Friends and Family,
We've been working on the Mom of our recent convert ever since we first met him. Every time we would come by to teach him, we would always invite her to join us for a discussion, to which she would reply with "I'm busy" and then sit at the table playing on her phone. After diligent inviting and serving her in any way we could, her heart softened little by little. Every once in a while she would come over and ask us a question about the gospel that she didn't fully understand. We'd answer, bear our testimonies, and tell her to think about the things that we've shared with her.
This cycle repeated time and time again. She would come back with another question, further investigating her previous concern. Sometimes bringing up a new concern after receiving the answer to her last one. We'd do the same thing every time. Answer her question, bear testimony, and ask her to think about the answer we gave her. Eventually, she reached the root of her concern. She realized that she wasn't recognizing the hand of the Lord in her life, and wasn't exactly sure why. She came to us humbly asking for our help. She thought that she must have been praying wrong, or praying with the wrong kind of faith or something. We shared the parable of the seed in the book of Alma with her, and told her that we would come back with more to help her.
We prayed about her situation, and counseled with our Ward Mission Leader and Bishop, and decided that the best thing to help her to recognize God's hand in her life was to commit her to pay tithing. We planned out our lesson that morning and did a role play, and at the very end of the role play we felt impressed to prepare for a concern that she would have about having to wait for so long to see the blessings of her faith. We found a scripture we could use, Ether 12:6, and felt content.
That afternoon in the lesson, the exact concern we were feeling would come up in companionship study came up. We both looked at each other and both opened up to Ether 12:6 and testified that it is after the trial of our faith that we receive a witness. She looked at us teary eyed as the Spirit testified to her that what we were saying was true. I asked her if she trusted us, and she replied yes, and then committed her to live the law of tithing.
It was really cool to see the fruits of our preparation. I know that people are prepared for our message, and I also know that as missionaries we must prepare ourselves for the people.
"Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field" Proverbs 24:27
Also while out tracting around in a trailer park, we saw a short man standing behind a fence and we just heard him call out, "Hermanos!" and he signaled us over. He was having a get together with a lot of his family, and asked us if we wanted to eat some tacos. We did, and then he went back into this weird shed and brought out a PIG HEART. He asked if we wanted to eat some too, and I was definitely not about to pass up that offer and accepted. He threw it in a giant tub of lard and started to fry it, and then took it out and cut it in half and gave me a half.We've been working on the Mom of our recent convert ever since we first met him. Every time we would come by to teach him, we would always invite her to join us for a discussion, to which she would reply with "I'm busy" and then sit at the table playing on her phone. After diligent inviting and serving her in any way we could, her heart softened little by little. Every once in a while she would come over and ask us a question about the gospel that she didn't fully understand. We'd answer, bear our testimonies, and tell her to think about the things that we've shared with her.
This cycle repeated time and time again. She would come back with another question, further investigating her previous concern. Sometimes bringing up a new concern after receiving the answer to her last one. We'd do the same thing every time. Answer her question, bear testimony, and ask her to think about the answer we gave her. Eventually, she reached the root of her concern. She realized that she wasn't recognizing the hand of the Lord in her life, and wasn't exactly sure why. She came to us humbly asking for our help. She thought that she must have been praying wrong, or praying with the wrong kind of faith or something. We shared the parable of the seed in the book of Alma with her, and told her that we would come back with more to help her.
We prayed about her situation, and counseled with our Ward Mission Leader and Bishop, and decided that the best thing to help her to recognize God's hand in her life was to commit her to pay tithing. We planned out our lesson that morning and did a role play, and at the very end of the role play we felt impressed to prepare for a concern that she would have about having to wait for so long to see the blessings of her faith. We found a scripture we could use, Ether 12:6, and felt content.
That afternoon in the lesson, the exact concern we were feeling would come up in companionship study came up. We both looked at each other and both opened up to Ether 12:6 and testified that it is after the trial of our faith that we receive a witness. She looked at us teary eyed as the Spirit testified to her that what we were saying was true. I asked her if she trusted us, and she replied yes, and then committed her to live the law of tithing.
It was really cool to see the fruits of our preparation. I know that people are prepared for our message, and I also know that as missionaries we must prepare ourselves for the people.
"Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field" Proverbs 24:27
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