Hello Family!
Well. This week was
rough. Not gonna lie! I had a bit of an emotional breakdown last night thinking
I was a cursed missionary and I'm never gonna teach or baptize anyone again,
but just like the tornado this week, it passed. hahaha But really! I am okay now. The Lord is always, always
there for you, just waiting to show you His love.
Some exciting things
that happened this week:
-We spent three hours
at the Urgent care cause Sister Tuala was still not doing good so I (forced)
her to the doctor. Sinus Infection. We got the good stuff and she is doing much
better!
-We had LOTS of people
tell us no thanks.
-We survived a
Tornado.
-We drove miles out of
our area without realizing it.
-We had dinner with an
entire family of Baptist Seminary Students and made it out alive.
So that gives you an
idea of our week. We did have a wonderful lesson in a member home with a Recent
Convert named Karen! She was baptized just a couple months ago and we have
taken over teaching her the new member lessons. Her niece, Brittney, is a
member in the ward and she actually just received her mission call to the Salt
Lake City South mission. (can't remember if I talked about her yet or not).
Anyways, She goes out with us all the time and we have a lot of fun. We also
found 1 new investigator last week, who was a former investigator and is
interested again! All good things.
So I will give you a
run down of our dinner with the BSS. It was with Natalie and Marti's families.
In case you have forgotten, we tracted into Marti who then invited Natalie for
our next visit to try to convince us that our religion is wrong. They then
invited us back for dinner. Saturday night was the dinner. Dinner was good, the
conversation was good, until we discovered that Natalie's husband USED TO BE A
MEMBER. It all made sense then. How she
knew so much about the church, all her weird questions. His whole family is still active, served
missions, etc. but he left when he was about 20 and now is studying at the
seminary with his wife. Talk about someone who is seriously misguided. Their
countenances can change in an instance as soon as anything comes up about
religion. It is weird because since he
was a member, he already knows the answers were going to give him, and then
whatever we say he's just going to twist around. Thankfully we were able to
leave before things got too crazy. He asked us 3 questions, Did we believe
Jesus Christ was God? or a God? Did we believe Jesus Christ was Divine and when
did he become divine? and then asked us how Jesus Christ's eternal progression
was different from ours. Yeah we didn't really try to answer any of those, but
Sister Tuala is a boss and told him to read "Jesus the Christ" and
he'd find all his answers. Our ride
forgot to pick us up and was gonna be late so we were able to sweet talk our
way outta there and ran, literally ran down the street to the Harness's. Thank goodness for them! They were our saving
grace.
Well enough of that,
this week I read an incredible talk titled "The Fourth Missionary" by
Lawrence E. Corbridge. I highly
recommend, not just to missionaries! In
it, he talks about 4 different missionaries. He calls the way of the Fourth Missionary,
"unconditional surrender."
"In
addition to giving his time, talents and energy to the Lord, the Fourth
Missionary gives himself. He gives his
will to the Lord. He surrenders all of his desires, his dreams, his wishes to the
Lord. In his heart and in his head he lets go of what he wants to do. He wants
to do the Lord's will" He goes on to say, "If you're not happy, if
you are frustrated or resentful, look inside. It is within you. Jesus said: "The
kingdom of God is within you." It is in your head and in your heart. It starts in your head and then our heart
follows. You only need say to the Lord in your head, "I give up. I
surrender. I won't fight anymore. Here
it is. Here are my desires. Here is my will. I want only to do what you want me to do.
That's enough for me. That's all I want, because it is the only intelligent
thing to do."
That's not just
missionary work, that is the whole purpose of the gospel, giving up our will to
the Lord. It is the only way and the easiest way. Regardless of others trying
to discourage or disprove, I choose to believe in this gospel because it is the
only intelligent thing to do.
Keep on keeping
on.
Love, Sister Dearden
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