This week had its ups and downs for sure but overall, it was a pretty good one!
I don't have time to share everything from this week (I never do) but I will share some of the highlights:
- The guy we met last week, Nathan, turned out to be not interested. At all. In fact he spewed anti-Mormon stuff at us for like 2 hours. But that's okay! It taught me a lot and actually strengthened my faith. I don't think that's what he was going for :).
- We found two new investigators this week! The first is a guy named Andrew who recently moved here from California. He was super nice and let us share the first lesson with him and he said he would read from the Book of Mormon and pray. He did also tell us that he has a drinking problem and Sister M and I are really bad at telling when people are drunk or high, so that could be why he was so nice... I guess we will see!
- Our other new investigator is super solid. Her name is Elaine and she has been attending church for years but no one ever asked her if she would like to meet with missionaries until a couple weeks ago! Crazy right? She said she'd love to meet with us and we are having our first lesson tonight.
- We had a great lesson with Bonnie last night and talked about having the intent to act once she receives and answer to prayer. We were super bold with her and talked about how important it is for her to keep baptism in the back of her mind. She does not like being "pushed" into anything but we felt very strongly that we needed to mention baptism and she was fine with it! Pretty crazy! That lesson was one of the few times where I really felt the Spirit taking over and guiding my words. I certainly did not intend to bring up baptism but I guess the Lord really wanted me to!
- I got pulled over! I have never been pulled over in my life and the one time I do, its on my mission. Haha luckily we are in Idaho and most people love missionaries! And it just so happens that we used to teach this cop's brother so he said he would have given me a ticket but because we helped his brother he was going to let me off the hook. Talk about tender mercies!
One more thing I wanted to share: I had an epiphany this week that changed my week and will hopefully continue to change things for the rest of my mission. I realized recently that my selfish nature began to creep in over the past couple months. I think it might be that my companion is really close to going home. Maybe its that my time in the mission field is growing shorter and shorter as well. But I have been thinking more and more about myself. What MY plans are for the future. Blessings coming to ME as a result of MY service. MY gospel questions. MY interests. ME ME ME. I thought I was past all that. I thought I was finally good at being selfless. Buuuut nope! I think I might always have to do an occasional inventory of my self to make sure things aren't becoming all about me.
So after I had this realization, I decided to change it. The next day I spent all my efforts focused on the people we were teaching. I thought about ways to improve the area. My studies were focused on the people we were teaching instead of my own questions. And guess what? I was the happiest I had been in a long time! I had a great day and felt the spirit in much greater abundance. In fact, I think having such a great day prepared me to be able to teach by the spirit in Bonnie's lesson.
I plan to keep selfish thoughts out of my mind for the rest of my mission (and of course, the rest of my life). We are so much happier that way.
I love you all so much and appreciate your encouragement and love.
Until next time,
Sister Park
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