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| Sister Fife and her family came back for a visit |
The biggest news is the Book of
Mormon musical that is happening this upcoming week. President Craig chose 24
missionaries to stand outside the theater when the play is running. Sister
McCook and I will have the honor of being there! We will be on a team of 12
missionaries and will go down about an hour before the musical then stay for an
hour after. (The two teams trade off to do every other showing of the
play). I'll be honest- I'm kind of nervous, but we are so excited to
share what the Book of Mormon really is! If the opposition to the Book of
Mormon isn't enough evidence that it is true I don't know what is. For example:
an episode of South Park mocked Muslims and was taken off the air never to be shown
again. The Book of Mormon Musical wins 9 Tony awards, despite its profanity,
vulgarity, and straight out lies about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. Joseph Smith's name is certainly known for both good and evil, and
"though [he] was hated and persecuted for saying [he] had seen a vision,
yet it was true...(JS-H 1:25). I know Joseph Smith is a prophet and The
Book of Mormon is the word of God.
To prepare for this opposition our
mission hosted the Facebook event: Discover the Book! We focused our
efforts locally this time to help Jacksonville know what the Book of Mormon
really is. There is a sister from this mission who is home now and received
a calling to help her YSA stake learn to share the gospel online so she got
many YSA's in Provo involved also. For this event we shared a picture of
ourselves reading the Book of Mormon, included our testimony, shared a link to
a video about the Book of Mormon, and of course added #discoverthebook.
While we're on the topic of online
work- I was able to teach Adebardinho a couple times this week. He prayed
and really felt God was listening to him! I'm hoping I can get his address in
our next lesson so some missionaries can go teach him live!
We had a miracle this week as we
were driving to see the Pechaver family. As we were passing the church I
happened to see Sister Pechaver and her two friends in the parking lot. I
wasn't sure if it was them, but it wasn't the normal people that hang out there
(if you've been to Arlington you know what I mean ;) ). So we turned
around and sure enough it was them! They had an appointment with the
Bishop, but while they were waiting we were able to teach the Restoration to
her two friends who are not members!
Wednesday was MLC! So
great! We learned about Facebook work, effective councils in the church,
teaching when you find and finding when you teach, and humility. That
evening we went out for our "golden hour." (an hour of inspired
finding). We also talked more about the new structure of the mission since
STL's call sisters for their weekly numbers and goals rather than the district
leaders now. This time we had planned on tracting, but we didn't have time
because the first door we knocked on happened to be the home of a less active
YSA. We began to do a survey with her sister. We ended up leaving
her with a Book of Mormon and she is excited to read it! Then we tried
the neighbors whom I had met once, but I somehow managed to lose their
address... gratefully I recognized the house because we taught the mother a
full Restoration lesson too!!! Best golden hour of my life!
This week we contacted a
reassignment named Alyssia. She is so elect! We went taught her the
Restoration and she loved it! She will have some life style changes to
make, but she is so prepared for the gospel!
This week I almost got to do a split
with members!!! It's the closest I've been on my mission! I was
going to take a member to see Karen and Sister McCook was going to take a
member to see the Pechavers, but then Karen canceled. We ended up going
with the member to the Pechaver's and they weren't home either. According
to Sister McCook people didn't just not show up for appointments in her other
areas... weird. I thought that was normal! haha! Well
gratefully we had a potential gator next door and he just happend to be
home! He is in the Navy and he is gone a lot, but he had just gotten in
and even though he was exhausted, he agreed to read with us. It was
perfect because the member we had with us has her husband in the Navy.
God is good!
Friday we began our trade off with
the Sister Training Coordinators. I stayed in Arlington again! I'm
beginning to think I'll never go to Mandarin with them! That's ok
though! Sister Blotter and I had a great time! We had dinner with
the Webers and taught their 11 year old friend, Zachary. He was acting
like he wasn't interested (too cool for it kind of) but at the end he said,
"do we have to end?" On Sunday Pete said he had began reading
the Book of Mormon! The rest of the trade off was great too! We did
a lot of talking to everyone. There's a new challenge in the mission
where every district meeting the leader asks "who talked to everyone"
and you raise your hand if you did. The pressure's on! Whoot
whoot!! Sister Blotter and I also used the new survey finding method with the
family who lives above us in our complex! The mother's name is Tanya and
she has the cutest 3 year old girl with a baby boy due in the next month.
We left her with a Book of Mormon and are so excited to go back and teach her
more! She and her husband are both in the Navy--good thing some solid
navy families just moved into the ward!!
Saturday we were able to teach
Thomas again. He had read since we last met and when we taught him the
light just shone in his eyes! We shared a little video about Joseph Smith
and he remembered the restoration video we shared on the church tour a couple
months ago.
Sunday was so great! Sister
Fife and her family came! It was the best to see all of them! We
all had a wonderful time at the Williams monthly family dinner before Sister
McCook and I drove to Mandarin for a special meeting to prepare for the
musical.
It's been a good week and there is a
great (but probably tiring since we likely won't get in from the musical until
midnight a couple times) week ahead! Please continue to keep us in your
prayers! I've never known it was possible to feel the power of prayer
until coming on my mission, but it is!
Love all y'all!!!
Love all y'all!!!
Sister Murray
