This week has been such a huge testimony builder for me. We have had so many amazing miracles and tender mercies from Heavenly Father it's ridiculous. I usually just summarize the big ones but this week I'm going to have to go day by day!
Tuesday: Tuesday we had exchanges again! Sister Robison and I were together again which was fun! She is so awesome! We were in my area so I was in charge which was SUPER SCARY for the beginning of my second week in the mission but we did it and it was great! We did a lot of tracting. I've said it before and I'll say it again I DO NOT enjoy going door to door and talking to people BUT if God wants me to, I will and I did.
Wednesday: Wednesday we had zone training which is just where our zone meets together and discusses things we can do to improve our teaching and goals we can make and keep. I learned a lot of new tools to use in my teaching to help me be a better missionary so that was awesome! We went through the day and then at about five oclock we got a call from some elders who said "hey! we have a lesson scheduled at 6:00 with a YSA aged girl and we accidentally double scheduled. You're supposed to be the missionaries who teach her anyway so can you sisters teach her?" We said of course and went to the lesson and it was AWESOME! She is so sweet and sincere! She asked so many thoughtful questions about the Plan of Salvation and it was just a good day! Then that night we got a text from the very first person Sister Sanders talked to in this area (in like December/January!) her name is Danielle and she just asked "What's your church doing this Sunday for their service? I'm very interested in attending!" We told her it was a really special Sunday when our prophet and apostles speak to us and we would love to have her there! We didn't get a response.
Thursday: Thursday, as always, we had the table from 11:00-2:00. Like I said last week I do not have a love for the table. However! At Zone Training we were given a HUGE stack of pass along cards for the new Easter Initiative that the church is doing and so Sister Sanders and I made a goal to pass out 50 pass along cards and we did it! We had a lesson planned for right after the table but she didn't show up which was disappointing. We ended up dropping her because we only meet with her about once a month and the past three lessons have been the restoration. She just doesn't meet with us often enough to progress. It was really hard to drop her but Sister Sanders promised me that if we would drop investigators who were not progressing that Heavenly Father would put those who had been prepared in our path and we would be able to teach them instead. She was so right! Miracles started happening. Later that night we had a lesson with our investigator, Samuel, who had been planning on getting baptized for about a month now and he just hasn't been able to find a date that worked for him and his family and his girlfriend. That night we invited him to fast about it and he said he would. That was the end of Thursday.
Friday: On Fridays we volunteer at a place that gives food to the homeless and I love volunteering there! It is honestly one of my favorite parts of the week! After service we had a lesson with our new investigator, Alec. Alec is the one who showed up to church all on his own and said he wanted to meet with us. In our first lesson with Alec he told us that he wanted to know it was true and eventually be baptized. While Sister Sanders and I were planning for our second lesson with Alec we felt we needed to pray about a date for his baptism. We did and we both felt really strongly that April 22 was his day! Sister Sanders and I went to the lesson and we talked with him and extended the invitation to him. We told him that we had prayed about it and we KNEW he could be prepared by that day. He thought for a while and it was silent (Not gunna lie, I have full faith in the spirit, but I was sweatin bullets) and finally he looked up and said "You know, I would really like that!" WOO HOO!!!! I was so excited! Later that night we had a lesson with James who has not met with missionaries in a long time because his last experience was bad but we met with him and he was super open. We talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and invited him to pray and to write down all of the ways that he sees God's hand in his life before our next lesson. Him just being willing to meet with us was a miracle.
Saturday: General Conference! Can I just start by saying General Conference is literally the greatest! So many good things! Saturday we woke up to a text from our investigator, Samuel. It was like four pages long and it was him just questioning if he was ready for baptism and if he is then why it had been so hard to find a date. He wanted to know why his family wasn't supporting him if this was what he was supposed to be doing. We were panicked! We called him and talked to him and he said he was just really tired when he sent it but he did have a lot of questions. We promised him that if he would take the question of "should I be baptized" to Conference that he would receive an answer. He said he would. Most of our day was spent watching General Conference and doing training and weekly planning. Right after conference we got a text from Samuel and he set April 30 as his baptism date! We were so excited.
