I just have to say that today has been one of the craziest weeks of my
mission! So many things have happened, but they have only strengthened my
testimony in this gospel. I've had some really spiritual experiences this
week. I want to first share with you my experience after you told me about
my Grandma Barton who had passed away. It was definetly a shock. I didn't
expect her to go so soon. When I got off the phone I sat down and talked
with Sister LaMont. She started talking about her prayers and that she has
prayed her whole mission that her grandparents would last until she gets
home from her mission, as she was doing so I had a flash back to around
Father's day. I had a dream around then as I found out my Grandpa's health
has not been very well. In this dream is was this moment with Sister LaMont
where she was talking about her grandparents. I have this kind of thing
happen a lot, a couple times a week, but at that moment I knew that God had
already prepared me for this to happen. I was then able to calm down and
feel the love of the spirit. I reflected on that time and realized that I
had prayed that my Grandpa's health would hold out until I come home from
my mission. So far that prayer is being answered. I know what had happened
was for a reason. I was okay after an hour and was able to go out and work,
which was a great blessing from my Heavenly Father. Today I expected to
have a lot of emails from my dad's side of the family, but I didn't, only
from my mom and cousin who is on a mission too. My mom told me that my
Grandpa had turned to prayer and the scriptures at this time. He has been
inactive my whole life. The day before I left for my mission I went to
visit him because he couldn't come to my farewell. I left him with a BOM
and challenged him to read it before I came home. By father's day he had
read it and was starting it over. Everything that is happening in his life
is softening his heart and helping him come back to the gospel. I'm so
grateful for the oppoturnity I have had to come on a mission, and have the
courage to invite him to do that.
This week I also got a call from the A.P.'s telling me I was going to be
training. I have wanted to train my whole mission. Last transfer when
Sister Connor got her training call I had the thought that I would go to a
new area then train, but as this transfer as progressed, I didn't think it
would happen. I'm excited to start training. I know it will be a great
learning experience for me and that I can really help this new missionary.
Just so you know I will be at the new missionary fireside because we are
having a baptism tonight. Bernard was supposed to get baptized tonight, but
we couldn't ever get a hold of him last week to teach him the last few
lessons we had planned or to plan his baptism. He was never home and never
answered our calls. If he did, he always said he was busy and would call us
back, but never did. It's really sad to see someone not follow-thru, but I
had felt the whole week he wasn't ready. Now there is more time for him to
truly become converted to the gospel and eventually come unto christ.
We did, on the upside, have a lesson with Rocio. We haven't seen her since
the beginning of the transfer, but we never felt the need to go see her. At
this lesson, the spanish elders came to give her and her children
Priesthood blessings in Spanish. During the lesson, she kept saying how she
felt the spirit. Close to the end of the lesson the member the Spanish
Elders brought with them invited her to their branch, but she declined. She
would rather come to our ward which is where her fellowshipper and friend
lives and attends. We invited her to Break the Fast after church on Sunday
and she came! It was really cool to see her come out to the church. It will
be slow with her, but her fellowshipper was telling us that she is thinking
about changing her religion because she sees the happiness that the gospel
brings to her fellowshipper's family. Her daughter also wants to start
coming to mutual activities. I'm excited to see what progress they continue
to make.
This morning we listened to a talk by Bill Carpenter that changed my life.
It was all about his conversion to the gospel then someone else's who he
met on his mission. He met a lady, taught her, and gave her a BOM to read.
They stopped by a few weeks later and found out she had read the whole
thing and wanted to get baptized. Later after her baptism she got a
patriarachal blessing. When she got it in the mail she asked him and his
companion to come over, and read it to her. They wouldn't read it. Then she
explained she was blind and couldn't see, but when she held the BOM in her
hand she knew it was true so she prayed that she could read it and God let
her see the words until she finished reading it. When the Bill Carpenter
realized this he agreed to read her patriarchal blessing to her. In it, it
said she would have come to the gospel twenty years earlier if a young man
who had his call to serve, would have gone on his mission. At that moment
it made me truly grateful that I chose to come on a mission, even when I
doubted that it was what I was supposed to be doing. I know there are
people who need me, and if I wouldn't have come, they wouldn't have an
opportunity to come to the gospel until later in their life. I know this
work is true. I love it so much! I'm grateful for this gospel in my life.
It has given me what I needed to keep going on.
Love Sister Barton
P.S. Did I mention that I got a great reminder that I am in Canada with a
snow storm? Yep, I think I saw all four seasons in one day.
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