How are you all!? I love you all so much! I loved your letters and e-mails so much this week and I am so grateful for all of you! I will continue to pray for you in all of the individual things you are going through.
I was feeling really discouraged and down at one point this past week, and feeling like I had failed my investigators. It was at a point where one investigator had dropped us and the rest weren't contacting us back and just a lot of things were all happening at once. When I said my prayer that night, I poured my heart out to my Heavenly Father and expressed everything I was feeling to Him. When I ended my prayer, I felt prompted to open the Book of Mormon, so I did, and I opened immediately to the scripture in Mormon 5:23 that says:
"Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that He hath all power, and at His great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll?"
It was just very comforting to me know that we are all in the hands of God and that He has all power. I am so grateful for this, and grateful to know that I can't mess this work up. The salvation of these people and their happiness is not dependent on me being perfect. I know that this is true for all of us, for He loves us. Lately, it has struck me that God commands us to pray. He wants and commands us to speak with Him daily because He loves us. How amazing is that!? That the most powerful Being in the universe wants us to talk to Him everyday. We don't have to hold all of the things in that we are struggling with, and we don't have to carry the burden alone. He is so aware of us and He has never forgotten us. I know this, because I felt it so much this week, and throughout my life.
In honor of Thanksgiving happening in less than two weeks, I am going to theme my e-mail as a "things-I-am-grateful-for-
1. Jan AND her husband Jack came to church yesterday!!! We walked into sacrament meeting yesterday at 7:50 (it starts at 8:00) and the chapel was almost empty. However, all of our investigators that said they were coming, were already there! They are all so great! It was kind of surreal, and it almost didn't feel like real life. It was a great sacrament meeting for all of them too. BTW, church on a mission has turned into a very stressful thing at times. The whole time, I am always stressed about what's getting said and how our investigators are going to take it. I need to trust in the Lord though more and stop worrying. That has been a common theme of my mission thus far.
2. Jan came to a baptism on Saturday!! It was so great! This cute little Chinese man named Tony got baptized, and the Spirit was so strong. She kept saying over and over how much she liked it! Also, we found out at the baptism that at Jan's baptism, she was annointed with oil by the priest and that was it. This is very odd to me, for she is very concerned about following the example of Jesus Christ, yet she was never baptized by immersion, which was His example and this is the way He showed for us to be baptized. Regardless, it was fantastic and a really good experience for her!
3. Jan tried to drop us, but didn't! We went to her house on Wednesday and she was telling us her thoughts about baptism, and how she just didn't feel like she could be baptized again. She talked for about 30 minutes telling all the reasons why she didn't think she could be baptized, but how she still sees us as friends and wants it to remain that way. After talking her way through it, she concluded that she still wanted to come to church on Sunday and go to a baptismal service. She also said she would keep praying about being baptized, and she felt that she would know by Sunday.
4. Keren read the Book of Mormon!! We had a lesson with her on Thursday night at a member's home and she reported that she had read it! She is progressing again and seems much more excited and willing to keep her commitments!
5. Sandra dropped us, but her husband's testimony is burning strong! Also she wants us to continue to teach her daughter Lizedth all the lessons, and let her decide if she wants to be baptized again. On Tuesday, we went over to teach Lizedth and Sandra came in and started asking us all these questions about our church, in a very contentious way. Her biggest concern was the Word of Wisdom, and specifically in why we have been commanded to not drink coffee and tea. She got upset about how it only says "hot drinks" in the Doctrine and Covenants and she started talking about all of her family members who drank coffee and tea and lived to be 100 years old. The Spirit was not there at all, and she was not willing to listen to anything we had to say. We left as soon as we could and then I wrote a lettter, that we delivered to her on Friday. When we saw her Friday, we asked if she wanted us to continue to teach her. She asked if she could be baptized and still drink coffee, we said no, and she said okay, and that was it. It makes me so sad that she is letting this one little thing keeping her come the joy of this gospel and all the blessings that come from it. Her husband Ignacio is really doing amazing though, and I have seen him progress so much as we have been teaching her.
6. Robert is still Robert. He is doing so great! We had two lessons with him this past week and he came to church again! We are teaching him the commandments tomorrow!
7. People feed us all the time! I have found that it is a universal sign of love - people always send us out of their homes with goodies which is really really sweet. If we ate all of them though, we would probably gain 5 or more pounds a week. Maybe this is bad, but we have been able to bless other people's lives by giving them some of the food we receive. For example, the other night we came home with a bunch of fresh chocolate chip cookies that a member had given us. When we got out of our car, there was a man getting into his car and we asked him if he liked chocolate chip cookies. He said that he loved them, so we gave him the cookies and he just seemed so happy! Maybe we were supposed to have the cookies so we could give them to him? Anyway, we have just seen so many little instances like that this week and we have been so blessed!
8. We found two new investigators this week! One of them is named Meng Tian, and he referred himself onmormon.org. He came from China just a little bit ago and he wants to learn about God and religion. We gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon the first time we saw him, and gave him the commitment to read the introduction. We saw him this last Friday for the second time and he had read it! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it! He is still trying to figure out if there is a God, and we told him by reading and praying everyday, he is coming closer to God and he will know that there is a God. He got so excited when we told him this! He is just so great! I wish you could all meet these people and be best friends with them!
Our other new investigator is named Joan West and we met her at the Potomac Nursing Home, that we visit Alma at. We have taught her the first two lessons, and she always prays about what we teach her and is progressing so much. She is blind, so we are working on getting her a Book of Mormon that she can listen to.
9. The Priesthood and Priesthood blessings
10. Moroni, Helaman and the stripling warriors. I love them so much! They are so amazing and I want so much to be like them!
11. The ward members! I wish they could see how much we love them, and we don't come over just to get referrals. I feel so much love for them, and I wish all these people could see how great and amazing they are!
12. Rob, the less active we are working with, found a ride to church by hitchhiking on the corner yesterday! Whenever we offer to get him a ride, he always tells us that he'll just go stand on this busy corner with his thumb up and wait for someone to pick him up. This usually turns into an excuse to sleep in. So yesterday, his home teacher was planning to pick him up for church, but the home teacher slept in and Rob's phone stopped working that morning! Obvisouly, the adversary did not want him at church that day! However, Rob still chose to walk down to the corner and wait for a ride, when lo and behold, a ward member drove by and picked him up. I just felt so proud of Rob for not sleeping in and for still trying to get a ride, and I am so grateful that the Lord provided a ride for him.
13. The weather is amazing here!! It was so cold for a little bit, but it has been beautiful the past couple of days!
14. Hot chocolate stand! Our zone decided to do hot chocolate stands at two metro stations this past Wednesday and it was so great! We passed our hot chocolate, sang hymns, gave out pass along cards, festival of light fliers and copies of the Book of Mormon. It was so much fun and I felt like such a missionary!
15. We are all facebook friends again! Woo-hoo!!
Much love to you all!!! I am so grateful for you! Have a safe, happy and blessed week!
Until next Monday,
Sister Chelsea Marie Akin
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