This week was another great week. It was also a hard week for finding. But, we added one more to our number of investigators at church this week and had four investigators there! Sandra, Bennett, Tiffany and Darlene (our investigator on date) all attended.
We will start with the hard. We had zero lessons planned on Thursday, so it was tracting day! And goodness, we had a tough. crowd. We sure got chewed up and spit out by the people in the area we were working in. I was pretty grouchy after that and Sister Slade was crying. But it made me feel better when I was reading in Alma chapter 7 this morning and Alma talks about his experience with his initial rejection by the people of Ammonihah. He says in verse 14, that he was weighed down with sorrow because of the people and that is how I tend to get. But then, an angel appeared to him and told him where he needed to go and he found a great mission companion named Amulek and they brought a good number to the knowledge of God. Here's to having some angels tell us where to go soon!
We had two more wonderful lessons with the Darlene and Everet last week. The first was at a members home and we taught about the Plan of Salvation. She had some great questions about her family that had passed on and whether or not they would have the opportunity to accept the Gospel and be baptized just as she is preparing to do! We explained that God has provided a way for all of his children to receive and accept the Gospel and that she would have the opportunity to the work for her departed family members in the future. In our second lesson, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of Wisdom. When we talked about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, she burst out saying, "I am ten times more excited than anyone else was when they got baptized!" And when we discussed the Word of Wisdom, she said, "I am even going to throw away my last case of caffeinated soda!" She is just so excited and more than that, WILLING to do all and more than our Heavenly Father has asked of us.
We had a break-through lesson with Sandra this week and she is in full swing to start coming back to church and prepare to be baptized. We suggested the date of September 28th to be baptized and she said that she would pray about it this week. At church yesterday, she asked me again is the 28th of September still worked, and I replied yes, of course and she said she would have an answer for us this week. My suspicion is that she will say yes. She mentioned that she has been talking to her brother in Salt Lake and he is the one who had planned to baptize her previously, so I think that she will say yes. However I am a little afraid to count my chickens before they hatch, not going to lie...But she is getting involved in the ward which is great. She is planning to come to our ward service project on Saturday and a member of our ward invited us to have our lesson this week at her house as soon as she heard us confirming our plans with Sandra for the week. Yay for members that step up to the call of being everyday missionaries!!
We were excited to have Bennett show up at church finally. We spoke in Sacrament meeting and is was kind of fun to be sitting on the stand and she him mosey in with a big grin on his face as the meeting started. We didn't get to talk to him after Priesthood Meeting, but he mentioned to some of his friends in his ward that he enjoyed himself and was learning a lot and looked forward to coming back. We hope to follow up with him in the next few days. Hopefully his wife will decide to come next week as well.
The first counselor in our bishopric asked us to speak on Tuesday night, but didn't give us a topic to speak on, so I chose to speak on the Book of Mormon. It was a great opportunity for me to reflect on why the Book of Mormon is so important and my own testimony. As I prepared, I asked God for another witness that the Book of Mormon is true and received the quiet assurance that my testimony is correct. I realized that I have never had a big experience with the Book of Mormon and that I likely will not, but small, almost unrecognizable answer that I received was enough. The Lord told me as I prayed, "You know, Cherise. You know." I am thankful for that knowledge.
My favorite passage that I read during my personal study this week was in Alma chapter 5, verse 33. The first thirty verses or so of the chapter really called me to repentance and I had some fear struck into my heart. But verse 33 abated all those fears and spoke beautiful peace to my soul. I could almost hear the Savior pleading and letting me know that there was way prepared for all of us imperfect people. It reads, "Behold, he sendeth this invitation unto men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you." What a beautiful admonition and promise from our Savior: Repent, and I will receive you.
Love ya lots!
Sister Turley
PS--A lot of times I will get on lds.org when I am writing these letters and listen to music and today there was a link to an article about the Preston England Pageant and a place to listen to the music from it. So, I have been enjoying the music from that this morning and I think I have another bucket list item. Someday, I will be in the British Pageant. I am truly grateful for the opportunity I had to be in the Nauvoo Pageant. It did a lot for my testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel and Joseph Smith. I hope I can squeeze that into my plans somewhere in the future and have a similar experience. And hopefully do some family history research while I am there and pick up where some of the lines leave off.
From left to right: Sister Slade, Sister Turley, Elder Woods, Elder DeVictoria, Elder Lorenzen (from Mesa), Elder O'Barr (from Gilbert)
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