Hey ya'll.
This week we had zone conference which is amazing. It just pumps you up for missionary work and makes you want to be the best missionary possible. During zone conference President Bennion told us to focus on less actives rather than Tracting. And if the less actives aren't home, ask their neighbors when the best time to catch them is. "Your neighbors are part of our church. Our church teaches to love our neighbor. Do you love your neighbor? Oh, by the way we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." Lol. President is funny. (:
By focusing on the less actives we have seen so many miracles and now we have a good amount of potential investigators. My favorite experience from stopping in on less actives was probably with Sister Mandi Mower who was actually a DNC (do not contact). We had a feeling to stop in on her the other night. As we pulled up to the house we saw she and her 11 year old son Riley, outside loading up the car with boxes and random things. As awkward as it is going up to someone when they're busy, we prayed for enough faith and courage to do so. We hopped out of the car and walked up to her asking if this was where the Mower's lived. "Not anymore" she said. "I'm moving." We started talking to her about where she was moving (which is still in ward boundaries), and if she needed help unpacking her new house. She told us she had had a bad experience with someone in the ward and stopped coming, but her son is looking into 'churches' and she asked him if he wanted to learn about Mormons. He said he did- and Sister Mower told us that we could come visit her and her son in their new home this week. It's just a testimony builder to me that we don't give up on any of our brothers and sisters , even if they tell you not to come back. Give them a break, then try again. You never know how Heavenly Father is preparing them.
Another night, Chelsea came out with us and we had a long list of less actives to visit. We prayed and decided to visit the Backus family. We weren't having a lot of success up to this point and we had never been able to get in with the Backus family. They were always gone when we had tried to stop by previously. So we weren't sure what would happen. But we felt we should go. We pulled up in front of his home and before getting out of the car Chelsea offered a prayer! We were all sitting there while Chelsea is Praying and As soon as the words, "please bless someone in the Backus family to be home." Leaves her mouth a car pulls into the driveway!! It was an answered prayer right in front of our eyes! We get out and walk to the car. Brother Backus was excited to see us, but told us he did not have a lot of time to talk he was only home for a couple min to get ready to fly out to work for the weekend. Brother Backus had just recently finalized a divorce with his wife. So, it was just he and his two girls living at home right now. They haven't been going to church and he shared with us his desire to get them involved with activities in the church. The girls are both in high school and don't have the best of friends. We talked to him about mutual and the Young Women program and about the awesome young women in the ward. He told us once he got back he wanted us to meet up with him and his two daughters! He wanted us to teach them and get them more involved in the church! He shared with us his number and a time for us to come back! Wow what a miracle! The Lord answers prayers! We are excited to start working with Brother Backus and his girls.
Another miracle I saw this week was with our Spanish investigator Biri. We found her about a month and a half ago, we couldn't really understand each other because of the language barrier but we gave her a Mormon.org card with our phone number on it and went on Tracting. A couple days later we receive a call from her, telling us to come over. We do, and we try to share a message with her, but again, language barrier- and it was difficult to understand. However, we gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and followed Sister Bennion's advice to 'always sing a song in a lesson', so we did so that she could feel the spirit. The next week we gave her over to the Spanish elders so they could better teach and understand her. Meanwhile, a sister moved into the ward from Peru, had us over for dinner and we all really connected. We love her so much. Sister Morgan. A couple weeks later the Spanish elders gave Biri back to us because it was too far out of their way to come and teach her. But because we had gained that relationship with sister Morgan, we asked her to call Biri on the phone and talk to her. Biri had told sister Morgan that she didn't have any friends here and that she needed a ride to church. Biri and sister Morgan are now pretty good friends and the friendship will continue to grow. I learned that sometimes we have to be patient because the Lord is preparing ways for people to find friendship and find the gospel.
I'm really loving being a missionary and helping others come unto Jesus Christ. It's probably the best thing anyone could ever do, and I highly recommend it. People are prepared. The tricky part is finding them.
Love, Sister Merritt
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