn't slowed
the work.
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Funny
Story: On Saturday night we called to invite some of our investigators to
church. And they ended up giving us the drop talk. They told us that they
couldn't come the next day because they had a priest coming to their home
because their house had been selected to be the home of a Mary statue for lent.
They were so proud that they were selected. Apparently it's a big deal to be
picked. So unfortunately we are not going to be teaching them anymore because
we can't trump the Virgin Maria statue
This
week we have really been trying to be exactly obedient and we have seen so many
miracles from it. For example we were going to look up a referral from the
elders. We had come by before but she was busy and said we could come back at
about this time. So we came back. As we
got up to the door and we both distinctly remembered that the left doorbell was
hers. We pressed it and a woman from the other apartment came out. We decided
we would try to get her contact really quick and then we would go up to the
other apartment. Well she ended up wanting us to come in and teach her so we
did. She talked about how she wanted her family to have more unity and even
though her son is doing his first communion she doesn't feel like he has a
relationship with God. We taught her the restoration and talked about how her
kids could have relationships with heavenly father if she led by example and
started doing the things to gain her own relationship. She was so open to come
to Church and really wanted to learn more. Even though we didn't press the
doorbell we were intending to, it turned
out to be the doorbell we needed to press.
We
also had zone conference yesterday. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, Plan
of salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I definitely felt the spirit teaching
me what things we can do to help our investigators. I want to help them all
better understand the Book of Mormon and what it really can be in their lives.
It has come to mean so much to me throughout my life and especially on my
mission. My goal is help them start to love it as much as I do.
We
also talked a lot about repentance and the atonement. My view of
repentance has totally changed in the last 9 months. Before my mission
repentance was a scary thing. Something people shouldn't want to do. Something
hard and painful. During my mission I have come to learn that it is nothing
like that. I love Elder Hollands words about it; "It takes exactly as long
to repent as it takes to say, 'I'll change' - and mean it". Repentance is
such an amazing gift. Our loving brother, Jesus Christ, cared enough about us
to die for us. We can show our gratitude by using his gift to repent and change
daily. Daily repentance is something I have come to love. Every day we can repent of all the things that
don't bring us closer to Christ and start the day with a clean slate. And every
day we can be a little more like him than the day before. It's so awesome!
I
also love Zone Conference because of the miracles we see from going out and
putting in practice the things we learned and yesterday was no exception.
Yesterday we got to our dinner appointment and the member wasn't there. We
called her and she said she was at the laundry mat but would be there in
20 minutes but she wanted us to wait. So to use our time we walked over to
a former investigator who lived nearby. We knocked on her door and she answered
and we just talked about her family. She has 2 teenaged/young adult daughters
and she doesn't love the choices they are making right now. She wants them to
have a religion to help guide their lives. We talked about how she would be
able to help them with that if she would read in the Book of Mormon for 5
minutes a day. She promised she would do it!
Then
after that, our next lesson called and asked if we could move it back half
an hour because she got off work late. Not a problem we needed time to look
people up! So we went to look up a referral from the English sisters. We
knocked and she answered and we had only been talking for a minute or two when
she stopped us and said, I need you to talk to my daughter. And then proceeded
to tell us every problem her daughter is going through right now, which is kind
of a lot. So she called her daughter, Kendra, in and we just talked to her
for a minute. She's a senior in high school and has a lot going on right now.
We asked both of them if they could ask God for one thing, what would it be?
Kendra immediately said "to have peace with in myself" and then
Waldina(the mom) said "strength to help my daughter". We were able to
testify of the peace and strength that we have received from the Book of
Mormon. It was so cool just to watch Kendras face throughout the lesson. At
first it was "ugh! My mom’s making me listen to these two girls." but
by the end she asked for a verse in the book of Mormon that she could read. I
love the spirit and the ability to change people's hearts.
Sorry
for the really long letter but there was just so much to tell this week. I love
you all! Have a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Dobson
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