sometimes missions are roller-coasters

first of all, I'd like to give a shout out to my best friend since the diaper days for getting his mission call to JAMAICA!!!!!  You're gonna kill it Elder Boyer.  :)  (also let's just take a moment of silence for the fact that he leaves almost exactly a year after me.....so precious)

 

Oh man. this week. 

Tuesday night, we had THEEEE most powerful lesson ever with Peggy.  Sister Olsen came, and it was just incredible.  We talked about baptism and about setting her date for sooner (it was in June) and the spirit prompted us to set her on date for April 25th.  We went absolutely NOT according to our plans, but 100% by the spirit.  We went over the baptismal interview questions and asked her how she feels and she just said, "I dont' know...it's a strange feeling...like I just want to jump up and down!"  so much joy.

Wednesday, we got a call saying that she won't be joining the church...the adversary was so strong in her life this week, after that call, she didn't answer our calls until Saturday.  We went over to her house and talked it over, and she decided she didn't want to join, but she would still come.  She came on Sunday, and yesterday morning, we got a call from her telling us that the feelings she got at church completely changed her mind and her heart and now she's getting baptized on the 25th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Time to plan a baptism :) 

We had a freaky experience while trying to contact a less active in this super sketchy apartment building.  The less active had moved away, but the people there talked to us for a while.  When I tried to give her a Book of Mormon, she treated it like poison and wouldn't even touch it...it was awkward....but then somehow she ended up letting us in and we tried to bring the spirit, but every time we talked about the Book of Mormon, she would start praying to God to cover her ears and eyes from this evil and all that.....so finally we just left.  And missed our buses.  It was an adventure getting back home. 

We were able to contact a different less active couple this week.  We were trying to find the address, and couldn't find the house number.  We decided to say a prayer, and before I could even finish the first words, Sister Trujillo says, "IT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE RIGHT THERE!"  I think God sometimes just has to remind us who's really in charge...:)  But they were so great, we knocked on the door, they're a native couple, and she told us she has been thinking about coming back to church!  Coincidence? I think NOT!  She let us in and we had a great lesson with her. 

We found George this week as well.  He's from Ghana and speaks twi.  While waiting for our bus, he was running by with his headphones in, but we just said hello and he stopped and asked us what we do.  He has seen many missionaries back home, but he never learned from them.  So we started teaching him this week! 

also, I totally burnt my arm on the inside of our oven on Sunday...on the round, pipe looking things that heat the oven?  Yeah, my skin actually sizzled.  It looks a little like leprosy...I think. 

I have been obsessing over President Uchtdorf's talk from the Sunday morning session of General Conference called, "The Gift of Grace".  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/the-gift-of-grace?lang=eng

"Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God."

We are not saved because of our works.  We are saved because Christ loved us enough to pay the price of all our sins and mistakes.  What I really love from this talk, mostly because this is one of the biggest lessons I'm learning on my mission, is that we should obey out of our love for Him.  Not to receive the blessings he has promised, but because we love him and want to repay him for all he has already done for us. 

"Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all our heart and mind gives us all the more reasons to love and obey our Heavenly Father with meekness and gratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship, it refines us, it improves us, it helps us to become more like Him, and it leads us back to His presence. “The Spirit of the Lord [our God]” brings about such “a mighty change in us, … that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”²⁸
Therefore, our obedience to God’s commandments comes as a natural outgrowth of our endless love and gratitude for the goodness of God."

 

I love this gospel.  I love this work.  I love the Lord. 

 

Onward, ever onward.

Sister Jones

Exchanges with Sister Adamson

Sister Trujillo and I