This past week has been a week chock-full of miracles! It began with Wednesday evening. Elder and Sister Zwick came to visit us all the way from good ol' Utah. :) To give you a little more info Elder Zwick is a member of the seventy and gave a familiar talk in the April 2014 General Conference entitled "What Are You Thinking?" where he talks about his wife jumping off a...semi....yup that's right a semi. lol If you don't remember the talk I would recommend reading it again because it is definitely a good one! :)
So Wednesday evening Elder and Sister Zwick talked to the missionaries and members in the branch/ward councils. It was great! He talked a ton about member-missionary work and showed us a great visual of working together. *Fun fact for the day: He said that 86% of recent converts who attend the Temple 30 days after baptism remain active.* Sister Zwick gave an incredible talk! You could've entitled it "You Can Count on Me". She began by saying something along the line of..."I can imagine that when we were in the presence of our Father in Heaven before this life our Heavenly Father told us about our lives; the challenges we would face, the accomplishments we could make, and the joy that we could experience. As we were preparing to leave I imagine we probably said something like, 'You can count on me' right before we left the presence of our Father in Heaven." What a thought! That night I definitely came away with a renewed desire to always live my life in a way so that I can say to my Father in Heaven "You can count on me."
On Thursday we had another special conference with half of the missionaries in our mission and Elder and Sister Zwick. Talk about an AMAZING experience!! I learned so much! I wish I had more time so that I could write about everything that was taught there, but for now all I can say is that there were many blessings that came from that day.
Not only did we have the wonderful opportunities to hear from Elder and Sister Zwick on Wednesday and Thursday, but we had two incredible blessings Saturday morning, and Sunday afternoon. Saturday morning we had a lesson with one of our recent converts, Justin. Recently we could tell that something has been weighing on him, but he no matter how we tried to get him to open up he wouldn't. Finally we came to the conclusion that we would read a talk with him given by Elder Holland called, "Remember Lot's Wife". As we discussed the talk in the beginning nothing really stuck out to him and as we were inching towards the end I began to get a little worried, because nothing seemed to help him. Eventually we finished the talk, and again asked him if there was anything that hit him and he said that the talk was good, but what really hit him was the very last paragraph. He said that the last paragraph made him realize that he is not alone in his struggles and that there are others who have felt what he feels. Although he didn't open up to us about the problem, it was a blessing to know that he had been touched by the Spirit and given the help that he needed.
Sunday was a cold rainy day. We had 1 new investigator, 25 more contacts, and an hour and a half to go before we reached our goals and we felt a little doubtful that we were going to find anyone on campus due to the day and weather, but we decided to give our all despite the weather and turn to the Lord for help. Right before we left the car we said a prayer, asking for our Father in Heaven's help in reaching our goals. Although it was raining and very cold we were able to find exactly 1 new investigator, 25 contacts, and get an hour and a half of contacting time. It was incredible to witness the Lord's help, but one of the best miracles of that time was finding a student named John.
John is agnostic, very friendly, and very respectful. When we went up to him we gave him a card and asked him if he had ever heard about Mormons before and what he thought about them. At first he didn't seem too interested, but then he asked us about the Book of Mormon and, after we explained what it is, said he wanted a copy. Still, he wasn't interested in meeting with us, but we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he was on his way and that was all we heard from him until Sunday evening when he text us. He said, "Hello, it's J! I was met earlier by Sister Rice and Sister S (forgive me if that is wrong.) I was asked what my first thought of Mormons was. Although my first thought was negative because of how the majority of my peers view them, I would have to say my strongest thought is admirable. I am almost jealous of the devotion and faithfulness someone could have for something spiritual. Being agnostic the majority of my life, it is difficult to become spiritual and I doubt it will ever happen. Also, I see Mormons as admirable because of the world we live in today and how accepting it is of sin. Although society is like this, I see Mormons as having a sense of purity and cleanliness. One of my favorite quotes from the film 'Se7en' is ' We see a deadly sin in every home and street corner but we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial.' Thank you for the chat and have a blessed week."
Talk about the highlight of my DAY!! Reading that text gave me renewed hope in the people that we contact. In the past I've wondered if the seeds that we've planted every sprout in this life, and after receiving John's text I was reminded that a lot more seeds spring forth than we think they do.
This week I have learned so much and witnessed so many miracles and blessings. The Atonement of Jesus Christ gives me hope. It renews my strength and makes me whole. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my Savior, Lord and King and I know that this is His work. I hope y'all have the BEST.WEEK.EVER. and remember that I love y'all sooooooooo much-ooooooooooo!!! Y'all are always in my prayers.
Lots of love (from your favorite Sista Mish aka Sister Missionary ;) ),
Sister Megan Rice
P.P.S The theme of our District Meeting photo this week was hold something lol :)
Also...in other good news....we are officially getting iPads in two months!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :DDDDDD
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