Hello Everyone!
I want to start off thanking everyone for the emails they have sent
me! Last week was rough for me but I am better now. This past week has
been amazing! It's crazy how much Satan can take one discouraging
thought and effect so much in your life. That is why we always need to
strive to be positive and push those negative things out and remember
who we are. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and He loves
and cares for us so much!
This week has been awesome!!! I can't believe all the blessings we
have been given. We taught 14 lessons, 7 being member present, found 3
new investigators-1 of which has accepted baptism and another is ready
but we have yet invited her, and so we taught 2-3 lessons a day expect
for Friday where people canceled or forgot so we got 0 that day but we
were able to schedule an appointment with a former investigator for
Wednesday! But we were diligent and worked hard to achieve our goals
and we had The Lords help in everything.
I want to share a few experiences we had this week rather than give
the day to day report.
So on Saturday we had to do a lot of rearranging in plans. In the
morning from 10-12 we had two young women from a neighboring stake
come with us for part of their youth conference. E had lesson set for
11 but they rescheduled. 10-12 in the morning on a Saturday is a
really bad time to find anyone to teach so we talked to them about
missionary work and helped answer questions they had about the work
and then went out to find new investigators. They went back to their
youth conference and we were dropped off at home so we could have
lunch. We had lunch and all throughout lunch we were calling to find
someone to go with us to a lesson with a referral we received from the
elders. It was a man so we needed another sister there. After two
hours of searching for a sister we found one and went to the lesson.
Before I tell about the lesson let me explain how we contacted him.
The referral the elders gave us was incomplete there was no phone
number or house number. We just had his name and his street. Luckily
the street had about ten houses on it- it was a lollipop street. We
started near the end near the circle and started knocking trying to
find him. Nobody knew who he was. We were able to get a potential at
one of the houses who was going to talk to her husband about us coming
over and sang I am a child of god to a few kids outside playing. We
skipped a house and kept going. We talked to one lady who told us the
house we skipped used to be owned by people who had the same last name
but they moved. We decided to go back and try it anyway. We knocked
and a man came to the door we told him who we were looking for and he
said it as him. We wee both so shocked we found him finally that we
didn't know what to say yet. Who were able to have a little small talk
about the elders he met and set up a time to come back. One of the
nice blessings and miracles and tender mercies we saw this week. So
when we went back, we went though the lesson and he wasn't saying much
or asking many questions. When we would ask him questions he didn't
expound. A man of few words. When we were almost through with the
points of lesson one, we asked what he thought of Joseph Smith. He
simply state that is was a really nice experience he had. We then
asked if he believed something like that could happen. He simply said
yes, I know it did. We asked how he knew and he simply said because he
could feel it. We asked him to explain how he felt and he said there
wasn't words for it. We knew he was feeling the spirit and we told
him. We then invited him to pray about it and he said he didn't want
to because every time he prays he cries, he is in his mid 50's by the
way. We told him why we wanted him to pray with us there so we could
help him know the spirit and the answer he would get and to help him
if he needed. He agreed to pray and he prayed in Spanish. He began
tearing up and the spirit was there. It was cool to see how he
received an answer to his prayer that what we taught was true. He then
told us he wanted us to come back and teach his wife and 3 daughters
who are all married and have kids. He has a total of 7 grandkids.
However, he is probably going to be passed off to the Spanish
missionaries but we are going back to check about his daughters.
Later that day we had a church tour with the Jewish man and his wife
and son. It went really well and they felt the peace inside the
building. They committed to come to church and they did!!!!!!! In the
lesson we had with them later Sunday night the father, who had
previously not accepted Jesus Christ as the messiah and last week said
he is slowly accepting that, said very matter of fact that he knows
Jesus Christ is the messiah and has accepted that. It is amazing to
see the spirit work in others! At church the wife began tearing up in
the sacrament hymn and she said she felt such peace the whole time at
church. The son loved priesthood and Sunday school! He has a lot of
friends in our ward too, so that's cool!
Before our lesson with them we went to another investigators house to
teach her niece. The niece had shown interest before when we ever over
teaching her aunt but we stupidly never asked when we could come teach
her too. So we went over and the aunt wasn't home, which was best we
want to teach them separate because the aunt has issues with the
niece. So we sat down with the niece and she expressed to us how
thankful she was we were over because she had been praying for someone
to talk to and make changes in her life and she wants to in a church.
We talked to her earlier in the week at the lesson with her aunt about
her piercings because she asked if they were okay. She has about 5
facial piercings. (It reminded me of A. when we committed her to
baptism.) We asked her what he thoughts were and she said I should
take them out. And we explained how her body was a gift from God. We
taught her about Jesus Christ and prayer. The spirit a really strong
and we are so excited to be teaching her. We knew that we had to find
one new investigator Sunday and we both felt like we needed to go see
her. She may be passed off to the YSA elders but that's okay.
It's so crazy to think I've been out here for 5 months!!! Time flies
by so fast! I am so thankful for all the experiences that I have had
though. And all that I have learned. I've been pondering a lot about
where I was when I first came out and where I am now. I have seen and
noticed some change and it is nice to see that because I have been
down on myself about that. A letters from President to the while
mission helped. It talked about the power to become. And asked us to
look at ourselves when we first came out to now and compare. Sure the
results might not be huge but there are some results if progress. I am
so thankful for this gospel and for all of you who have been praying
for me and helping me and encouraging me every week! I love you all
and pray for you as well.
Have a wonderful week!! Go share the gospel with those around you!
Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach.
Love,
Sister Celeste Riches
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