An Exciting Time to Be a Missionary!

June 27, 2013

 

Hey hey!

This week was good. It's getting hot! I'm sweating a lot these days. We visited a lot of people this week. We also found quite a few new families. We ran into a nice lady when we had a few minutes to spare and knocked a few doors. She let us in without hesitation when we offered to leave a blessing with her. We learned that her son just passed away about 4 months ago due to cancer, and that he was actually meeting with missionaries before then. I'm sure she recognized us, and I'm positive that has helped prepare her to receive the Gospel. We left the blessing and I could tell she felt the spirit. We haven't been able to find her again though. Other than that we have been working with J--, who we met quite some time ago. He is a very quick learner, and likes what we are teaching. We are kind of just hitting road bumps with all of our investigators. We invite them to do stuff like read and pray and come to church, and they commit to do them but then they don't. We had like 7 or 8 people committed to come to church, and guess how many came? 0. zero came. I understand that it is hard to wake up and get to church by 9, because I had a hard time doing it growing up, but it's not that hard. We remind everyone Saturday nights as well, but still no one comes. But other than that I can't complain much. We made some progress with another investigator, and we've addressed some concerns she has had. We have some pretty good ideas for lessons we can teach with the T-- family. So I'm excited for all of that.

 

I loved the little conference we had yesterday. It was so good! It got me excited to work harder, and smarter, and just be a better missionary. I hope it got all the members excited as well, because like they mentioned we need help. When we have a "fellow shipper" everything works out so smoothly. It definitely is an exciting time to be a missionary though!

 

A scripture for the day. John 17:3 "And this is ^alife ^beternal, that they might ^cknow thee the only true ^dGod, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast ^esent"

 

To know God (The only true God I might add), and Jesus Christ. I've thought a lot about this scripture. I could ask a room full of people "who is God?" and all of them would have a different answer. Each answer would be defined by the experiences they have had with God, and a lot (All of them, even mine) of the answers would be conformed to who they would like to think God is.  The scripture says we can know him, the only true God, but like each relationship we must open our lines of communication, and our hearts, and sincerely seek him out. That means sincere prayers, that means reading the scriptures, and that means opening our hearts to God's will. We expect answers, and miracles from God, and He expects us to live according to His will. We conform to Him. He blesses us. To know Him is Eternal Life, which I believe we can have a taste of here on earth as we grow to know Him.

Anyway, I have to go. My hour is up. Much Love :)

Love, Elder Higgins :)

 

July 1, 2013

Hey!

We have a zone meeting on the 4th of July, and then we have weekly planning, and we also have to be in by 6 O'clock. So we won't be out visiting people for very long. I think we are going to have an activity with the zone at 6 actually, which will be fun!

So I can't believe how fast June went by. It zoomed by! I can't believe how hot it is either. Holy Moly it's hot! I've never sweat more in my life than I did this week.. It was wild! But don't worry I've been using sun screen, and the people we visit keep us pretty hydrated.

This week has been pretty good. We've been teaching some of the same people, and we've presented a baptismal date to many of them, and many of them are praying about them. I have felt the spirit work with me more in the lessons, and that's because I've been trying to think about them and their needs while I'm in the lessons, and not worry about what I'm going to say, or my lack of Spanish. (which is still coming along pretty well I might add.) We had a lesson this week and we taught about how to recognize the spirit, and to receive revelation, and then we taught about Joseph Smith and The Restoration a little, and explained what one needs to do to gain a testimony of the restored gospel. As we were committing our investigator to pray and read and finishing up the lesson she asked us if she could get baptized on Saturday. This lesson was on Thursday and she wanted to be baptized two days later! It was a miracle moment. We told her yes, and the next day we went to work planning her baptism only to get a call that afternoon saying she couldn't. It was pretty devastating. We visited her on Saturday though to figure out what happened, and it turns out there is some family opposition, she said she still wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to do it while there is opposition. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7, and explained there is always a way.

We also had a spiritual lesson with the investigator who just had a son pass away due to cancer. We taught the plan of salvation. She had a lot of questions, and seemed very interested in Temples. Near the end of the lesson she mentioned remembering the Elders that visited her son before he passed away had given him blessings, and asked if we could give her one, and of course we did. I thought that was cool she remembered that.

And then we have another who is pretty stubborn in his beliefs. He is reading though, and has come to church so we will still be working with Him. We promised him an answer if he read and prayed. We'll see if he does!!

Oh and one more of the highlights of the week. Somehow in one lesson I brought up five guys and how I'm craving it, and hno sterling (a returned missionary from Argentina that visits people with us sometimes) was with us. Well, apparently he took notes and kindly took us to five guys this week. Hoorah! It was super delicious!!

So that was my week. Loved it.

Love you guys too. Hope you have a good 4th of July! Home of the Brave! That's Right!!

Love Elder Higgins :)