REAL PERSONAL SACRIFICE

Ello E'rybody!  

Happy Monday to you all! You probably don't think so because some of you are in the real world! Hah!  

This week has gone by SO incredibly fast... I thought Saturday was like Wednesday or something.. good heavens. But we have been having amazing things happen! We got 3 referrals this week! That's a lot, if ya didn't know. Haha. We haven't been able to meet with any of them yet, but we have an appointment on Tuesday for 2 of them. ️ that will be awesome! The other referral we don't have valid contact info for yet.. so. That's a work in progress... as for our finding, we found 6 new 'gators this week! So it has been a good week! Super blessed. They literally just come to us... it's crazy! 

Lots of good lessons! Here's our highlights! 

Chelsea:

Quick background, she is an investigators roommate who we haven't been able to see since I have been here. So we stopped by and Chelsea was sitting in the porch! She's is SO golden!  it almost like.. "okay. Who paid you to be this interested....?" BUT SHE WAS FOR REALZ!  #MiraclesForDays!  

Stopped by to see Jennifer, but Chelsea was out on the porch and let us know that Jen wasn't home. We had met her before and she was super nice. We asked if we could share a message with her. She was super open to it and excited. She said that the Mormon church has always resonated with her for some reason so she really wanted to learn more! Shared Prince of Peace. She said she really liked it. We talked about our purpose as missionaries and that the message we have brings so much peace. Touched super fast in the Restoration. She had mentioned before that she was super interested in coming to church. Said this weekend she was super busy. But next weekend she should be able to come. She brought up the Book of Mormon and said she would also love to read it. Gave her one and invited her to read the intro. She is SO solid! We also gave her a plan of Salvation Pamphlet because we asked her to pray so we taught her how and let her know what the Plan is and that it answers all the questions of the soul. She was super excited about that. Invited her to read that too. It went SO well!! 

Diane:

Quick background again. She is kind of an "eterna-gator". She has been meeting with missionaries for a long time. She is SO logical! Too intellectual for her own good.... so it's interesting because she picks everything apart but completely misses the point. This was the first time I met her. Sister Singleton said it went SO well! So that's cool!  it was awesome because I was able to bare powerful testimony to her.. it was really cool. It definitely strengthened me! Haha. I have missed that. 

Went back to the basics with Diane. We talked about the restoration with her and she couldn't remember too much of it. We focused on Joseph Smith and shared the new video called Ask of God. She liked this video and said it was easier to understand what he went through. She explained to us all that she knew about him. We related her to him and how she's searching for truth like he was. She liked that he had an open mind to a new religion. We invited her to pray about Joseph Smith on her knees. She still struggles to understand why we should kneel. She says she'll come on Sunday. She wants to read from Book of Mormon with us still. She doesn't get the priesthood. She feels the priests in other church have the same authority as men in our church. She didn't understand the difference. We bore powerful testimony to her about the truthfulness of the gospel. The spirit was SO strong. She felt it, you could tell. But she told us again how she's not ready to take the leap of faith to be baptized. It's not something she feels is necessary for her yet. She just wants to keep learning. She does enjoy us coming and doesn't want us to stop coming. 

We met with a lot of other people this week. Most of them, especially less Actives, we are reading in the Book of Mormon with them. It's so cool to see how it makes a difference and that the spirit brings questions to their minds. They really begin to think about everything. It's really cool! 

A miracle we saw this week. So we had a lesson in Durham but we didn't want to drive back to Chico just yet. So Sister Singleton felt prompted to stop by this members home, Sister Daarude. Her husband and a couple kids had all past away within the last couple years, all on separate occasions. So we were just going to see her and hopefully uplift her in some way. Once we got there, she let us in and we just sat down and it was SO awkward. We were all like uh... okay. Welp. And we were wondering why we were there. Then she suddenly calls out to Richard in the kitchen and invited him to come in. We had no idea who Richard was.. eventually we came to find out that Richard is her non member boyfriend! Well!!! You can imagine how stoked we were to have stumbled across him! Haha. We shared the Prince of Peace and he was super open to it. More the religious aspect though. Not necessarily our church... BUT! Sister Daarude did say they had a great conversation afterwards.  nothing has come from it yet, BUT! One day he will join the church, I can feel it!  so that was just something really cool! 

As for Robbie... yeah that didn't happen.. ☹️ he was too busy to meet with us so we couldn't even plan it. It's sad because he is kind of putting his baptism on the back burner for now... so yeah. That was a bummer.. 

Super funny story!!  so! Sister Singleton and I both sleep talk! So the other night I remember I heard her say something to me and then I got my iPad and I was like "do you want it now?" And I just went looking for an address or something on my iPad. Suddenly I realized what was happening... I slowly put my iPad back and was glad no one saw that. Haha!!! Yes, we did indeed sleep talk to each other!! We always joked about that but who knew it would actually happen! I also was sleep talking super loud the other night and she was making fun of me. I was like "Nooormaaa!! What! That's not her name!..... what's my name...?"  what the heck was I dreaming about! Good times!  

Something I have been doing is reading the Book of Mormon with the institute manual and writing down quotes and sticking them in my Book of Mormon. It is amazing to see that the word of God continues. Words from the prophets of literally all ages are building up in the Book of Mormon! It's so cool! One quote that really stuck out to me from doing this is this quite by Elder Neal A. Maxwell.

It says:

"Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal in the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed." This has really hit me. I have seen that it is SO hard to give up that "animal" or the "natural man" within us. And it is absolutely a sacrifice. But the rewards and blessings for sacrificing our inner animal are monumental. That's what this life is all about. Sacrificing our inner animal. It is also an ongoing process. There's another quote by C.S Lewis that talks about this same idea. I'll take a picture of it and attach it. It's from the 4th missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge. Overcoming the natural man is the hardest challenge that I have had to face as I have been out. But there is nothing more rewarding. I have been able to see myself being transformed into a more Christlike person. That is only possible through the grace of the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so very grateful for Him and the relationship I have with Him.  He is my everything. I know He lives. 

Thanks for all you guys do! I love all of you! I hope you have an awesome week! 

Love ya! 

Sister Hood