We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! All morning till noon our whole zone volunteered and served those in need! There were a few non-members there also volunteering, which made it a great missionary opportunity as well. Afterwards we had dinner with one of our Ward Mission Leaders and their family! That evening our whole zone got together again, and we just played volleyball in one of the church buildings in Rexberg. We all had a blast :)
Just a few days ago we had a lesson with this girl in her early 20s who actually told us that she has been in-active for about three years now. She recently moved in, and when we went to see her we actually had no idea that she was in-active. She told us Saturday that since we first met her that she has started to recognize that she needs the gospel back in her life. It also turns out that she was baptized when she was 11-years-old, so she remembered being taught by the missionaries and felt the need to have missionaries over again help her (which is why we are here!) It really added to my testimony that we will be lead to those who are ready to come back to the fold! We are sending her scriptures each night to help her slowly get back in the habit of daily scripture reading, and she promised to attend church with us this next Sunday.
We also had to opportunity to speak in another ward yesterday! It was really neat, because one of the youth speakers who spoke before us talked about preparing for his mission, and his father is actually one of our potential investigators. The father is really friendly and even goes to church every week, but doesn't see the need to get baptized into the church. He always attends sacrament meeting though, and if his family isn't ready in time, he'll even go on his own and beat them to church! We were asked to speak about member missionary work in the Stake and I focused on being an example, service, and being converted yourself be a better member missionary.
We also were able to teach the in-active couple again who we taught last week! We weren't able to get to the computers this week due to the family history center being closed for Thanksgiving, so we weren't able to do any research on lds.org like I would have liked. But we were able to address his concerns by using the scriptures, which helped him a lot. Or at least, he didn't linger on the subject of polygamy and we moved on to other things. As he addressed a bunch of little things in the Book of Mormon that didn't settle right with him, I was blown away as each thing seemed to be something that I had studied a bit on within the last couple of months. One of the things was how when Nephi was commanded by the Spirit to kill Laban. I had seriously just read about that a few weeks ago, and we were able to flip to 1 Nephi 4:13 and 1 Sam. 15 without a problem, and discussed it a bit. The Spirit really does bring things to your remembrance, I'm more convinced of that everyday. Despite all of his concerns, he really does express that he's still willing to pray and find out the truth for himself. He also doesn't stay on the same topic after we use the scriptures and help him. Although there's a few things that we defiantly need to look up on lds.org, because he defiantly read anti-material somewhere in his past. They are both really sweet, and the wife even made us cake to take home (they both are worried that they are going to offend us with their questions).
We ended up teaching a lot of less active lessons this week, which is important! It's been a bit hard on my companion, since this was her first full week. But Thanksgiving did lead to a lot of our appointments with our investigators to be pushed back, so I'm hopeful that this next week will really help her. I'm really enjoying being with Sister Camarena, and she's still very excited to work and be here!
~D&C 112:11 Love others!
Some of the things I used in my talk this week-
~Alma 17:11 "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."
One of the ways we can be an example to those around us to to simply be patient in our own afflictions and trials that are unique to us. We then can take those things that we have learned from the challenges we face to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
~1 Nephi 8- During Lehi's dream, he recognizes that the fruit of the tree of life is desirable before he even partakes of it. It's not till after he eats of the fruit that he calls his loved ones to eat of it also. Likewise, we as members of course see the good the gospel brings, but it's not until we are fully converted and always striving to "eat of the fruit" that we have that strong desire to share the gospel.
I love you all,
Sister Cottrell
Just a few days ago we had a lesson with this girl in her early 20s who actually told us that she has been in-active for about three years now. She recently moved in, and when we went to see her we actually had no idea that she was in-active. She told us Saturday that since we first met her that she has started to recognize that she needs the gospel back in her life. It also turns out that she was baptized when she was 11-years-old, so she remembered being taught by the missionaries and felt the need to have missionaries over again help her (which is why we are here!) It really added to my testimony that we will be lead to those who are ready to come back to the fold! We are sending her scriptures each night to help her slowly get back in the habit of daily scripture reading, and she promised to attend church with us this next Sunday.
We also had to opportunity to speak in another ward yesterday! It was really neat, because one of the youth speakers who spoke before us talked about preparing for his mission, and his father is actually one of our potential investigators. The father is really friendly and even goes to church every week, but doesn't see the need to get baptized into the church. He always attends sacrament meeting though, and if his family isn't ready in time, he'll even go on his own and beat them to church! We were asked to speak about member missionary work in the Stake and I focused on being an example, service, and being converted yourself be a better member missionary.
We also were able to teach the in-active couple again who we taught last week! We weren't able to get to the computers this week due to the family history center being closed for Thanksgiving, so we weren't able to do any research on lds.org like I would have liked. But we were able to address his concerns by using the scriptures, which helped him a lot. Or at least, he didn't linger on the subject of polygamy and we moved on to other things. As he addressed a bunch of little things in the Book of Mormon that didn't settle right with him, I was blown away as each thing seemed to be something that I had studied a bit on within the last couple of months. One of the things was how when Nephi was commanded by the Spirit to kill Laban. I had seriously just read about that a few weeks ago, and we were able to flip to 1 Nephi 4:13 and 1 Sam. 15 without a problem, and discussed it a bit. The Spirit really does bring things to your remembrance, I'm more convinced of that everyday. Despite all of his concerns, he really does express that he's still willing to pray and find out the truth for himself. He also doesn't stay on the same topic after we use the scriptures and help him. Although there's a few things that we defiantly need to look up on lds.org, because he defiantly read anti-material somewhere in his past. They are both really sweet, and the wife even made us cake to take home (they both are worried that they are going to offend us with their questions).
We ended up teaching a lot of less active lessons this week, which is important! It's been a bit hard on my companion, since this was her first full week. But Thanksgiving did lead to a lot of our appointments with our investigators to be pushed back, so I'm hopeful that this next week will really help her. I'm really enjoying being with Sister Camarena, and she's still very excited to work and be here!
~D&C 112:11 Love others!
Some of the things I used in my talk this week-
~Alma 17:11 "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."
One of the ways we can be an example to those around us to to simply be patient in our own afflictions and trials that are unique to us. We then can take those things that we have learned from the challenges we face to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
~1 Nephi 8- During Lehi's dream, he recognizes that the fruit of the tree of life is desirable before he even partakes of it. It's not till after he eats of the fruit that he calls his loved ones to eat of it also. Likewise, we as members of course see the good the gospel brings, but it's not until we are fully converted and always striving to "eat of the fruit" that we have that strong desire to share the gospel.
I love you all,
Sister Cottrell
