Some fun/random things from this week...
-One of our super good friends left on her mission. She’s going to be great but we were pretty
sad! We are so excited for her though!
-Hermana Egbert was pretty sick one day this week so we had
to go back to the house but we were able to watch the videos of the
Restoration. I testify that Joseph Smith
was a prophet called by God!
-We came home, and our neighbor was having a party with his
friends and they were a little drunk. We
went inside, and a few minutes later, he knocked on our door. We didn’t answer but he kept knocking and
usually it is for something about the water bill. But we opened it, and he had
a huge plate of ribs that they had cooked!
He said, "Hola Vecinas (neighbors) tengo este for youuuu".
Hahahah. It was really funny, and we got to eat some super good meat! Pretty random though!
This week we have seen a lot of miracles in the work! We were able to meet with all three of our
investigators that have a baptismal date, and they are changing. Each time we see them they look
different--more humble. And it is really
cool to see. One cool experience that we
had this week was in a lesson with a woman who has been an investigator for 2
years. She never really was interested.
But she would let the missionaries in because she is very kind and treats us
like her grandchildren. We had a really
powerful lesson with her. Both Hermana
Egbert and I were full of the Spirit and we taught her with power and
authority! The words we spoke were
definitely not our own. While we were teaching, it was soooo fluid, and she was
staring very attentively at us. You know
it was a lesson taught by the Spirit when you can’t really remember what you
were saying. I remember opening up to a
picture of the temple and talking about the blessings that come from it. But,
most everything else is kind of a blur.
We both really felt that our words were coming directly from
heaven. That’s how it should be every
time and that’s something we are continually working towards. Afterward she told us that missionaries have
been coming for 2 years, and it’s been fine. But since Hermana Egbert and I
have been teaching her, she has felt a huge difference. She said she feels like we teach in a
different way, with love. But we know it
isn’t us. We are only the
instruments. It’s all Jesus Christ. He cleanses us so we can be worthy of the
Spirit. We learn the Doctrine of Christ
to teach to the people through the Spirit.
Because of Jesus Christ, we were able to come out on missions to teach
these people. Because of Jesus Christ,
they can feel the power of what we teach.
It’s never us. It all points back
to Jesus Christ. We couldn’t even be
instruments in His hands if He hadn’t paid for our sins. I love the Savior so much. He’s my best friend! What a blessing it is to be His missionary!!
Another sweet experience we had was with another
investigator. We had a family night with
him and the family of our ward mission leader.
After the family night, our mission leader called us to tell us that
after we left he was talking to him. The man told him that before we knocked on
his door, three weeks earlier he had lost his job and gotten sick. He has no family living anymore and his
friends hadn’t been talking to him, so he had been sitting in his house alone,
unable to leave and listening to music all day every day for three weeks. He said he felt very alone. But then a
miracle happened, and we knocked on his door!!
He said it changed everything.
That was very humbling to hear.
When we are listening to the Spirit, we are able to be angels in the
lives of others. I would’ve come on a
mission just to have that one experience--just to be able to touch one person’s
life. He is progressing a ton and
working hard to prepare for his baptism!
Also, this is probably my favorite experience of my mission
so far: All of our appointments had
fallen through and we had no more back up plans. So we said a prayer that we would
be guided to somebody who needed us.
After the prayer, we felt to knock a certain street. We did, and we were able to pray with one
lady because she didn’t have enough time to have a lesson. As we left her house, we saw two little boys
riding their bikes and playing with nerf guns! We started walking to the next
house and one of the boys (8 years old) rode up to us on his bike and started
talking to us! He asked why we were here
and I told him, "We are here to tell people about Jesus Christ!" I gave him a pass-along card of Jesus Christ
and he shared how he loves Jesus Christ!
We asked him why he loves God and then I told him, "We are also
here to tell you that God is our Heavenly Father. You are His son!" As I told him, he was a child of God, I got
chills all over my body and really felt the truth of what I had just said. When he heard that his eyes lit up and very
excitedly he said, "REALLY???"
He couldn’t stop smiling. He
wanted to keep talking to us, and we ended up teaching him that just like a boy
named Joseph Smith was able to pray and receive an answer from God, so could
he. We taught him how to pray and he
asked us to come back and teach his family!
We were able to visit them a few days later and hopefully we can continue
to meet with them. They are a super
special family!
One last experience was yesterday. We take 3 minute breaks
throughout the day so that we can keep up our energy. We stopped at a park and there was a girl
with her daughter there. At the end, we
started talking to her and asked if we could meet with her sometime! She said ya for sure! Then she got up and started walking! We were like...Oh! I guess she means right now!!! We ended up teaching her and her little
sister and the Spirit was really strong!
She asked us to come back and teach her more! It was really cool!
So basically, we have seen a lot of miracles this week as we
have really focused on listening to the Spirit.
Also, I feel like I should share this real quick (sorry this email is
super long). I’ve been studying virtue
and holiness for the past month and it’s been incredible! Virtuous thoughts are something I have been
really focusing on! Virtuous thoughts
don’t mean only clean thoughts, they mean good thoughts too! When we think good and uplifting thoughts, we
are filled with pure love and joy.
Virtuous thoughts don’t include thinking things like, "man they
didn’t wash the dishes again" or "that really bugs me" or
"how many times have we talked about this and they keep doing it" or
even "I’m not good at that".
No, those aren’t virtuous.
Virtuous thoughts come from seeing the good. Looking for the good. Choosing to see the good qualities in someone
rather than be annoyed. Looking for the
good in ourselves. Taking time to appreciate the little but beautiful things
about life! It also includes choosing faith rather than doubt or fear. That’s virtue! I invite you guys to practice having virtuous
thoughts about family members and friends and yourselves more this week with
me! Then enjoy the blessings of joy and
profound peace that come from it!! I
love you guys so much!! Have an amazing
week!!
--Hermana West
 |
| Hermana Egbert and I are always making up random holidays, and Friday she made a "happy Hermana West is my friend day" with some random things we found on the beach (some weird painting hahah) |
