Highlights of my week:
We had a great week; we had a lot of teaching opportunities and there was a lot of variety with the activities that went on. It was also a stressful week, especially by the time the week was coming to a close with Walk-and-talk.
-I bought a new recorder since my last one broke ; sadly, it only records in .mp3 and Joseph's recorder records in .wav and so I cannot listen to his recordings on my recorder.
+ I went to staples and it said it was $42.00 after being $50.00; when I went to checkout, it was about $26.00 and it was marked down even more. I thought that was such a HUGE blessing!
-We got to go with a member to see all of her neighbors and introduce the gospel to them, even though only one seemed half-interested.
+What happened was pretty interesting if you ask me. What was even stranger was that this member took over with the introduction, and she pretty much took over with going over what my companion and I had taught Jaquie and her husband. A LOT of tangents and a lot of members seem to do this to us, for some reason over here in the south. It is very frustrating, especially if the missionaries cannot teach. Almost with every member we bring, they take over the conversation and act as if it were a 'long-time-no-see' get together and they push the missionaries off to the side. The hardest part is not saying anything and not interfering with their conversation. When my companion and I try to bring back the conversation, the member(s) steer it back to the off-topic conversation.
-I made pumpkin bread french toast (all from scratch) And it was good
+ Everything I need to make has to be gluten-free, and dairy-free; so, to make this, it took awhile. But, At least I had fresh baked bread, and it was chemical-free.
-I made pumpkin pie oatmeal
+ I have my own recipe on this and it sure tasted good.
- A member took us out to Olive Garden and I had their gluten-free pasta dish with tomato sauce and vegetables
- I hit my 6 year mark on the 16th of Oct; I am 1/3 done with my mission
- I received my grandpa's package and I also received letters from Sister Mahler and Sister Bowen, my previous companions
-We had walk-and-talk and multiple people told us that we needed to do more research on our own religion
+We did our walk-and-talk from 1 pm - 4 pm by the bayside in Beaufort on Saturday. It was a great experience to talk to those visiting, and those local, as well.
+ We encountered a college couple who were going to plan their wedding, and the gal had the binder in her hand. We introduced ourselves and we asked what they knew about our the LDS faith. The gal told us that the reason why we are not Christian was because we do not believe that Jesus is God, and that we don't believe in the Trinity. The man said that "Jesus is the Son of God" and we pointed out to him what he just said; He mentioned Jesus-is-the-son-of-God and we told him that we believe they are two distinct beings; He mentioned that Jesus was praying inside himself, even though he was praying to the Father. The gal said that we go against the Atonement because she thought that we believe that Jesus was born a man, denying all Godliness, but, that is incorrect. She asked us if we have done any research on our own faith, and we told her we did; I, personally, did a lot of research on my faith; we are also professionally trained as missionaries before we come out on the field, and we have been taught growing up about our faith. This couple said they do not believe in working for our salvation, and we brought up the 3 degrees and how it is mentioned in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 15:40-43 about the different degrees of glory.
+The most memorable experience I've had with 'Bible Bashing' was one of the worst I've been through, so far. We are taught not to bash, and so my companion and I was trying not to bash but to bring up doctrine truths. We walked up to this couple and we asked what they have heard about our religion; they mentioned that they too believed in the trinity and they did not believe in working for our salvation, and that if we just accept Christ into our hearts, then we are saved, which is completely contrary to the LDS faith. They also said that we wouldn't be judged by our works, but we are. It mentions this in Revelation 20:12-13 (KJV), and it is mentioned in the Bible that we will be judged by our works. Also, with Faith, it mentions in James 2:17-18 (KJV) that faith without works is dead. Even though, as missionaries we primarily teach out of the Book of Mormon, there are a lot of things mentioned in the Bible that come in harmony with the Book of Mormon. Pretty much everything does, if one truly studies them both. Anyways, though, the man started to talk about Joseph Smith, and then he brought up some horrible lies about our religion. He told us, "Do you know much about your religion? It's history!" And he asked if there was any proof that Joseph Smith did restore this church, and as missionaries, I personally felt like there was proof standing right in front of him, discussing with him about the church. The more he kept telling lies, my companion and I wanted to cry. It was so strange when he mentioned, "..but you both are so beautiful and young..." and he then was trying to act all friendly with us. It came to the point where there wasn't a good spirit and it became spiritually draining to talk to them and we walked off, and bid them a good day.
-Sunday - We had one investigator show up to Sunday, out of all the Sundays since I've been in Morehead
-A child got baptized on Sun and got confirmed right after
+ I had never heard of a Sunday Baptism before
-I got hit in the eye by a fast tennis ball and it really hurt today.
+ I don't want to play tennis for a long time. I am a ball magnet. (I miss my video games and I wish I could play Halo but I can't until Next October. Ha. )
I know this church is true, with all of my heart. I know that Joseph Smith was a righteous man, and I know that he risked his life to defend a book which he translated from reformed Egyptian with the power of God. I know that we will be judged according to how we spent our time on earth to prepare to meet God, which is the very reason why we are on this earth in the first place. I know that without the Atonement, when Jesus died for all of our sins when he was on the cross, we would not be able to repent, to become better, and to receive forgiveness. I know that we would not be able to obtain eternal life (living in the presence of Heavenly Father) without the gate of Baptism, when it is done with the proper authority to act in God's name, which is called the Priesthood. I know that my Savior lives, and he is everyone's savior, regardless if people 'accept Him as their Savior' or not. The fact that he is our Savior does not change based on personal acceptance. I know that we are all saved, regardless; that is given to everyone. I love this church, I love everyone, regardless if we live in a world of imperfect people. Imperfect people are all God has to work with and we all must accept each other's differences and work with that.
God loves each of us, and knows us personally. He is our Heavenly Father. He always keeps his promises.
I miss you all.
-Sister Marshall
No comments:
Post a Comment