Happy Fall Y'all! This week it's been raining 'pitchforks and hammer handles' and they say that it'll continue to rain through next week. Everyone says that this winter is going to be a bad one and I have to admit that I believe them, because it never rained this much last Fall, but I'm excited for Winter time to come - the Christmas season is the BEST...especially when you're a missionary because you really get into "the reason for the season" and it's so much fun to share with others. I'm so grateful for our Savior!
So this week we've had a lot of opportunities to sift through those who are ready and those who are not....aka we lost all of the new investigators we found, but that's ok! because we had some awesome miracles! It's funny...I've found that the miracles almost always happen at the end of the week - after being tried and tested. It's interesting how usually miracles happen after the trial of our faith (Ether 2-3). Anywhooo.....
The first miracle I'd love to share is a continuation from last week. Previously I shared a miracle about a less-active part member family who of the two years that they've lived in Georgia have only had three visits from members of the Church and the third visit was us. Well we had set up a return appointment for this past Saturday to help them with service, but when we arrived we noticed that their dinning room table was set up very nicely for dinner and that the things they needed help with were already finished. They said, "We usually eat dinner at this time." And of course a little surprised we said, "Oh no! We hope we didn't come at a bad time?" To which they replied with a smile, "No, you didn't come at a bad time, we actually made extra. We would love if y'all would join us for dinner." It was so awesome! By the end we hadn't mentioned anything about coming to Church the member just automatically brought it up and we wound up having a really good conversation about it. Before we left he expressed desire to come back to Church - which was AWESOME!!
As Sunday rolled around and Sacrament meeting ended we saw the less-active member had stayed for the whole Sacrament Meeting and he had this great smile on his face! Afterwards we were texting him and he said that going to church was like being "awakened" - which was really cool since one of the speakers that he said really spoke to him was talking on choosing to keep the Sabbath Day holy. The speakers did outstanding jobs by the way!
The second miracle we had that I wanted to share was with a new investigator named M. We taught her during the second hour of Church and instead of teaching her the whole first lesson we taught the first two bullet points: 1. God is Our Loving Heavenly Father and 2. The Gospel Blesses Families. By the end of our lesson as we were saying the closing prayer she started crying. When we finished she said, "You have no idea how much this means to me. The short time you've known me and you can already say you love me. There's people who have known me the whole 18 years of my life that can't even say that. Thank you."
Everyone is a child of God. Relationships in this life are not perfect, but through the Savior and His teachings relationships can be built upon a sure foundation that will never break even though the World will. I love y'all soooooooooo much-oooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of Love (From your Favorite Sister Missionary),
Sister Megan Rice
P.S. *Updates* My companion is being transferred to Big Shanty and she will be step training!!!! I'm soooo excited for her!!! I'll be staying in John's Creek and my new companion will be Sister H! I served around her in Big Shanty - she was in Kennesaw while I was in Big Shanty so we know each other pretty well. :)
Oh! And there's one other experience I want to share with y'all. It's of a family that we've been teaching for a while now. Every time we teach them they have these awesome questions, but their questions/lessons although sincere sometimes border the line of bible bashing haha. If it wasn't for the real firm hope we see in them we might not come back. The last time we visited them however we could tell something had changed. They hadn't really read the Book of Mormon and this time it kind of crossed the fine line of bashing. We set a timer on our phone before hand because we knew that their lessons usually go over time and that day we couldn't be late because we had another appointment right after.
For the majority of the time we were with them they talked and we listened. When we finally were able to get a word in, we testified of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and shared our experiences of how we came to know that the Book of Mormon is true. Silence fell and then the timer went off - perfect timing. When they spoke next their countenance changed. We left that day knowing that they could not deny the experiences we had. I will never forget an experience I had in my first area where a YSA girl named Mo, Bible bashed us for almost three hours and all we did was just listen. When she was finished and my companion and I could speak all we did was testify of the Savior, the Book of Mormon, and how we came to know it was true. Silence. She said, "I cannot deny the experiences you've had. I will have to look into his further." I will never forget that moment. When we bear testimony and share our experiences by the power of the Holy Ghost it cannot be denied.
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