Obsessed. I am obsessed with the work. I didn't sleep all night
last night because I couldn't stop thinking about our investigators and
the miracles we see and I was all excited and anxious about being the
best instrument in the Lord's hands I could be so that the new family we
found can accept with full hearts the truth of the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ. I LOVE it!!!
Little Kenny, the swimmer, was
baptized by fire yesterday... or in other words he received the gift of
the Holy Ghost. He was given the gift, or confirmed, right after his
older sister, Diana. He came running into the chapel last minute... he
was off doing who knows what haha. But the cool part was that as he ran
off the stage, he slid in to sit by his older sister and said, "Did you
feel that?"
The power of the Holy Ghost is real.
He felt it as he received it! When I heard that comment from him I
remembered the feeling I had when I received the Gift of the Holy
Ghost... a sort of warm surge from my head to my toes. And 8 year old
doesn't just make something like that up, especially since we didn't
tell him what it would feel like.
Soooo miracle
for the week. We were doing some finding, by looking up former
investigators. There was one named Maykol, 31 years old, and we decided
to try him. We knocked once, last week, and a man came to the door that
wasn't interested in the gospel but said that, yes, Maykol did live
there and we should come back Monday to find him. We came back this past Monday
and a 20ish girl opened the door. She explained that Maykol wasn't
there, but I recall a strong thought come to mind that I needed to
testify about eternal families to her. As we testified of that, her eyes
got big. She listened, and I remember seeing in her face the desire to
learn more. We offered her a mormon.org card,
because she was only here on vacation from California, and asked her to
request missionaries to come to her house there. She promised us she
would. And I believe her.
We showed up again Thursday,
SOAKING wet. SOAKING. It was walking day and we had just finished
walking 4 miles or so to get to our appointment, through a giant rain
storm. As we knock on the door, I felt like shrinking into a corner. I
was embarrassed :( We were dripping water all up and down the hallway
and let's face it, we both looked like wet rats. But a man opened the
door, a really smiley, nice Dominican. He invited us in and introduced
us to Maykol... a 12 year old boy that looked horrified that these two
crazy ladies in long skirts were looking for him and saying that their
friends had taught him before.
I would have been horrified too.
After
they offered us a towel, we testified simply about the message that we
brought and found out that they are devout catholics. We asked to set an
appointment for Sunday evening, when we could come in and share a nice (dry) message with them.
Sunday
came. We and the first counselor in our Branch Presidency knocked again
on Maykol's door. Wilton, the Dominican, opened up. Heberth, our team
up, was immediately friends with him and his wife and they had a good
chat. Then we began the lesson. The Spirit was so strong. This man spoke
of feeling like the Bible couldn't possibly contain all of the miracles
that Jesus performed, and how he knew that as we make mistakes the only
way to be healed of the feelings of guilt and shame comes through the
Atonement of Jesus Christ. He testified to us as we taught that he knew
he could get his own answer from God, because he had received answers in
the past and he knew he could rely on him to tell him what was right.
As he held his baby boy, he spoke of family and how it was the most
important thing to him, above any other 'thing' on this earth. Heberth
testified of eternal families.
We taught about
authority, and about the pattern throughout history of that authority
being restored through prophets called of God. And then we came to the
story of Joseph Smith. I had the honor of teaching that part of the
lesson. I cannot deny the spirit that I feel whenever I quote the First
Vision to people, no matter their reaction. But as I quotes Joseph
Smith, speaking of his interaction with God the Father and his Son, this
man's eyes grew big. His wife forgot about the baby that she was
holding. There was silence in the room as I prayed that they could see
in my own eyes the testimony I have that this is a true story. I
finished the story, and there was silence. All that was said by Wilton
was, "That's a beautiful story." We testified that God called a prophet
again on that day in 1820, and that the authority of God was restored to
the Earth, just as God had done in a pattern since the beginning of the
world.
We explained the Book of Mormon, and read a
passage in 3 Nephi where Christ takes the little ones of the Native
Americans and blesses them with such tenderness. Heberth began to cry as
he read about our Saviors love for the meek and lowly.
And Wilton and his wife promised to read, and to watch the movie we left them with.
All
throughout this lesson, Laura, the girl we had met earlier that week,
was bustling around doing things for her baby. However, she forgot what
she was doing 3 times as she stared at us, listening to the words we
said.
There are prepared people. These people so
readily accepted our first lesson, the first message. I have been
praying all week that God would guide us to those who thirsted for a
truth that they hadn't yet been able to find, and He did.
We have an appointment with Wilton and his family this Thursday. I am so honored to be able to teach them again.
I
know that this gospel is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the
Earth. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, the same as Moses
or Adam was. I know because I asked God. I know because I have read the
Book of Mormon, and I know that it testifies of Christ. I am so grateful
to be a missionary- I would choose to be nowhere else right now. I love
the Lord, and I love this work.
Love
Hermana Millward
 |
| My food... it was looking at me. Mreh. And the lady who cooked it promptly took my plate back from me, tore off the fish's head, and ate it's eyeball! Hondurians. |
 |
| Us riding the train home from Madison on Thursday after the rainstorm- Heberth wouldn't let us walk again while we were so wet. |
 |
| Hermana Orton and I after our 3rd dinner appointment yesterday. Sundays are rough... really though. |
No comments:
Post a Comment