Monday, November 14, 2011

Week 10: In our nation's capitol and AMAZING things are happening!

~
Everyone,

The week has been incredible. It was hard to begin with and is still hard sometimes, but something happens when you ask for the Lord's help...

When I am tracting up a street at 8:30 at night and all the stars are out and the moon is bright, and everyone who answers their door is in their pajamas and annoyed that we are there, if I say a prayer, then something amazing happens. It is as if all the rejection, all the rolled eyes and closed doors don't matter as much anymore. The night suddenly becomes beautiful and even though I am cold, I feel at peace and feel warmth radiating inside. I am happy to see the people at every door and even happy when they tell us to leave. I love the people I meet from the moment I learn their names and I wonder about them and pray for them. It is incredible how the Lord is able to show His love for me by making something as hard as tracting late at night into something I can enjoy. 

A lot of astounding things have happened this last week. We found SIX new investigators! We are "white washing" the area (which apparently means starting fresh without any investigators or former knowledge of the area). Therefore, every person we’ve found is someone whom we’ve met by ourselves through tracting. But we already have SIX investigators, and one of them is even progressing! It is so cool. 

Four of the investigators are a little Bolivian family whose mother wants the children to learn about how to pray and be closer to God. We have our next appointment with her on Tuesday night. She allowed us inside after I offered to help her carry in her groceries. She didn't want the help, but did say we could come back later to tell her about the church. Her three children speak English very well and sometimes she needs her oldest daughter, who is ten, to translate for her. But she is so kind. She said that she and her family would definitely come to church next week (they were planning to come last Sunday but it turns out that she didn't want to go when she didn't have what she considered “proper” clothing for her children to wear to church). We are so excited to see them again and try to keep in contact with them as much as possible in the intervening days. Generally, you're supposed to have daily contact with your investigators. We brought them cookies one day and they were really grateful for them.

Another of our investigators is also a man from Bolivia. He lives in the same complex and has a sweet little family: a wife and two little girls. He really wants to know God and to become closer to Him. He has been taught by the missionaries before but he said that they all ran away because he “had too many questions.” We were fortunate to have an exchange person (someone who comes with us to a lesson who is not a missionary) who is fluent in Spanish. She returned from her own mission to Texas in April. It was really helpful she was with us because she was able to explain all of the things that he couldn't understand in English. He asked us his first questions, so we have been studying them to answer him when we meet with him on Tuesday just before with meet with the other Bolivian family.

The other investigator we found is a wonderful young man who was kind enough to let us in to talk with him. He is probably in his mid twenties and he works for a moving company. We are relatively certain that he is in a gang, but he sincerely wants to change his life around. He said that he feels a great emptiness when he wakes up in the morning and guilt for the things he has done. We told him that the Lord can forgive all things if he is willing to repent, and that with the Lord he can have peace in his heart when he wakes up in the morning and peace with him always. He says that he isn't ready to change yet, though he knows that he needs to and he knows that he will eventually. He committed to pray every day until we see him again on Wednesday. He said that he definitely would, too, and even though he was embarrassed, he let us say a prayer at the end of the lesson. He deeply admires people who turn their lives around and are able to get out of situations like he has found himself in, but I don't know if he truly believes that he can actually do the same thing. We want to give him that hope. He doesn't read very well, so I don't know how we are going to assign him things to read from the Book of Mormon, but we will figure it out somehow.

We also have a family who wants to meet with us but who hasn't found the time yet. We met the father the other day while we were going to an appointment which fell through. It was good though because before that time, we had only associated with the mother and their little boy. There are four in that family and they live in a pretty small apartment. They are very family oriented, and the mother wants to make certain that her teenage daughter does not get in with the wrong crowd. We told her about the Young Women's program and are going to drop by a couple “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlets tonight.

There is yet another person we are very excited to teach. She is a friend of one of the ward’s MIA Maids [teen girls who are 14-15 years old] and she’s been reading the Book of Mormon on her own already. She really wants to find the right church because she says she has been feeling quite sad lately knowing she doesn't have God in her life. A minister from another church once offended her parents and they didn't want to have anything to do with religion since…but she still does. We are hoping to stop by her house a few times a week to help her with reading the Book of Mormon. We are going to have a dinner at her friend’s home along with her parents hopefully sometime next week. I am really looking forward to it. The girl is incredibly sweet and thoughtful.

We also had a lesson with a Muslim family. The son knew a lot about the church and has great respect for it because he said that he noticed that Mormons live what they preach. He wanted to know what it was we believe exactly and so we gave him a Book of Mormon accompanied by specific places to read.

We found a man who loves to read and is interested to hear more from us. He is a dog walker, so we walked with him as he walked someone's dog and we explained about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he assured us that he would read it. I pray that he does.

Another woman we met said she would come to church but then didn't show. We hope that she will let us talk with her again soon so we can get to know her better. Every appointment we have had with her she’s cancelled. I would love some prayers for help on this.

I made some cookies where I accidentally added 3 times the amount of salt it’s supposed to have (those darn abbreviations of Tablespoon and teaspoon!). So my companion and I made another double batch of cookies and gave many of them to our investigators and prospectives.

Our first investigator whom I mentioned last week, Dolly from Egypt, is having her birthday on Friday. I tried to make a cake to give her but it sort of epic-ly failed. It was a spectacular mess. So I think now we are going to give her a card.

I have to go now but it has really been a great week. The Lord blessed us immensely. It is hard much of the time, especially when people cancel appointments (which happens almost constantly) but the Lord is with us. If anyone wants to send me a letter while I am here in Washington, D.C., you can go ahead and send it, as I am fairly certain I will receive it before I depart for Slovenia. So please do! I would love to get something in the mail!

Z Ljubezen,

Sestra Ary

Sister Madeleine Ary
Washington D.C. South Mission
5242 Lyngate Ct.
Burke, Virginia 22015

1 comment:

  1. What a soulful and inspiring story. Thank you, Miss Madeleine, for
    sharing your journey with us. It sounds as if this mission of yours is really opening your eyes and your heart. God has blessed you, and us, through your words. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete

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