Family!
Happy Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be grateful for!
Spiritual
1) Luke 14:26-33 (include JST) Are we firm in our belief and are we going to hold out until in the end? "Settle these things in your heart". Good for all of us--missionaries and our investigators. If they do not think they will hold out to the end, don't baptize them until they will--otherwise there will be a greater condemnation. As missionaries, we better finish the job we were called to do. As members....Endure to the End!
2) From Jesus the Christ, beginning of Chapter 15: the Sabbath is a covenant between God and His people which sets them apart--a new thing to add to my list to help my investigators understand just how holy the sabbath day is, and how important it is to keep it!
3) Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son. Not only for investigators, but members as well. In essence, we all need to realize what state we are in and humble ourselves enough to repent and return to our Father in Heaven. [the part about the older brother is also for members, but I want to focus on the humbling ourselves and repenting part]
Some interesting experiences this week. The guidance of the Lord is with us, and I can really feel the power of prayer as far as the Lord leading the prepared to us, and us to them. We had another member who recently moved into our area walk up to us again. Awesome experience. We already have two solid investigators from them, and will probably have more. The work in our area is really growing. First, backround. At the beginning of this transfer they split our area. We took the area that was "new", meaning less focus had been placed on it because it is far from our apartment, and far from the church. And it is the really poor section of town. We are essentially opening up the area. Well, we intend to leave it fully staffed and prepared when we leave, so much so that they will have to build a church over there soon. They are getting ready to split the two wards here--four missionaries in both of the Cainta Wards (sisters in ours (cainta 2nd) and elders in cainta 1st). We already have so many solid, prepared investigators over there. And we are continuing to discover more members! This is great, because our area presidency has just started a rescue action--they want us to focus on less active members. The numbers struggle--8 out of 10 baptisms here go inactive. In their words (and I agree wholeheartedly) this is unacceptable. They want us to focus on reactivating who we already have, and building centers of strength before we spread ourselves too thin...especially in cases when people are far from church because they tend to go inactive. This represents a bit of a problem for our area because 1) far from church 2) as far as we know right now, not a lot of members. We are working on that :). So, lots of strong, great investigators now, and we just baptized 3 yesterday! One is them is definite missionary material, and is so excited. He is going to start working with us. The others, a mother and a daughter (who are technically in the other area now) are such a miracle. The mother has changed so much, and so excited to continue to become better. Her daughter really looks up to me, and has asked me how to become a missionary. She is 9. So cute.
So, interesting story #2. We sat down to teach a lesson, and first understand that our area is a floodway squatter's area. Many of the "homes" are very open, and over or right next to the water, and everyone is together. So we sat down, and started to teach our investigators with a lot of neighbors and roommates listening in. Well, turns out one of the neighbors is a preacher. He started about how the Bible is perfect and complete and there cannot be any other scripture, etc. In many ways he was kind of trying to pick a fight with us....kind of. He wasn't too rude about it, just very emphatic. Well, we were pretty emphatic as well and bore strong testimony that God does speak to us through prophets today, and that the Book of Mormon is true. I bore heartfelt testimony of our purpose there and our love for them--that we were there for them, not for us, and I am so far away from my family. I refused to scripture bash with him (which in some cases would be fun, because everything that he was saying actually supported us). I invited him to read Ezekiel 37:15-16 and Luke 11, and gave him some questions to ponder. We will see what happens tomorrow when we return to that area. Our investigators were so embarrassed--I am really glad for that experience though, because it is a good trial of their faith to make them stronger. I emphasized to them that they should always ask God, and that they needed to ask God if we were true (what we are sharing), if Joseph Smith is a true prophet, and if the Book of Mormon is true. I am excited to see the result it produces.
Ooh, another interesting thing. I get shouted at a lot "what is your name"? Well... Anyway, the army of children that always somehow manages to coalesce around me always whispers my name. Well yesterday adults started saying "Hi Sister Biggs" to me, and I know it was not from looking at my nametag. This is a very interesting result. I am going to pray for very positive results, as in they will realize we have truth, everyone will start wanting us to teach them (sincerely), etc.
Last night the mother of one of our investigators truly became an investigator. She went to church learned a lot, and has a lot of respect for us missionaries. She is "catholic", but really likes how we have knowledge and explain everything, and sees that as a deficiency in the catholic church. She is happy with the good things we have taught her children--her son, our investigator, was "gay" (he is 12), mostly from the environment. Her 14 almost 15 year old daughter is pregnant and has a live-in boyfriend, but she and her mother read the law of chastity pamphlet and she wants to change. I'm so impressed with their desires to do good. A thing about missionaries here: she is so impressed with us (and she is not the only one), and respects us so much especially above other missionaries because we actually stick around and teach them things, and have a different spirit about us. There are a lot of missionaries around here, but we are the first ones to really stick to that area. The other missionaries of different faiths are here to "share the word of God" only: they share some things and then ask for money. They are also paid, so we try to make it clear to our investigators that we are paying to be here. The other missionaries never ask them to do things--share only, ask for money and leave, usually never to return again. They are not able to answer questions, and bible study here means memorizing verses, not actually studying the meaning of scripture. I like her because she is very honest and straightforward.
All my love to my friends! All my love to my family! Have a wonderful week, I love you love you love you love you! Thank you so much for your prayers, and continue to pray! We really appreciate it!
Kat
