Funny things always happen every week, but this week was more of a spiritual and growing week for me. In a good way though. So today I will share with you what I learned.
We have been going on tons of exchanges as you all know. Sister Bennett and I will go with a 4 different set of sisters twice a week and we spend 24 hours with them and help them be the very best they can be. As I have been going on these exchanges I have been learning that we have a lot of really really good missionaries. However, each one have struggles and fears that hold them back from being the very best they can be. The biggest thing missionaries have been struggling with is being BOLD. I use to be this way, I use to be scared of offending people or making them feel weird and awkward. I didn't realize how bad it is to be this way until I got into this position. I didn't realize how much sister Bennett and the Lord has helped me overcome so many of my fears. I use to be terrified to put people on date or to pull over a car and sing a person a song who is walking down the side walk. I would have had a really hard time asking someone if they have a minute to talk to us even if they were on the phone. But something happened.....All OF MY FEARS ARE GONE! I'm not sure when this moment happened, but when I go on these exchanges I have no fear yelling and waving at a guy to hold on a moment so we could ask him a question. We pull our car over to ask an old man walking on the side walk if he wants a card. I learned this week that there is no other way to be.
We have the GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST! The ONE and ONLY true church with the fullness of CHRIST'S DOCTRINE. Holy moly why aren't we more excited about this?? Why aren't we shouting it from the roof tops?? Why aren't we sharing it with our neighbors, friends, and complete strangers?? I'll tell you why..... It's because of fear....excuses....and satan. Somehow satan has slipped in and convinced us that it's ok to keep our religion to ourselves, to just be a good example, and only share when people ask about it. and for missionaries he has convinced us it's ok to not talk to that person cause they are busy, or to not ask that question because it might offend them. It scares me to death that I use to be that way and I never want to go back.
A couple weeks ago I was on an exchange with the fruita sisters and we were teaching a man who has been inactive for a really long time is trying to bet back to the temple. He didn't understand why it was harder to get back to the temple than it was the first time he went through. He wasn't keeping his commitments of coming to church and reading the book of mormon because his work only allowed him to have one sunday off a month and he worked long hours and was to tired to read. We went into that lesson and basically told him to get a new job. He freaked out a little because he didn't think that he could get another job. I told him that he needs to make a choice to follow and trust God or not. After the lesson I felt a little bad because he did not take it very well. We ended on a good note but at one point he threatened to leave the church for good and we had to calm the situation back down. I walked away wondering if I did the right thing?? Was it ok to basically chastise this man for choosing the things of the world over returning to God's house? The spirit confirmed to me that we absolutely did the right thing. We did it out of love and concern for this man's salvation. He needs to know that he broke his covenant with God and he needs to make the sacrifices nessasary to get back. If we walk away and he doesn't know, then we didn't do our job.
I've had a couple more experiances since then, not nessasarly people threatening to leave the church because of what I said, but they get very upset at me for being so bold. Of coarse I do it out of love and I know they feel that, but they still get upset a little.
Yesterday and the night before we had Stake confrence and two members of the 70 came. In the Adult session i have never felt so much love and heard such bold, chastisment in my life. haha It made me feel so much better. I really appreciated everything they said because you really could feel the spirit as they told us how to be better, how to push harder. I made my companion come with me to shake their hands and say something to them. All the other sisters in our zone followed us. So all six of us stood in line to say hi to him. One of them, Elder Nash walked up to us and he just gushed over how much he LOVES sister missionaries. He said if he could hug sister missionaries he would. He shook our hands with both of his hands and he said, this is my hug to you. He talked about when he goes on mission tours there is a different/better spirit there and he said it is because of us sisters. Then he looked into each one of our eyes and he said, "Before this life, each one of you prepared for this moment, you were BORN to be a missionary." Oh my gosh. The spirit hit me so strongly that I got pretty emotional. Wow, it is so true. We prepared for this WAY before we got here. We would never feel complete unless we fulfilled this mission. I feel so honored and privilaged to be apart of this work. I hope each of us can work on being a little bit better, being a little bit more bold, and fulfill the mission God has called us to do. I love you all
Love Sister Jones
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