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| Misty Mayfield and her family (from the home ward in Bountiful) stopped at the Visitors Center on the way back from a trip--and guess who she saw there! |
One thing I am learning about a
lot here is the need for extending bold commitments and then following
up. The basic, crucial way we fulfill our Purpose as missionaries is by calling people to repentence. I think the
best definition of repentence is change--opening your heart more to the
Savior and allowing Him to fill it with His light through obedience to
him. No one likes change and people rarely are going to do it unless
they are told clearly and repeatedly that they need to take certain
specific steps--like prayer, scripture study and baptism, in order to
progress! We can't convert them; they convert themselves as they act.
We had a non-member
guy come with his member friends to the Visitors Center Saturday night. He
proudly told us that he was taking lessons from his fourth set of
missionaries without being baptized because God had told him he just was
not supposed to be baptized yet. We testified, showed some displays and
had them watch the Joseph Smith movie. Sister Poulson, my companion,
told me right before it was finished "ok, you're going to commit him to
baptism." So, I did it. He said he was unsure. We commited him to
study the Book of Mormon that night, pray to ask if it was true and fast
about it. We followed up with him the next day and he said he had read
the whole first book of Nephi, which he had never done before!
Funny/awkward/pretty embarassing story (I think I have one every week, lucky for you.) :
We knocked a door and waited a
minute or two with no one answering. I said to Sister Poulson, "We never
take pictures. We should take more." "Ok, lets take one right now,
they're not home!" She put her camera on a convenient ledge so it was
facing us and put it on timer. Then, we positioned ourselves at the door
fists up, as if we were both about to knock. Right then, an old woman
stuck her head out of the door and said "Whatdya want?"
Us, quickly putting out fists
down, flustered, and mentally praying that the camera wouldn't go off
"Oh um, we're missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.."
*FLASH* from the camera.
"Ok, what's going on here?!!"
Sister Poulson: "Oh, um, uh.."
Me: "We thought no one was home! We're sorry! We'll delete the picture, we swear!"
She slammed the door.
We hoped that didn't give her a bad impression of the church, which
it probably did.... but we laughed about it the rest of the day.
Life is good. I've realized
that everything I can think of that is really good and satisfying has to
be worked for: loving relationships, testimony, virtues, talents, you
name it. But, the work is worth it!
What??? We're in the library
writing. A latino man just sat down in front of the computer next to
me. I got the little prompting "Give him an invite to the visitor's
center." So, I did. Didn't even say anything except "Would you like to
come see the visitor's center?" He looked and said "Can I have this?"
"Yes. We're missionaries for this church. Would you like us to come and
teach you more about it?" "Yes, can I give you my phone number?"
"...Yes." We're teaching him this Friday at four! Wow.
We have a Christus in the VC
that's the first thing you see right when you walk in. Like the one in
SLC, it has a really good narration of scriptures Christ said that's
given with a person with this deep, Christ-like voice and subtle
background music. But, we had some technical difficulties this past week
and the narration broke. So, they asked us to memorize that and say it
for people when they come in. It's kind of intimidating because you're
in front of a group anywhere between 1 and 50 people and shouting at
them the words of Christ as they all stare at you. It's also powerful
though, because the words are true and even saying them with no extra
sounds or anything brings the Spirit. I'm definitely learning to get out
of my shell though!
LOVE, Sister Schmutz
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