On the Horizon (week 49)

If you're thinking what I'm thinking... yes, it's true, in 3 weeks I'll have been out for a whole year. I think I might put together a huge year run-down for that week so be excited for it!

For some reason for the last little while my mindset has been "we must find for hours and hours on end each day and we just simply must do it and not expect any success because this is our trial at this time." Which, in a way, it has been just like that—find and find for hours on end and at the end of the day, still have zeros. That's obviously pretty discouraging. But what I realized this week is that we do all we can and of course we still get turned down—sometimes pretty hardcore and you just have to walk away and laugh—but we CAN and SHOULD expect results! I was totally guilty of envisioning this transfer as just a huge black hole. Sucking everything we've got and giving nothing in return. BUT what I've come to realize is that we totally can experience success! And this week we have!

We got a mystery call from an Indian man in Straslund who wants to meet with us. The Elders found him a few days later and the man told them he wanted to meet with us still. Success 1.

We went street contacting with an older Sister in our district after district meeting and we talked to a younger woman from the Ukraine who also wants to meet and we made out a new appointment with. It was actually pretty cool because the Spirit told me to ask her if she believed in a life after death, she said yes, and we were able to give her a pamphlet and then through that make a new appointment out! Success 2.

It was after dark a few days ago and we were walking down the street. A woman was coming our direction but where we were walking was totally void of any street lights or anything. So totally dark. Not wanting to be creepy and/or scare her away, I prayed in my heart that the Lord would help me talk to her by giving us light. A few steps later, a light on a house turned on because of our movement in front of it. She didn't have any interest, but we were able to talk to her, and my prayer to God to help one of His children was answered in a very real way. Success 3.

A few days ago we went by on a contact we had found in our area book. We just had her name and address and nothing else, so we decided to stop by. She was home and was super nice and told us to come back yesterday. On the other side of the story, one of the Elders old investigators started coming back to church after a while of not coming/investigating because his girlfriend was opposed to it. We were surprised when we showed up to this woman's house because this investigator, who we had just met in church that day, actually lived there...and the woman we had met was his girlfriend. Since we know they are still together and that he is coming back to church, that means that she must have had a change of heart and is letting him come back! We made out an appointment with them both for Tuesday and we're really excited to see where this goes! In a way, though, we know he's probably thinking that suddenly the missionaries are back knocking on his door BECAUSE he's come back to church but really it's just the opposite. We had absolutely no clue who this woman was and it just so happened that things worked out simultaneously. There is no such thing as coincidence but I just hope he sees it that way. Pray for him, please. Pray for them both. They have a ton of potential. Success 4.

Maybe I'll end with a failure story just for kicks. We have an investigator who we met with who is in a hard life situation and needs legal help to figure out his visa/passport and get a job etc. etc. Currently he's being supported by another church and is worried that if this church finds out he's meeting with/learning about our Church they'll stop helping him out. He's been asking if there's anything the church will give him by means of "support." Anyway we're working with him but in my mind I know there's really nothing the Church can do in terms of money or legal support. I was trying to explain this to him in a nice way and wanted to share with him Mosiah 2:22 about how all that God requires of us is to keep the commandments and He'll take care of the rest, but he ended up at Mosiah 4:22 in his Arabic Book of Mormon WHICH is quite the opposite of what I wanted him to know...

22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance...

UHHHHMM.....Failure 1. Luckily we rebounded from that pretty nicely.

ANNNYWWAYYSSS...

Things are looking up and we're pretty excited for this next week.

Gosh. One of my favorite things to do lately is read Conference talks. They are just so dang good! I can't tell you how much I love and adore this Church and every bit of it. There is nothing worth more or even close to being worth more than knowing that God lives, that Christ is the Savior of us all, that this Church is His kingdom on earth, that our Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us, that the commandments are only there to help us, and that "men are, that they might have joy."

As a missionary and as His representative, I bear my firm testimony that these things are true. I know that this gospel is true. There's no way it could not be true. God is there, Christ is always willing to help us, everything happens for a reason, the Book of Mormon is His word. You too can know of these things for yourself, if you simply start with the desire to believe and to know and to act.

Sister Seamons