We have been trying so hard to get people to come to church whether they be less actives or investigators. Yesterday we had two investigators and one less active come to church. It was really great to see them there. But it is not enough. I got a little dissapointed that many others did not show because they told us they would come. We have been reading with many of the people we teach the conference talk from April about the Sabbath Day given by Elder L. Tom Perry. It is one of my favorites. There is a part that I learned from it. It says, "And it shall be a testimony unto the Father..." It is a scripture but I can't remember the scripture quite at this time. But that phrase stuck out to me. The word 'it' is referring to partaking of the sacrament i believe. I learned from it as I was teaching it. A testimony unto the Father. Well a testimony is something we believe or know to be true. So WE shall be a testimony unto the father because we are doing what we have promised we will do. It is almost like he can trust us more because we have taken the sacrament. I don't know it that made sense to you, but it makes sense in my head. :) we had a really good training for district meeting. We had the president come to give us interviews and then the assistants gave us the training. Basically we are going to be really busy with FHE. WE are instituting Family Home Evening again and we are going to have a lot of fun with it. Members are going to ask their friends over in a non threatening way and say they are going to have a FHE. Then tell them the topic of the FHE and then say that the missionaries are going to come over. So basically the members will say, "George, I want to invite you to come over to my home on Thursday night at 7pm. My family usually does something called Family Home Evening and it is very special to us because it helps bring us together. It is what our church has suggested to us to do so our families can come closer together. We want to share that time with you because you are so special to our family. We are going to have a gospel convesation on faith in Jesus Christ. It will only take about half an hour and you can enjoy some refreshments afterwards with us. I want you to know that the missionaries from our church are going to come over with us and teach the principle on faith. The spirit will be a good influence for all. Will you have time to do that?" Very non threatening. We have a lot of members who are excited to do this and I am excited to meet their friends. Really the whold point is for us as missionaries to NOT bombard them with question as, "Do you want to learn more." The purpose is to bring them into members homes and help them to feel the difference in a home with the priesthood and a home with out the priesthood. We are hoping that this difference will inspire them to learn more about the church. I am very excited for this approach. Saturday the blessing poured out. We started our fast Saturday during lunch time and the blessings came. We tried to contact Brenda again but she was not home...again. She has been missing for about two weeks. Then we went to a less active named Jane. We learned alot more about her than we wanted. Sometime I feel like we are almost like bishops because people 'confess' to us. WELL, Jane confessed to us and told us she was made about getting baptized because she was not ready to. I agree. We are helping her and teaching her different doctrines that will help her repent. We encouraged her to talk to the bishop. Yesterday she did so and guess what? We were in the bishops office with her and it was awkward. I have a stronger desire not to do anything that would cause me to be in the bishops office. Then we went to a former investigators and she is very elect we think. We knocked on the door and she come out and we hardly said anything. We just said, we are from the church of jesus christ. She sat down and started to talk about what she knows and how she is still trying to stop smoking and how she wants to go to church tomorrow and this and that. She basically just latched right on to us. haha. Her name is Terri Edwards. I want her to be baptized so bad. She is so sweet. We went back over to Brenda's after Terri and SHE WAS HOME!!!! what a blessing. She said she still wants to be baptized and wants to come to church and is still reading the book of mormon. We had an appointment with her yesterday but...she was gone. So, I don't know if she is not telling us the truth and just trying to avoid us and just does not want to tell us to go away. I don't know. Then Maryah. She is 13 and the sweetest girl ever. She is really hyper most time but saturday she was very calm and mellow. It was strange. That allowed the spirit to be there ten fold. We found out that she is really confused on what church to go to. She is deciding between the baptist church across the street and the LDS church. There was one point in the lesson that we asked her to pray to know what church is true. When she got done praying we asked how she felt and she said she did not know. Then the strangest thing. She started crying. I think she was having a hard day anyway. Crazy emotional teenage girls. haha. But really there were probably two reasons why she was crying. 1) she didn't get an answer right away as she was expecting or 2) she felt the holy ghost and did not know what it was so she got scared because she had not had that feeling before. I really wanted Maryah to be baptized this transfer but we are going to work with her even more. So that was the blessed day. Sunday was pretty cool day as well. I really like church. It is very amusing sometimes. There were so many distractions. haha. Someone burped out loud, a cell phone went off, a car alarm went off, a chair fell over, Jane looked super mad because she had not smoked for a full 24 hours. haha. Anyway. In R.S. there is a new book that was given called Daughter in My Kingdom. I absolutely love this book. I have read two chapters and have learned alot. One of my favorite lines is given by Joseph Smith on page 19, "Let this society teach how to act towards husbands, to treat them with mildness and affection. When a man is borne down with trouble--when he is perplexed, if he can meet a smile, not an argument--if he can meet with mildness, it will clam down his soul and soothe his feelings. When the mid is going to despair, it needs a solace....When you go home never give a cross word, but let kindness, charity and love, crown you works." There is also a whole section called Increase Faith and Personal Righteousness and I pretty much love the whole section. A part in it said, "He (joseph Smith) encouraged them to be at peace with the Lord, with those around them, and with themselves: 'Sisters..., Shall there be strife among you? I will not have it--you must repent and get the love of God.'" I thought that was pretty rebuking and somewhat to me. I learned alot from it. Anyways, I love you all. I hope you all have a great week!
Sister Amanda Ralph.
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