Westchester #5

Hello Fam!

It was so great see all your beautiful smiling faces on Sunday :))

Well since we have last talked, we now have a new investigator! The Spanish Elders in our area found her. We taught her with the Elders yesterday. They are handing her off to us becasue they focus on teaching only those who need lessons in spanish and Talia speaks english. She has a a hubby and a little boy who is 2 years old. We haven't met her husband yet but she is really nice. She is orginally from Jamaica. We taught her about how she is a daughter of God and that He loves her and all of His Children. We taught her that God has always taught His Gospel truth through prophets such as Moses, Abraham and Noah. But that unfortunately the people have time and time again rejected the prophets and rejected the message of the gospel. When people choose to reject and kill the prophets, the Priesthood authority is taken from the earth. We taught her that when Christ was on the earth he taught his gospel of Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. But even Jesus Christ, the Son of God was rejected and put to death because of His message. We taught her that the death of Christ and his Apostles lead to another apostasy, or period of time when the Priesthood and the fullness of Christ's gospel was not upon the earth. We then told her of how God once again restored His gospel on the earth in these modern days through a young boy and prophet named Joesph Smith. We shared with her the Book of Mormon and told her it was another testament of Jesus Chirst. We promised her that if she would read it with real intent and prayed to God with a honest heart that she would receive an answer by the power of the Holy Ghost if it is of God or not. She said that she would and we are giong to meet with her sometime next week to see how it all went. :)

Something I have really learned as a missionary is that there is nothing I personally can do to convince people of the truth. We are all on a journey to find truth. Truth is something we all must learn for ourselves. As a missionary it is our job to invite others to come unto Christ and to recieve the truth of the restored gospel in their life. But the only way any of us can come to know truth for ourselves is through the Holy Ghost. In John we read that "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance" (John14:26) The Holy Ghost is a gift given to us by the Father to teach us all things. "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26) The Holy Ghost will testify of Christ and will testify of truth. So as I missionary all I can do is invite others to come unto Christ but THEY have to have an honest and sincere heart and THEY have to put forth the effort to read the Book of Mormon and THEY have to ask in sincere prayer if our message is true. And God is anxiously waiting to answer their prayers for God has said "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeth findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matt 7:7-8) That is God's promise to each and everyone of us. We can all have the truth witnessed unto us by the power of the Holy Ghost. But we must do our part to ask, seek and knock.

It is so cool to be a part of this great work! It is so cool to present the gospel of Jesus Chirst to others and to help them to find truth in their lives. You just feel such amazing love for them and you want so badly for them to find the happiness you have! There is no other feeling like missionary work. It can be so exciting and amazing to witness others progressing in faith and testimony in Jesus Christ! And it can be so devestating and heart breaking to watch others struggle to understand and turn away from this message of hope, peace and happiness! I have only been out for about a month, but I have already learned so much! More than anything I have felt more strongly of God's love for me and of all of His precious children then I ever have before. Missionary work can be hard and discouraging at times but that feeling of pure joy when others listen and receive your message is totally worth it!!

I love you all so much! Never forget to put God as your first priority and that all else will fall into place as you do :) I love you all so much! Thank you everyone for the emails this week! It was so wonderful to hear from all of you! If you didn't get a reply from me this week, you will get one next week!

Oh and a shout out the Ellen Wynn, Gretchen Brock and Alex Morgan with your mission calls! Congrats ladies!! You are all going to do so great!! Alex, you are going to LOVE Brirmingham Alabama. You are going to laugh your head off because the people there are so darn funny and wonderful :) I hope all is well! I love you all so mcuh!

~Sister Lounsbury

This is a picture of Mary! We surprised her by bringing the APs with us to our lesson. 

She LOVES Elder Hajje so it was a fun visit