Planting seeds

From August 17, 2009 email: I was thinking that Tanner [her oldest nephew] had another year before he turned 12, but I thought wrong! I can't believe that he is old enough to be a deacon! Time sure does fly by! I can't wait to see how much those little squirts have grown while I've been out here.

Last Monday we had a ward FHE softball game. Softball just isn't up my alley. I slipped quite a few times and one was particularly funny. And they just happened to get that on video! Then I ended up with a huge bruise on my hand because my first instinct when a ball is flying at me is to stop it and I didn't think about using the glove! Haha...just a few blonde moments there. Hopefully this helped to bridge our relationship with the ward members. We've got to make this ward unified! The mosquitoes came out towards the end of the game and they enjoy biting me! I look like I have chicken pox on my legs. Maybe it's because I'm so sweet! :)

We had an experience this week that helped us to understand that seeds are being planted all over. Thursday evening we were tracting a street because one of our appointments didn't show up. People were quite rude and someone even left us a mini-Bible on our windshield. But of course, at the last house on the street, someone was interested. We set up an appointment with Bryan for the next day and suprisingly enough, he was there. As we start the lesson, he said that he had a friend that was interested in learning more about the church...but she lived in Egypt and was Muslim. Bryan met her in Egypt where he had been teaching elementary school kids. So he hooked up his computer to a microphone and she listened to our lesson and even asked a few questions. She really wanted to learn more, but all we could do was to direct her to the mormon.org website. Hopefully someone will be able to help her out more. It was a neat experience to help plant a seed all the way across the world.

It's interesting how the Spirit lets you know whether someone is ready, or not, to accept the gospel. We sat down with a former investigator to see if his heart had been softened, but we couldn't present a coherant lesson. I had no inspiration whatsoever and I could tell Sister Monson didn't either because she kept turning to me with a bewildered look. Ugh! We got the hint that he wasn't at all willing to change nor could he see the blessing the gospel could be to his life. But then ten minutes later, we had an awesome lesson with Dominick, our 17-year-old investigator. We had exactly what we needed to say put into our mouths. That's just another testimony that this gospel is true!

A few nights ago I was saying me evening prayers before I hopped into bed and I felt this overwhelming sense of peace. I've never felt something like that before. But it was then that I knew that I truly did love my mission. Even though it's so stinkin' hard at times, I love it. There is no greater work out there than to proclaim the gospel. We have what the whole world needs. So let's all get to work!