Sunday: General Conference part 2! We hadn't heard from Danielle yet on whether or not she was going to come and so we texted her and reminded her and she responded and said "I'll see you there!" James met us there and set a lesson appointment for this week and stayed for about the first ten minutes of conference. He stood up walked back to me and handed me a note and walked out of the building. I read the note and it said "Hey, I have to go but please take notes. I want to hear about it and I want to hear what stuck out to you. I am excited to meet with you later this week." Needless to say, I took a lot of notes! Right before the second session started our member, Isaac, walked in with two non members. One of them we had met and one of them we hadn't. He walked up to us and said "Sisters! These are my friends! I know you've met Big Mike! He wants to meet with you Wednesday is that okay?" We said yes and scheduled that. Then Isaac said "this is my other friend Rachel! She wants to meet with you too!" We scheduled an appointment with her too! It was so awesome! We looked for Danielle but didn't see her so we texted her and right when we sent it she snuck in the back door and came and sat by us! Afterwards we asked her how she like it and she said it was interesting and not as boring as she thought it was going to be! Yay! We asked her if she had a time this week that she would want to meet with us and she said yes! She scheduled and appointment for Saturday! We checked our phone after Conference and Samuel had texted us about halfway through and said "Oh my gosh! Did you guys hear that?" Turns out he truly felt like Elder Costa's talk was an answer to his prayers. He solidified April 30th as his date! We decided to go tracting so we found an apartment complex and started knocking. The first guy we talked to took a pass along card but was pretty obviously not interested. The second door we knocked on the guy opened it and we started talking with him and Sister Sanders said "we're missionaries..." and he goes "NOPE! NEVERMIND! NOPE! NO! NO!" and shut the door. We looked at each other and moved on. The next door we knocked on was the property manager. She talked to us for a second and then said "You girls really aren't supposed to be doing this here, we have a sign." Sister Sanders tried to explain that we, in fact, are not soliciting. We are proselyting. But, nonetheless she said "Still. It means you too." and closed the door. I'm just going to take a brief moment to say: it is ridiculous the amount of people who don't understand the difference between soliciting and proselyting. C'mon people. Anyway, we left. We went home and starting trying to call Potential Investigators and I felt I needed to call a girl I talked to on campus a few weeks ago. I called her and she didn't answer but she called right back and set an appointment. I kid you not, the next five potentials we called all set appointments with us! That doesn't sound like anything super amazing but it is! Most people either hang up once they hear the word "missionary" or tell us they aren't interested. It was such an awesome experience.
I know this email was super long today and I'm sorry for that but I just want to take a second to just bare my testimony. I am so grateful to have a Heavenly Father who loves me. It is so dark and lonely to live life thinking he doesn't. God truly does know each of us. He loves each of us! I know that when we pray to him he listens! I know that when we succeed he celebrates with us and when we are sad he cries with us. I know that God has a plan for each of us. Even though our plans very rarely line up with his I know that if we act in faith and submit to His will, we will experience more happiness than we ever thought possible. This week has also shown me that exact obedience truly does bring blessings. Not just in missionary life but in life in general. If we are constantly trying to walk close to the spirit and do what God wants us to do then our lives are filled with so many blessings we wouldn't otherwise get. I watched a talk that talked about how blessings are being rained down on us all the time, Heavenly Father never stops trying to bless us. However, when we are disobedient we put up a metaphorical umbrella that prevents us from receiving them. For some reason I always pictured it more like I was walking around trying to do what I needed to and once I did something right Heavenly Father sent me a blessing. I WAS SO WRONG! Heavenly Father loves us SO MUCH! He never stops trying to bless us for anything that we are doing right! We choose not to accept blessings when we do something contrary to what we know is right! I am learning so much on my mission, a lot of it is just basic things but they are so amazing to me and they change the way I do things, the way I see and treat others and the way I see my Heavenly Father. I love all y'all so much! Have a great week!
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~Sister Madisen Lloyd
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