March 3, 2015

Okay everyone calm down! The Davis family came to church yesterday! HOLY MOLY! That was crazy.  We have been doing FHE with that family for a looooonnng time now and they came yesterday! Made my life. I was so pleased. :) 

This week went well.  It went by way too fast. UGH! STOP! This week we have an all mission meeting in Bozeman about ipads with Elder Zwick of the first quorum of the seventy.  It should be pretty dang cool. Then the Leadership Council will spend the night in Bozeman and have another MLC regarding the ipads the following day.  I am so excited to be able to be in Bozeman again.  Hopefully I can pull some strings and see some of those incredible people before I go.

A miracleee! This week an investigator family from the other stake moved into our area.  We moved them all day in the snow.  Note to self. Never do that.  We are fighting with the Elders on who gets to teach them.  I got all chummy with the mom so I am thinking we will win. Holla. Holla.  The mom is actually not taking the lessons, but her son is.  He has taken all of the lessons and is ready for baptism. CHA CHING! How beautiful is that?  

We taught Keern a couple of times this week. That man is wonderful.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he accepted it wonderfully as well as tithing.  He texted us later that night and said that he wanted us to know how greatly he appreciated us and loved meeting with us.  Sadly he had been planning a ski trip with his two kids this weekend and was unable to attend church, but we are meeting with him and Nathan Dalton, his friend from college, tonight.  It should be good. When we met with him we asked how his Book of Mormon reading was going. He is eating it up! He read through the vision of the tree of life and the explanation in chapter 11 and loved the symbolism.  OH! And he moved his baptismal date to the 12th so that I could be there :) How wonderful is that! Oh! I am so happy.  He said that he was going to give me a hug after he was baptized because he was over this handshaking business. Hahaha yeahhhh kinda not allowed...buuuutt I won't deny it if it comes my way.  

Speaking of hugs.  We went and saw a part member family, Jess and Rose.  Jess is a member and Rose is not.  I found them with Sister Black and once I met Jess there was an instant connection. I don't know what it is, but I have always loved that man.  When we met him he made it very clear that his wife was not a member and that if we pushed her then he would kick us out of the house.  He is a stubborn old man for sure.  But we have been able to develop a very good relationship with them to the point where we have been teaching them the lessons and Jess has been totally fine with it.  I took a picture with both Jess and Rose last night and after, Jess pulled me into a big hug and told me that he would never forget what I had done for him and his wife.  He said that he never had seen his wife smile or laugh so much until we would come over.  He kept saying that he knew we were led to them, without a doubt he knew that God brought us to them. We had just taught them the Plan of Salvation and he got really into the spirit world and was really fascinated with it.  He said, I may not see you until the Spirit world, but if some crazy old man comes up to you and gives you a big hug, you will know it is me.  That meeting was a tender mercy to me that really we don't know the effects we have on people.  This week was good, but nothing crazy happened and we didn't make huge progression with anyone and I started to kinda get down on myself that I hadn't really done a lot here.  And I thought about Jess and Rose and how they hadn't come to church at all, and Rose was not interested in being baptized and how meeting with them was going nowhere. But right when I walked in Jess lifted up his scriptures and said, believe it or not Moline, I read with my wife.  And then he told me how much he appreciated me and the spirit he felt while we were in the home.  That even though I felt like my efforts were in vain, the Lord was using me despite my own thoughts.  The Lord knows exactly what Jess and Rose need in order to progress, he sees the big picture and knows what they need.  I just act.  

