I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! Sister T and I had a meeting in the morning about ipads- our entire mission now has them along with facebook. I am basically done cleaning mine up so I will be posting stuff soon! Be sure to share it or like it or even better find some things you love and post them on your wall! I love using facebook as a missionary tool. I have seen soo many miracles and I am excited now to get to use my own facebook from home to share my testimony. Blessings!!
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| Halloween Costumes |
So let me think what else happened this week... We are just so busy! I wish I could remember all of the tender mercies that we see every day. It is just so hard to capture what it is really like to be on a mission and I know my emails definitely do not do it justice. But I try!
So this area I am in right now is probably one of the hardest areas I have been in my whole mission. It is so hard to find people! We have tried soo many different things. We finally came to the conclusion that we HAVE to work through the members. duh. That's always the answer lol You guys need to be inviting people over and having the missionaries come and teach. Help them find appointments! Missions in America are just so different than foreign missions and we need the help of the ward. We had a really cool experience this week that goes along with that. So our high counselor over missionary work (Brother Free btw he knows the Coltons!) lives in our ward and he made a commitment to us at the beginning of the transfer that he was going to have somebody ANYBODY in his home to teach on October 30th. He said he was going to do everything he could to invite somebody to meet with us and if it ended up being another active family in the ward or a potential investigator he was going to make it happen. Such faith! It made me super excited! Why don't we all do that? I mean really what could it hurt? And I promise that the missionaries will LOVE you for it :) So anyways the 30th came around and Brother Free told us he had invited a man he home teaches who has been inactive for about 5 years maybe more. This man told him that he was really looking for a change in his life and asked him if he has read any good motivating books. So Brother Free took this as a missionary opportunity and told him to reread the Book of Mormon. He then invited him to meet with us so that we could share the message of the restoration with him and explain more about the Book of Mormon. The man accepted! So Sister T's English is coming along really well but wow we really had to practice A LOT. I was kind of nervous, but I knew the spirit would help her- and me too! The spirit was soooo strong in that lesson!! I just love hearing the simple testimony of my sweet companion. It truly was a miracle and I was just so grateful for Brother Free in helping us to fulfill our purpose. Family, you need to help the missionaries. It's not hard! Invite people and then invite the missionaries as well. Help them fulfill their purpose and I know our ward will see miracles. Brother Free later called us and told us this man was very touched. We have a lesson planned with him this week again. I love seeing how missionary work has evolved- even since I began my mission! This truly is the work of salvation.
Ok so a not so pleasant experience to tell you about. I had a nasty run in with an anti. We were out at dinner with a cute grandpa and his grandson. It was so great and a sweet lady walked by and said "Hi sisters!" We said hi back and that's when I first heard him.... I thought he was talking directly to me because we was sitting in the booth right behind us. Oh my gosh this was one of the most horrible experiences I have had. He was talking loudly enough so that I could hear so I thought at first that maybe he was joking. He was saying such horrible things! I just thought to myself just ignore and don't make a scene. If I react than he wins and I didn't want to give him that so I tried my very best to ignore. I could hear the lady he was sitting with ask him to please stop talking about it and to be more quiet but he just wouldn't stop. He was clearly listening to our conversation and was making such rude and degrading comments about things. I just thought to myself who thinks like that? Why are some people so mean? Finally I just couldn't take it anymore and I very politely turned around (remembering that I am wearing a name tag and that I am representing the church...) asked him to please stop and told him that his comments were very offensive. I then went ahead and corrected him on some of the things he had said. The poor woman looked mortified and the man was just like "oh my bad I didn't know you could hear me" I looked in his eyes and it was just like darkness. The lady said they would stop and I thanked them and turned back around. Of course the man did not stop, but thankfully they left very shortly after that. As you can imagine that experience left a very bad taste in my mouth. Sister T thankfully couldn't understand the things he was saying, but she could tell that I was upset. It was a miracle that we were weekly planning that night so we went home and I just cried. I can't even tell you how sad I felt for that man. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such good people. All of you my family and my friends bring such a light into my life. When we allow dark and negative influences into our life it is like befriending that man. I wish people would ask themselves do I really want to be on that side? I am so grateful to stand on the side with all of you, with the Prophet Thomas S Monson and with the Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that we know what to do to find happiness in this life and it just breaks my heart to see people so absorbed in negativity and lies. Jesus Christ himself tells us the things we need to do in the Book of Mormon and the Bible.
Matthew 26:25, "And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall observe to do the things which ye have seen me do, and bear record of me even unto the end". and 3 Nephi 27:21 "Verily, verily I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do, that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do".
So that is the question..."what would Jesus do?". Jesus loved everyone! He was obedient to His Father and He kept all of the commandments. Our love for the Savior Jesus Christ must be our motivation in all things that we do in this life. Every day as I present the
"If ye love me keep my commandments" John 14:15.
We all need to increase our love for, loyalty to, and trust in the Savior Jesus Christ. This is not an easy task in the world we live in today, but I know that we can try! There's a line in the very beginning of preach my gospel that I LOVE. It says:
More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children.
I know that promise is extended to all of us! The secret to happiness in this life is to follow the example of the Savior Jesus Christ.
I love you all! Sorry I know it probably seems like I ramble a lot in these emails, but there are just sooo many thoughts going through my head! We also saw a miracle on Halloween night when a recent convert from Gable ward came in that I hadn't seen in forever!!! She has been struggling with smoking and has just been having a hard time. It was such a miracle! I sat down and talked with her and mom I shared with her the talk you told me about in your letter :) Thank you sooo much for writing that to me!! I loved it and know that it has now helped somebody else too!
I love you all sooo much and hope you have an amazing week!! I just can't believe it's November. I am seriously freaking out. I keep thinking it's summer! Probably because it's still in the 80's lol. LOVE YOU!!!
Love,
Sister Hamstead
ps we went hiking this morning!! Woke up at 4:30 and a big group of us went up to Las Sendas area and hiked up to the wind caves. Soo beautiful! The desert really does have it's own beauty :)