Miracle Week - Feb 2nd

Things picked up a ton this week, plus we saw Elder Anderson, plus we added 3 investigators heck yes.

On Montag we had family home evening with Brother Tuituvuki (member of the bishopric)'s family. we talked about the restoration with their kids and asked them who they could invite to see Meet the Mormons at the temple visitor's center, and they thought of like 20 people right off the bat. When I'm not a full-time missionary, I want to be just like that. On Tuesday we had a correlation meeting that we thought was at 7, so we got there at 6 :45 and waited. Then at 7:15 we found out it was at 7:30, so we waited. Then at 7:40 we found out it was at 8. It was not the most gratifying use of time ever, but the meeting made up for it, sort of. So that's probably the most exciting story from my mission i've ever told. On Wednesday we met with a less active who had a non-member woman friend and they agreed to receive the PMG lessons, so that was cool. On Thursday we got a flat tire. We noticed right as we were driving out of our parking spot, so we changed it right there and drove to a tire place...As our car was raised up and the guys were ready to put a new tire on, our vehicle coordinator called us and told us to go to PepBoys instead since they had an account there. So we drove to Hayward, went into pepBoys, gave them our keys, told em we needed a new tire, and then...waited for 2 HOURS!!!! Haha, they weren't a big hurry to get to our car so we waited for a long time whereas we would have been ready to go in 5 minutes if we had stayed at the first place. Consequently we had to eat our dinner hurriedly, oh how hard our lives are. later that night though, we taught a great investigator, Cat. We taught the Restoration, and the Spirit was way way strong, and i had a little vision of just how powerful the Gospel is.

The rest of the week was great and we had the Spirit with us way strong. And then on Saturday we went to Oakland and had a mission conference with Elder Anderson, Elder Richard J. Maynes, and our area authority, Elder Packer. Elder Maynes talked about having the faith to be a missionary at ALL times. He gave an example of when he was at a gas station, and some missionaries pulled up at the pump ahead of them. he tested them by waving at them and saying hi, but they didn't engage him in conversation. So that reminded us, we gotta open our dang mouths at all times! Elder Anderson's teaching was pretty simple...he talked about how we need to share with people the doctrine of the Atonement. That is one reason why the Book of Mormon is so important...because it teaches about Christ's Atonement in a way that is more descriptuve than the New Testament. For instance, look at 2 Nephi 2:8- "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise." I highlighted grace because the Spirit reminded me how important Christ's grace is. Only through his grace can we become pure, and it feels so good to feel that way.

Later that night, we taught a potential investigator named David, whom we had just met at the BART station a couple days ago. We taught him the first lesson at the chapel Saturday night and it was crazy good. He asked so many great questions...like it almost seemed like he was a less active member punkin' us, haha. As we shared the Joseph Smith experience, the Spirit reminded me that God does really speak, Jesus Christ really is the Savior, and there salvation is available to all who will partake of it. Roll dang tide.

 

On Sunday, Elder Anderson came to our steak. Lynn and her husband George came and had a great experience. Elder Anderson spoke on a wide variety of topics. His testimony of Jesus Christ was way powerful.

Oh here's another story...as we were driving back from Oakland Saturday night, we saw a homeless guy at the stoplight right after we got off the freeway. Because we are so righteous, we were moved with compassion and offered him a protein bar. He looked way grateful. Last night we went to a public place to contact people...and he walked up to us and said hi! Turns out he worked on the Ogden temple when it was being built, he had visited the oakland temple, and also the one in Minnesota, where he is from, and he thanked us for the food we had given him. One of the greatest joys is to serve others...and this is something I remembered after this experience. So serve, y'all.

lOVE,

eLDER gILLIE