Another similar event took place when we saw another less active last night.  We see Linda every Sunday night.  Her husband is a faithful, active member but Linda hasn't been to church is a long, long time.  Same thing.  We were told to be careful with Linda, not to put her on the spot, make sure not to make her feel stupid or pushed.  So I took a lot of time in building a relationship with her.  We are now at the point where we walk in and she is ready for the prayer and the message we have to share. But I was feeling the same way about Linda as I was about Jess. We see her every week and what does we have to show for it.  Something Linda has struggled with for awhile was faith.  She wanted to read the scriptures but felt that every time she did, something bad would happen and she said she lacked the faith to push through.  Sister Storrs has this rockin object lesson that I LOVE.  We start out talking about what faith is. Faith is believing in something that you can't see but is true. And there are some things in this life that we do not understand, that don't make any sense.  And we ask God questions like, How in the world does that make sense?  Why would something like this happen?  And so on. But we have to remember that as mortal beings are minds are finite.  We see the here and the now. This life.  But we need to remember that God sees the whole thing. He knows it all and many times we are asked to just trust Him.  And then I grab a certain object out of my purse and hold it clenched in my fist and say that I have an opportunity for them to exercise their faith.  I show them my clenched fist and tell them that I have something that has never seen the light of day or been touched by human hands.  And every time people say, well how is that possible! You are holding it in your hands! They make a couple guesses and get frustrated and say that it doesn't make any sense that I could be holding it but have it not be touched by human hands.  But then we ask them if we have ever lied to them or ever led them astray...has God ever lied to them or ever led them astray...then it begins to click in their minds.  After a little discussion I finally show them what I have in my hands.  It is a peanut.  And the nut inside has never seen the light of day or been touched by human hands. It is this ah hah moment for people.  And it relates to our life and how there are things that just don't make sense, but we are asked to rely on faith and in time...it will be revealed to us and we will see that will all work out and the God never led us astray.  We did this with Linda and it clicked. We asked her to exercise her faith and read a specific chapter from the Book of Mormon. Without a seconds hesitation she said yes.  She NEVER says yes.  She always says, I can't make any promises, but I will try.  But she said, "I promise I will have this read.  I don't know what made me say yes, but I felt I needed to."  BOOOYYAAA!! I don't know if that object lesson made sense. But it is a miracle worker. But Linda went on to say that she has met with many missionaries but she has felt more progression since meeting with us than she has with anyone else. Stttttoooopppp!  Oh God is good. he knows what he is doing.  He understands his children! I need to remember and trust that! He knows them. He knows exactly what they need. And he will nurture and love a questioning soul until they are ready.  

Last week I think I wrote about Brother Torrez bringing his good friend to one of our lessons. We met with Rick this week and gave him a tour of the church....that was the hardest thing I have ever done. The tour took 40 minutes.  He talked so much it was impressive.  We would try and interrupt him, but he wants to learn for knowledge sake, but no so much for himself.  Brother Torrez will be the key

Penny Burkstrand is still going strong with quitting smoking! Oh!!! I love love love love love that woman. She means the world to me.  She came to all 3 hours of church yestesrday and bore her testimony.  YES! SHE BORE HER TESTIMONY! I could not hold back the tears.  I could have died.  Seeing her get up and bear her simple sweet testimony made my mission worthwhile.  I was wondering if you all could maybe write her a little encouraging note in her efforts to quit smoking. It is really difficult for her,but she is doing great.  

Her address is 600 17th Ave S. #7 Great Falls, Montana 59405 

We went to see her this week and someone at work gave her one of those vaporizers. Oh I could have killed him.  Penny hadn't used it yet but I put sticky notes all over it that said, " I am Satan! Do not smoke me! " and hid it.  hahaha those things are so expensive.  But people use them because they can control the nicotine level in it to help ween yourself off of  nicotine. But regardless of opposing outside forces she is doing really good.

Another miracle from the week was the Meyerhoff family! Since I have been here the Elders have been the main teachers for them.  They are a less active family that come occasionally.  The Elders that we have here currently have been unable to get in with them, so they asked if we would try.  We went over there and the mom answered the door and looked really frazzled.  She said it wasn't really a good time, she had a lot of laundry to do and had a lot she needed to get done...well we kind of just walked in and said we wanted to help. Hahaha We folded all her laundry and got to know her daughter Kallie who is 11.  I was teasing her and getting to know Kallie a little bit and she opened up with us.  We shared a message and Sister Meyerhoff teared up and kept thanking us for stopping by and telling us that she really needed it.  We stopped by again on Saturday and Sister Meyerhoff answered the door again and said they were just heading out but that she wanted us to come over every other Wednesday when Kallie didn't have Activity Days to teach Kallie.  She said after we left Kallie really wanted us to come over again and had all these questions about serving a mission.  BOOOMMM! Love it! 

Oh I love this gospel.  I love it so much.  I was thinking about this week and was kinda bummed with it.  But now looking back I can see that we did just what the Lord wanted need us to do with exactly the people that needed it.  God knows His children. He knows their needs, their desires, their struggles and challenges.  He never leaves us alone and gives us opportunities to come to Him.  We just need to open up our eyes to recognize those opportunities.  

I love this gospel. Oh, I love it. I love my mission and I love these people.  I think the hardest thing for me is knowing that I have given my heart to so many people here and my time here is coming to a close. I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to serve my Savior.  I am thankful that He took a chance on someone like me with so many imperfections. Because of that chance He took on me, my life has been forever changed. I love my life. I love my mission. I love the gospel.  

Sure Love ya! Moline's Rock! Missionaries Rule! 

Sister Big Sky Moline