Well it has been a fantastic week! I am feeling great!! Sister Matthews and I work really well together. We are both striving for exact obedience and relying fully on the Lord. I have been nervous about the whole training thing but it has been awesome! We have been working really hard and have been praying and seeking for God's help and I feel like we have seen miracles come to pass because of it.
Quote of the week "Obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles." We are going to keep trying our best to be exactly obedient to the mission rules and to not find exceptions or excuses to disregard them. Here is another formula I like
Faith+Effort+gratitude=
We had 2 lessons this week with 2 ladies whom I will not name. But they are less active and both of them opened up to us about past physical and sexual abuse. One of the ladies has been able to overcome this horrific part of her life through prayer and asking God to take the burden for her. She was molested from age 5 to age 12. She has been able to forgive her abuser and her story truly is inspiring. She talked about how she knew she needed to forgive and put it behind her when she would take out anger on her son just because he was a boy and she was intimidated by males. But she knew that it was her son and she couldn't treat him the way she was treated and that is what motivated her to seek forgiveness and to let go of the past. And because she prayed and asked for that divine help, her heart was healed and she was able to forgive. What a miracle! I truly believe that witnessing the power of forgiveness is a miracle! When Christ was on the earth He performed many miracles such as healing the sick and raising the dead. I think those miracles help us understand how Christ not only has power to heal us physically but to heal us spiritually. I think it is just as miraculous to hear about how someone who had loads of emotional damage and trust issues is able to have her heart healed and be whole again. That was only possible through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The other lady has not been able to forgive entirely but she has come a long way. We taught her how she could have the weight and burden of her past relieved as she turned to God and ask Him to help her forgive. She said first she needs to learn how to pray right so we taught her how to pray and she said she would practice praying. But of these lessons were so amazing because we were able to help them better understand repentance and forgiveness. In one of our Zone meetings something really hit me hard. We were told that as missionaries we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we are Stewards over the people in our area. It is only through US that they can gain access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Wow. That was powerful to me. So many people don't know how to gain access to the atonement. It is through Faith, Repentance, Baptism (or renewing our baptismal covenants through the sacrament) receiving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. For one of these ladies we taught her how to pray so that she could ask for forgiveness and also ask for the strength to forgive her abuser. Their progress is halted until they learn how to repent or pray or have faith! And we get to show them how!We get to teach them! We get to help them progress! It is an amazing feeling. I am filled with so much joy as I get to help others learn how to gain access to the atonement so that they can witness his miraculous power in their own life.
Well we were told this week that we can't teach Mohammed any more! He is Muslim and I guess it can be a danger to his safety if he continues to be taught and especially if he is baptized as a Christian. Which is really too bad because he was really enjoying reading the Book of Mormon. He told us last time that he knew that it wasn't made up and he felt that it was true. He really like 3 Nephi 11 he said because it testifies of how Jesus Christ truly is the savior and redeemer of the world.
OK so we met Paula this week. (the lady that sister Knight wanted us to visit). It is kinda a long story but a boy from upstairs let us in and then knocked on their door (two families lived in one house). Paula's husband answered the door and was irritated that the boy let us in. The mother from upstairs came down to see what was happening. Then Paula and her husband go off in Italian. I'm pretty sure he told her to deal with us. I tried explaining who I was but she was flustered and told us to leave. The Mother of the boy kept apologizing to Paula and Paula asked us to leave. I said "well can I just leave you with this?" I handed her a card from Sister Knight. "it's from Heather Knight" Her face immediately changed. She looked down at the envelope and opened it up. She pulled out the picture of the Knight family and looked at us in awe. She told us she had lost contact with Heather Knight a long time ago but that she really admired her and respected her. Then Paula started apologizing to us over and over while the boy's mother was apologizing the Paula and the whole situation was rather humorous. We had to get home but Paula invited us is and gave us water and told us a little more about how she and Heather were friends. She said that she was Catholic and that "she could never switch over, my mother would kill me". I had tried 3 or 4 other times to reach her so I was glad we finally got in contact.
We have 3 new investigators this week! I wish I could tell you more about them but I am out of time. But all three are very excited to meet with and one of them will for sure be at churchthis Sunday! We are having more and more less acitves attend church and the work is really moving along here!It is so exciting to be apart of it all! We keep getting bug bites so that is the only down fall to this week. We are getting spray and anti itching cream today.
Well I have got to go! I love you all so much!
Love Sister Lounsbury
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