First off, thanks to the ten or so concerned people who informed me that gators can jump. I hadn't known that before and I am justly chastened. But I still have all my appendages so I guess that the Lord protects His missionaries.
We spent this week talking with lots and lots of new people and it paid off: we got three new investigators through tracting alone! (Well, one was a referral from the elders but they found her by tracting.) Victor loves the Bible a ton (he can quote passages of it verbatim all the time), but he needs to overcome his doubts about organized religion so we gave him a Book of Mormon and are going through it with him. I have a ton of faith in the converting power of the Book of Mormon and the truths that are so plain in it, so I'm really excited. Janet is in her 60s and is going blind, so we go over to read the BoM with her. It's a great experience to study for someone else, because it feels like you're reading for the first time and rediscovering truth and that's when my personal study impacts me most powerfully. Jane is in her 50s and lives right by the elders, which is why they referred her. Her husband just died this year and she's looking for truth in religion, but she has the greatest faith that she'll see him again so I cannot wait to teach the Plan of Salvation tomorrow. Josh is doing great and a bit of a miracle happened this week: his parents were kind of against him taking the lessons because they thought that "the Mormon religion wasn't normal". They never really stayed to talk with us because they were always running in and out but the other night, we were on their porch and they stopped for a minute to talk. By some wild chance, I mentioned that I was an archaeology student and it turns out that they are all crazy about archaeology and have a house full of treasures they've dug up here and in Georgia and out west. So they brought out tons of their favorite stuff to show us and though we never got to talk with Josh about Alma because of curfew, he tells us that his parents now like us which is just miraculous. I think they might have us over for dinner this week.
We were cleaning out David Wood's garage this Saturday with the elders (he's a reactivated member and his kids Crystal and Cody are getting baptized November 9th!) when the elders got a call to go teach the Restoration to a member's friend who really wants to get baptized. They felt bad leaving David so they asked me and Sister Shumway to go over and teach her the Restoration. We went in our filthy work clothes and set a baptism date with Leah, who is 13 and adorable. She's been coming to church with the Hatfields for a while now and she's really decided that she wants this stability and ward family in her life. And what a blessing she will receive!
What else are we doing? We were invited to a contemporary Baptist church service Saturday night, which was a little like what I always imagined EFY to be, if they have rock bands at EFY. The bishop's wife of the other ward has an exercise class in a park three times a week so we went with the St Aug sisters today and it was very intense. I'm really reallllly out of shape, though in my defense, I haven't gained any mission weight yet. Supposedly the average weight gain for the Florida Jacksonville mission is 30 pounds... yeesh. But it was a lot of fun and made me miss the killer conditioning sessions of my lacrosse days. It was also pouring, which was a lot easier to run in than the regular humidity.
This week, we focused on teaching members to decouple the invitations they extend, which basically means saying "I love you a lot and I want to share with you something very dear to me, but no matter what your response to that is, it will never affect or change our relationship." Sharing the gospel with your friends doesn't mean that you drop them as soon as they show that they're not interested in the gospel or act strangely about them forever after. The strength of your relationship (whether you know someone well or hardly at all) has little to no effect on whether or not they'll choose to accept the gospel, but the opposite is true: when an invitation is extended, regardless of whether or not it is accepted, the relationship of the two people almost always grows deeper. So decouple your invitations! Most people will feel special and loved that you chose to share something personal that makes you so happy with them, even if they aren't looking for that at the moment. In all things show love and the Lord will bless you and your friends.
The Lord hasn't ceased to pour out His miracles on the earth. Mormon tells us that the creation of the universe and of man was a miracle and we have so many witnesses of the miracles of Christ and the apostles, so since God cannot change, He is still a God of miracles today. We're told that because of unbelief and hardened hearts, people choose not to see miracles today. Mark, the investigator who invited us to Anastasia Baptist, told us about how medical technology today is a miracle: if someone in the Bible had been able to take a heart out of one person and give it to another person so they could live, that would be one of the most amazing things ever wrought by the power of God. It still is, but people don't see the miracles around them now. I was thinking a lot about what he say and reading in Mormon 8 and I found the source of the problem: (copy/paste from lds.org for accuracy)
20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
Well, that's pretty scary because that's all around us now. Luckily, the solution to help us is in the very next verse:
21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.
There are miracles all around us today and they ALL come about because of Jesus Christ. His Atonement is central to everything we have and are. My job right now is testify of the blessings of His Atonement in everything I do, but that responsibility won't go away when I take off my nametag and become Anna again. I am still a disciple and a witness and the best I can do will never be enough to thank Christ for His sacrifice for us. Isn't that the greatest? Elder Holland said that if we were ever to understand the Atonement perfectly, we would lose all desire to sin. Preach My Gospel tells us that as our understanding of the Atonement grows, we gain a greater desire to share it with others. It has real power to cleanse and to change, so study it and let the Holy Ghost teach you. Anyway, that's about all I have. Love you all!
Sister Nielsen
Pictures:
Sister Shumway used to be a clown, so she is a balloon animal expert. This princess took 6 balloons to make. She so needs to teach me.
My shoes are completely falling apart, but I think this says more about the quality of the shoes than anything else. I superglued them back together and they hold up all right, as long as it's not raining.
Not the best picture I've ever seen, but I love Sister Mazer so much. She is one of the strongest people I've ever met. She and our husband took us out to dinner last P-day to celebrate Elder Cancel's last day in the mission.
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