Saturday, March 22, 2014

3-17-14

Familia!

Miracles are happening in the WKM! (Washington Kennewick Mission- now you know why we abbreviate....) Over the past 6 months we have received many promises and challenges from our leaders about working hard and leaving it in the hands of the Lord. Well those promises are coming true and i have had so many humbling experiences over the last little while. 

Our area is doing so good! many of the people we are teaching really are ready to accept the gospel and are all working to overcome different challenges. Right now we are trying to get prepared for Debbie's baptism, which is fun. She has slowly been being prepared for this probably throughout her whole life! Every time we go over she throws out some little dig at me. She has a great sense of humor and i am kind of surprised we get anything accomplished when we go over there. As we plan for her baptism she has begun to start doing things better and better! Like reading and praying. I love when she prays because i know she is really talking to God. That is one thing that helps you see that a person has that sincere desire. They open their mouth and are honest to God. Helping my investigators pray has helped me to realize that my prayers could often use improvement. Luckily that is what we are here on Earth for. 

Antonio and Armanda are another couple that we are working with and we had some great experiences together this week. First have been trying to apply the scriptures more to teaching and so we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the scriptures. It was an amazing experience because as we studied for it, the scriptures taught the doctrine so plain and simple i couldn't help but think, "Wow, why don't we just read it like this every time?" It was an amazing lesson, the Spirit was strong and Sis. Yeates (one of our super amazing members) bore powerful testimony on what we were talking about. It definitely helped connect some dots. We finished by reading some words of the Savior out of the Book of Mormon and wow were they powerful. It was also Antonio's birthday this week, so we went to say happy birthday and drop off some gum. He recently quit smoking and chewing gum is helping him get over it. He laughed and was very grateful for it. We had a more relaxed lesson and talked about the importance of temples. 

I could go on and on about the amazing people that we are teaching.. Aiden & Bo, Heidi, Angie, Elhemar.. I seriously love the people here in Quincy! It would take me forever to explain how amazing they all are and why. (This is why journaling can be hard many times. Especially since i feel like we race the clock home every night). We have seen so many blessings come as we forget about ourselves and get lost in the work.

Sister Tuigamala and i have really been hitting the streets. She has quite the sense of humor. We were lucky to get to spend part of a day with Hermana Heninger!! It was so good to see her. We had transfers this week so she got to hang out with us while she waited for her new companion. I was so excited to see her! The other night we had to introduce each other at dinner and it was super funny, i think maybe about half of the things said were true, but the members really enjoyed getting to know us from the other persons perspective. try playing that game when you have the missionaries over... You never know what answers you will get. Apparently, according to Sister T, i am a mad beat boxer, i have and amazing singing voice, 

Earlier this week we had a meeting about many things but two of those were about opening our mouth and the Book of Mormon. The first we were talking about a promise that was given to us by Elder Ballard that said if we would talk to 10 people every week our success would double. Well this was back in October. and i remember really well when he said this because people were very fired up about this promise and all i remember is that i felt a little discouraged and thought, "how?" At this point i was serving in Royal and if i talked to 10 people everyday we would talk to every person in the area like 10 times every couple weeks. We were lucky to talk to like 25 new people a week. So remember trying and feeling like there was no way. Well this week we were reminded of this promise and someone said, "If an apostle promised me something, i would do it and test that promise." It hit me. Why wasn't I talking to 10 people everyday? So we recommitted to do so. Well in one day we talked to like 12 people and only knocked on 1 door. It was amazing what the Lord can do when you put yourself in his hands. We have been seeing miracle after miracle and the Lord wants to see what we will do with our faith. Will we jump out of our comfort zone? Will we do something even if we have no idea why we are? Well we have strived to do everything the Lord asks of us and perfecting our obedience and talking to EVERYONE. We see miracles on daily basis. The WKM has found success by trying to do those 2 simple things, over and over til we get it right.

We also talked about the Book of Mormon. We have been challenged to read the Book of Mormon in 80 days, and i am really excited! Everything has been focused on the Book of Mormon lately! What a great thing to focus on. Last night we were in a lesson teaching about the Book of Mormon, and at this point one of the 2 people we were teaching had been kind of passive and half way attentive. Well last night we read about the Book of Mormon, bore testimony, had a member talk about what it meant to her and this girl said, "like you, i don't like to read either, i have a hard time finishing a whole book because they don't pull my interest." then she picked up her Book of Mormon and said, "But i am going to read this Book to know if it is true." BAM! It was super powerful and we could feel the Spirit that was there. The Book of Mormon can change lives and is revelation from God. Elder Holland said, "The Book of Mormon is revelation for those who are seeking revelation." I am so grateful and will forever be grateful for the push that i received to finish the Book of Mormon for the first time all the way through. I know without a doubt in my heart that it is true. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that he came for each and everyone of us, that God loves us and has sent a prophet on the earth today, and that everyone can read the Book of Mormon and know that it is true. 

Love you all thanks for the prayers and the support! Have a great week!

Hermana Ray

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