October 11, 2010

Another week has come and gone. At the end of every week, my testimony is strengthened that this is the Lord's work. I see too many miracles every week to think otherwise. This is the Lord's church and this is His great work. We are all His children and he has a plan for each of us. We are so blessed to have the knowledge that we have.

Yesterday we witnessed a miracle in church. We were out in the church foyer waiting for Linda and Amanda. As we were waiting we saw a man walking towards the door. Me and Sister Furugen looked at each other and said "That looks like Skippy." Then we looked again and it was Skippy! I don't know if you remember but probably 2-3 months ago we tracted into this guy named Skippy. He was really nice. We had 2 lessons with him but we were never able to get any solid return appointments so we decided to drop him for the time being. Now...flash forward a couple months and he walked into church. Whoa! We were so shocked! He came with one of his daughters (probably around 4 yrs.). We were so happy because we had been praying for people we had met before to come to church. Linda and Amanda come every week but we were trying to get more people to attend church. The Lord truly answered our prayers! But...the story doesn't end there. It gets better. So we were sitting in sacrament meeting and Skippy was asking us questions since this was his first time in our church. We explained that it was fast and testimony meeting. Well probably about 2 people had borne their testimonies and then he gets up with his daughter. We thought he was stepping out for a minute to take his daughter to the restroom or something but no...he walks UP TO THE STAND!! Me and Sister Furugen looked at each other and didn't know what to think. We had so many mixed emotions....scared, excited, shocked, etc. This was his first time at church at he was going up to share his testimony! Well, he gets up to the stand and says who he is and then he calls from the pulpit for me and Sister Furugen to come up to the stand. Umm...no one ever does that but we slowly and hesitantly walked up to the stand and sat down. I don't really remember much of what he said because I was in shock but from what I heard he said how grateful he was that we knocked on his door when we did and how much we have blessed his life. As different as this experience was, it was a great blessing to hear. It truly was a miracle! Sometimes its hard being a missionary especially when you aren't seeing many people progressing towards baptism, but his short and simple testimony on missionary work made me realize that I am making a difference. Even though many of the people we meet don't progress, we know in time they will find the truth in the gospel. God has a time and a plan for everything. Its just not always when we want it. After Skippy bore his testimony, he had to leave to go pick up his other daughter so we didn't get to talk to him after but we are hoping we can start teaching him again. The spirit must of been speaking to him and prompting him to go up and say what he did. I'm so grateful that he did!

Linda and Amanda are doing great! They have now been to church 8 times! Can you believe it?! They are amazing. We can tell that they know this church is true. They are still scared though and have a few setbacks. We had 2 lessons with them this week and they also came to the High Priest Stew night that our ward had. They come to everything! We are meeting with them tonight and plan to teach about the priesthood and how they can receive priesthood blessings to help give them the extra strength they need to overcome the challenges that are standing in their way. They are sooo close! I say that every week but they really are. We just gotta help them to have trust in God!

Yesterday night, a member called us and invited us to come over to her families FHE tonight because there neighbor who isn't a member was coming over. Cool huh?! A couple of weeks ago this guy came to church for all 3 hours with the member family and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully we can have a good lesson with him tonight! Miracles are happening all around us.

We had fun on Sister Furugen's birthday! It was a little hard for her because no one from Japan had sent her any birthday cards, not even her family but there must be some on there way. Even though she didn't get any from Japan, we had fun celebrations here. Karen and Terry had a little b-day for her at their house with cupcakes and ice cream. Then we had the High Priest Social that night so everyone sang happy b-day to here there. Overall it was really good and fun! Linda and Amanda even gave her a present. Oh...by the way, she said thank you so much for the gifts mom and dad! She loved them and appreciated all you did for her.

I had a great week and learned a lot this week. I know this week is gonna be even better and we are gonna see so many miracles. As long as we have faith, anything is possible! I love you all and hope you have a great week :)