I've heard it said that while on a mission everything is magnified -
the highs are incredible, and the lows are terrible. It is SO true.
We taught Jermaine again this week. We met him at the church,
and taught him a lesson in the chapel. A member, Brenna, who is preparing
for her mission, came with us and was an excellent help in teaching the Plan of
Salvation. She is going to make an incredible missionary someday soon. :)
Jermaine is doing great- he is reading from the Book of Mormon daily
(When we saw him on Wednesday, he was already to Jacob!) and he is so excited
and ready to learn more. And he invited himself to be baptized, which is
incredible! The spirit was so strong during the lesson - he is definitely
one that the Lord has prepared. He is amazing. Unfortunately, when we got
his address, we learned that he doesn't live in our area... so we called the
mission home to figure out which missionaries should be teaching him, and we
learned that he doesn't even live in our mission! Which is terrible – we won't
even get to go to his baptism unless we get special permission from President
Pingree! ... so sad! But we know that he'll be in good hands, with
whichever missionaries get to finish teaching him. We will stop by the goodwill
where he works from time to time, just to check up on him and such. He
came to church with us on Sunday since he doesn't know anyone from his ward
yet, and he had a good experience. He is sad to have to switch
missionaries, but he understands and doesn't want us to get in trouble - he is
so sweet that way. :) And he was planning on heading over to his church building
when his ward ended so he could get in contact with the missionaries. He
is SO ready, and I am excited for him!
Other than Jermaine... we haven't really had anyone to teach... our ward
area is kinda small, and even though we technically split the area between us
and the elders in our ward, we still run into them all over the place.
And when we do go visit someone, we often get "Oh, the Elders were
just over here!" ... we're still trying to figure out how to
coordinate better... :) We've been doing a lot of work with less actives,
but we're finding that most people just like to talk to us, they don't like it
when we try and teach them... I like listening to people and their stories, but
that's not what we as missionaries are here to do, you know? Sigh... what
do you do? We have found a few that are willing to let us come over and
"practice" the lessons on them, since I'm so new to the mission, so
hopefully when we start that this week we will start finding success. We
struggle with finding people to teach, because most people here are very firmly
rooted in their religion and don't want to change. We're trying not to
get discouraged though, because we know that the Lord has prepared people to
receive His gospel, we just need His help in finding them.
I'm not sure if I've told you about Rafie - he lives in our
apartment complex, and we met him on the first day. He's hard to get in
contact with, because he doesn't have a phone and he's not home very often. And
we've learned that he's one that likes to do all the talking and doesn't like
to give us a chance to teach him. But we're making some progress.
Slow, baby steps, but some progress is better than none, right? We
gave him a Book of Mormon last night, and he said he would start reading it
along with his Bible. Hopefully we'll get to see him again soon and check
on his progress.
Being on a mission is definitely helping me recognize where my strengths
and weaknesses are. I'm trying really hard to be bold and talk to
everyone, but for someone as shy as me, it can be hard. I've spent a lot
of time on my knees, pleading with my Heavenly Father to give me strength and
courage, and Sister Wahlen and I have been setting goals to help both of us
break out of our comfort zones. And I've started to notice a change.
It is amazing - Just like it says in Ether 12:27, if we come to the Lord
with our weaknesses, He will help us make them strengths. I'm not quite
there yet... but the Lord and I are working on it. :)
I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and support!
Have an awesome week!
Sister Ririe
Mosiah 2:41
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