November 24, 2014

Oh man this week was crazy and it went by way way too fast!! Because of the holidays a lot of are investigators are not home or they are just too busy to see us. But we keep finding new people but sadly we also have lost a few. One of our investigators, Hazel, just dropped us today. its really hard but you have to think positively. They didn’t drop us they dropped Christ. This is his work and his gospel. We are called to be his missionaries and to be his voice. D&C 28:16 says "And thou must open thy mouth at all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing. Amen." As a missionary I know it’s hard. Some people are mean. Just last night I introduced me and my companion as missionaries for Jesus Christ. This man told me he wasn’t interested. I was about to ask him if he would like some help in his yard and he got really close to my face and yelled and told me.. I said NO!! and it hurt. It really did. I could only imagine what Christ felt like when people started to deny him and in the end hung him on the cross. I will never go through the suffering Christ did. This work is hard but I know God never told us it was going to be easy. He just said it would be worth it and it is. this is the hardest thing I’ve done in my life but it’s the best thing I’ve ever chosen to do :) every day I wake up and I kneel down and pray for strength to do all I need to do to help the people I see come closer to Christ. At times the adversary comes in my mind and tells me I need to give up this is too hard. People are just too mean. But it’s never true. When I get past that feeling I feel comfort knowing God is pleased with me and he is cheering me on. I love D&C 24:12 it says "And at all times, an in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men." I know God gives us strength. I would just like to invite you to share Christ’s love with everyone you see this Holliday season. One of our progressing investigators is in a part member family. He is the only one that isn’t a member. He decided he wanted to invite all these people to thanksgiving dinner. his wife told us he doesn’t know them but they were homeless and didn’t have a place to go so he invited them. Brother D is one of the most loving guys I have ever met. He has such a strong testimony of the spirit. He knows God listens to his prayers. We had an amazing lesson with him and his family. It was focused on the Book of Mormon. We invited him to be baptized and he told us when he comes to know the book of Mormon is true he will be baptized. The day before that we had a multi zone meeting with the mission president and Elder Arnold of the 70. It was the best rebuking I have ever had. You know before my mission if I sat in this meeting I would have left there with nothing. Because I know that you will always have someone helping you become the best you can be and if you can’t take someone telling you “ok what you are doing isn’t working. Try this.” And you get offended then you will never grow to the person/ missionary God needs you to become. the mission has taught me how to humble my self before God and to try new things that will help the work move forward. so that’s what me and sister Allred did. we used what we learned in that meeting with Elder Arnold when we got to brother D’s house. The first thing we did is prayed on our knees with the whole family and it brought the spirit so strong we threw out the lesson. We gave him scripture verses to read and he read every one and told us about it. We will never ever read to an investigator again. The spirit that was in that house was so strong brother D shared his testimony about the spirit and how it has been a big part of his life. Then his wife bore her testimony. Me and sister Allred left there with so much excitement. I imagined brother D in white and I saw that family in the temple being sealed to each other for time and all eternity. I like to look at the people I teach with the end picture to see Gods sons and daughters in white and it brings me a desire to help them reach that goal to be a part of Gods kingdom on the earth. a scary thing happened the other day we were tracting some apartments and this lady let us in. she had a lot of questions I’ve never gotten on my mission like how do you know that God isn’t a girl. It was really hard to picture this lady in white. She invited us in this room where there was some hookas and the room was giving me a headache my poor companion was oblivious to her surroundings. During the lesson I was dropping hints and it was still over her head. lol

As the lesson came to an end the lady left the room to get something and I looked at my companion then pointed at the drugs. Her eyes got big and I mouthed that we should go now. The lady came back and she asked about the Book of Mormon and if she could have one. We gave her a restoration pamphlet and told her to pray about it and next time we will talk more about the Book of Mormon and give her one before she left she asked us how old we were then she told us that she was an adult entertainer and she loves everything we taught her. She wants to put it in her books she is writing I sighed she asked us to come back and we asked if we could bring someone next time. She said of course. We weren’t in danger but we both knew the spirit couldn’t be there :/ sister Allred said to me she wondered why she couldn’t feel the spirit. She is one of our new investigators. It is hard not to say she will never be ready for the gospel. That’s not my place to say. I’m here to share the gospel with whoever will listen and to invite them to read and pray and be baptized. I grew that day and I feel like I have more of Christ’s love in me :) I love you all and hope you have a happy thanksgiving :)

Love Sister Steen