The Lord Will Provide

Hey y'all.

Busy week again.

So on Saturday sister Palmer and I were finishing up companion studies and reviewing our plans for the day one last time, and we got a text from someone we haven't actually been able to meet yet. We have called this person numerous times and set up appointments that fell through... But she asked if she could meet with us that day! She said that she was wanting to meet with us this Saturday, but then realized that she never set up a time! We were so excited and told her we could meet in about an hour. We weren't doing very well on our goal for lessons taught with members present for the week and so we texted everyone we could think of to have them come to this lesson with us, but everyone was busy. So we put our trust in Heavenly Father, knowing He will provide as we try our best and went to the lesson without a member. When we got there, there was another man in the house who introduced himself as Brother Dawkins. Now, who introduces themselves that way if they weren't a member?? It turns out that her husband is a less active member that hadn't had his records switch over to Monroe Ward yet, but he wants to come back to church and eventually be sealed to his wife for time and all eternity in the temple :) Heavenly Father provided a member for our lesson!  It was amazing to hear his testimony and inspirational to hear what his goals and desires were. She had a lot of questions, and brother Dawkins asks her "can we set up times we can have the missionaries have the discussions with you?” Perfect! Sister Dawkins accepted and wants to learn as much as she can because she "already feels it is true."  Heavenly Father is definitely preparing people for us! (:

We were able to go to the temple this week! It's such an amazing place and I wish I could go every day. I truly am grateful for the opportunity that we have to have so many temples throughout the world and the guidance and direction we are able to get from them. We also had interviews with President and Sister Bennion. I mentioned to Sister Bennion that us four sisters in the Monroe Ward are singing in sacrament meeting and needed an arrangement of a hymn. Apparently, this means I am musically talented and now have to sing in zone conference in front of a member of the 70 ..? Wish me luck because… I really can't sing.

Hope y'all are well and happy! Love you! (:

Love, Sister Merritt

Mother's Day

Hey y'all.

So this week has been literally amazing. I feel so lucky to be here at this time and to be finding those who are ready to receive the restored gospel.

Last Monday we went to visit a referral a member had given us, but they were not home. We tracted a couple of houses around and made our way back to the car, finding no one who was interested in listening to us. As we were walking back we were literally stopped by the Spirit. I don't know how exactly to explain it, but I had never felt the Spirit as strongly as I did at that moment before in my life. We needed to go to the house we were stopped in front of. It was getting dark and the house was tucked away in the woods, but we could see a small light on in the window. We walked up the driveway, past the "no trespassing" sign, and knocked on the door. Lisa answered. She looked absolutely shocked we were there. We introduced ourselves and the Book of Mormon. She took in everything we were saying. The spirit was strong and we were In tears by the end. We found out she's a single mom of 3 girls, 8, 10, & 16 years old. Her girls want to go to church so badly but because of Lisa's job, she was unable to go Sunday's. Last week she found a new job that gave her the weekends off. When we asked if we could come back and share more with her, she gave us a hug and told us any day and every day she wanted us back.

Wednesday evening we had another lesson with Lisa and her girls. We found out Lisa had read not only the assignment we had left her to read in the Book of Mormon, but much more. She had prayed and feels it's true. She told her friends about our church and how she feels about it, and when they gave her false information, she told them to stop making false accusations and take the missionary discussions themselves. We taught the restoration, and again were in tears by the time we were through with the lesson. Lisa and her girls are now preparing for baptism. It's amazing to be apart of this work and to literally be a vessel for the Lord. I know this is His work and He will do it His way, we just have to be humble enough to follow the promptings that are given to us. There are so many people who are prepared. And I know we received that referral for a reason, even though we didn't even get to see the referral, we needed to be in that area at exactly that time. Wowie wow. God is so good (:

I hope y'all had a good Mother's Day! I know I loved talking to my family! And I'm so grateful to my beautiful mother and her wonderful example to me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. 🌻 

Have the best week.

Love, Sister Merritt

HELLO

I've learned so much this week. Ether 12:27 has a whole new meaning to me.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Heavenly Father knows how to humble a person, that's for sure. Being on my mission I have definitely found a lot of my weaknesses, it's frustrating at first, but over time as we rely on Heavenly Father he will help us to strengthen those weaknesses. Of course it's a long process. We have to work hard at it. We are in training to learn how to be Godly and Christlike. So we can't resist the exercise and routine and discipline that it takes to achieve that plan.

All of our progressing investigators have been M.I.A. on us. But we have been working hard at getting a ton of new investigators who we hope will be solid. *crossing fingers* We have truly been led by the Spirit this week as we have done inspired tracting. We go onto a street and pick three houses we want to knock on, ask for referrals from all of them and see what happens. It's so great to see that every referral we have gotten from someone random, they have been interested in learning and we have had full on lessons with them, invited them to read the Book of Mormon, assigned them a chapter, and set up a return appointment. Now that I've seen the blessings from asking for referrals for everyone, I never want to do this work without it (: no wonder our leaders has asked us to ask for referrals!

Our A.C. has been out all week so we have all the windows wide open so we can get some "cool" air inside. Unfortunately though it's been extremely hot and rainy which means it's been humid. And since it's been raining we need to close the windows sooo...it's been a struggle. Yesterday we came home at 9pm and it was 90 degrees inside. Lol we survived though.

I went on exchange with Sister Holden this week to fort Yargo. All of our plans fell through so we ended up tracting for 6 hours straight, but it was wonderful! We met so many fabulous people. One door we knocked on and a man told us to come in. Unfortunately we couldn't because there wasn't another women in the house but we stood outside and talked to him while he was sitting on his couch inside (he had just had surgery so he couldn't get up). We had a short lesson on the restoration with John, gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment, and asked to say a prayer. He said it was fine with him, but because it wasn't his house, we would have to ask his friend. We didn't realize until that moment that there was another man in the room on his phone. So we asked him "Could we say a prayer?" "What??" "Can we say a prayer??" "What?!" And then John joins in "PRAY!" "Clay?" "PRAYYYY!!" "Stay??"  " PRRRAAAAYYYYY!!!" ....this was going on for like five minutes as all of us were trying to play charades with this guy to tell him we were going to pray. Finally he got it! And we said a prayer (: haha

There's this man named Brother Stephens who was our team up for a lesson one night. Brother Stephens is a convert of about 5 years. He's probably the most baptist Mormon I have ever met, but he has such a strong testimony of this gospel. Our set appointment that we were bringing him to wasn't there, so we go visit a potential investigators house. Nobody is answering the door so as we are about to leave a van pulls into the driveway. Brother Stephens opens up his arms and yells "WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!" Only thing is, we had no idea who these people are. We secretly try to tell Brother Stephens that they aren't the people we are looking for. He turns around and said "it's okay. I'm in sales." Then turns back around and yells it out again! We were a little mortified because these people had the weirdest look on their faces and we knew they felt awkward and a little scared. Haha but as Brother Stephens kept going ... "We have this beautiful message for you today that will change your whole life." He tells his conversion story, we teach a little bit about the Book of Mormon and we get two new investigators. They're solid. But boy oh boy. Brother Stephens.. Lol!

Anyways. Love y'all (: and I hope you have the greatest week!

Love, Sister Merritt