Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Golden


This week we had an awesome experience in a lesson with a new investigator named Kelly. She was a member referral who came to church. We met her when she came to Gospel Principles. We had a good lesson about the Holy Ghost and Kelly understood the Holy Ghost to be kind of like 'your conscience' and was really excited to learn more. She was really excited to be there because she has wanted to come to the Mormon church for a long time now but she couldn't while she lived with her aunt and uncle. They were Catholic and didn't allow her to go to any other church while she lived with them. However, she just moved out and wanted to go to the Mormon church. She didn't like how her Catholic church treated her and preached about the afterlife because she thought it seemed pretty harsh. She really admired her Mormon friends who valued service and families so much. Anyway, after the Gospel Principles lesson we let her keep the Gospel Principles manual and she wanted a Book of Mormon to read so we grabbed one from the car. She also loved Relief Society and wanted to keep the Lorenzo Snow book.

We had our first real lesson with Kelly this week at her friend Erika's house. It was EPIC! If there was such thing as a perfect lesson then this was it. We wanted to get to know her in this lesson and set up expectations. When we got there, she told us that she had read the ENTIRE Gospel Principles manual. She found it all really interesting especially the parts about Adam and Eve. She had questions about the War in heaven and Lucifer's plan, which was new to her because she only knew about Jesus's plan. We told her that we would answer those questions in the next few lessons. She then told us about her experiences at church and had questions about why the girls where skirts/dresses and why we fold our arms when we pray. We had a good lesson about expectations, lessons, commitments, and we even talked a little bit about prophets and priesthood. We felt impressed to give her a baptismal date at the end and she was soooo excited. She is already inviting people to it! She was super excited about being able to go to the temple and she really wants to meet the prophet--she is pretty much golden! It was a way cool experience to see someone so elect. I know that God has been preparing her to hear the gospel by placing her member friend Erika into her life. That experience strengthened my faith in member missionary work and how extremely effective it is and also that the Lord is preparing people in my area to hear the gospel and we just have to find them!
This week we also had exchanges with two of our Sister Training Leaders- Sister Egginton and Tukuafu. They have both served in my area before so it was cool to have them there. They gave us great advice and it was an awesome experience to work with other missionaries. My area is on the outskirts of the mission so we don't really ever get to see other sisters until exchanges once a transfer. We are also the only sisters in our zone. But we had a really good time this week. We did a lot of tracting to try to find new people to teach since our teaching pool has gotten pretty low lately.
Also I LOVE CHRISTMAS! We watched the Christmas devotional which was awesome! We also have been singing Christmas hymns a lot which has brought the Spirit into our companionship so much.
We also went to a Zone Training where we talked about the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion. We practiced teaching the first discussion by reading 1 Nephi with investigators. You can teach God is our loving heavenly father and the gospel blesses families by reading verse 1 and talking about Nephi's family and even though he has seen many afflictions, he has been favored of the Lord (Loving Heavenly Father). Then we talked about prophets (verse 4) and the role that they have to cry repentance or warn the people. We talked about prayer with verse 5 when Lehi prays on behalf of his people. Verse 6 is a cool parallel to Joseph Smith's first vision (pillar of light/pillar of fire that lehi sees); it shows us that the way that God calls prophets is the same in the Book of Mormon and now with Joseph Smith. We talked about the difference between God and Jesus Christ with verses 8 and 9 because two Persons are described (one sitting on a throne and One descending from heaven). We talked about the Godhead. Then we taught Christ's earthly ministry with verse 10 (12 others that descend/follow Christ). We then talk about Christ giving Lehi a book (verse 11) and ask the investigator if Christ has given us a book today (the Book of Mormon). Then we talked about blessings of reading the book of mormon (verse 12)- being filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Then we talked about apostacy/people killing prophets with verse 20. Then we talk about the Restoration but I haven't found a scripture to talk about that. Then we read verse 20 and talk about the promise of tender mercies and that God will help us to overcome anything if we have faith.
That lesson plan has been awesome because people can really feel the power of the Book of Mormon and it also helps them to become comfortable with the language when we read with them and interpret it with them. It is also really casual and it doesn't really feel like we are teaching formally because we just read scripture, ask questions, and apply it. It has helped me to gain a greater appreciation for the converting power of the book of mormon.
Anyway, missionary work is awesome. I love it! 
Merry Christmas!
Love, love, love!
Sister Bledsoe ;)
 My Christmas Tree

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