This week has been SO. EXHAUSTING. Oh my goodness. Between mini-exchanges, transfers, and all of the things we’ve gone through in trying to find our way around, I didn’t think I was going to make it until PDay, or that we’d even be able to find our way home at night. Taking over this area has been hard – it feels just like we’ve been doubled in! My most frequently asked question to myself: “What the heck was I doing these last 6 weeks when Hermana Harston was explaining everything?” D:
But, because His grace is sufficient, we’ve made it through 🙂 Hahah somehow, we were able to find the places we needed to be at, and although there are still a lot of loose threads to tie up, I’m sure we’ll get there.
I want to talk about miracles, though, because we’ve SEEN them! First and foremost:
H E L I A D O R A C A M E T O C H U R C H !!!!!!
She’s a less active woman who has been to church maybe twice in her 5+ years living in Terrace Heights. We’ve been visiting her weekly, we’ve taken members, and we’ve been inviting, and she’s been promising (and cancelling), and -just- when we were about to give up on her, SHE CAME! And she brought one of the little girls that she’s fostering (Bianne – 4 years old) and I just wept in my pew. I read this talk that Hermana Taua has about how 98% of missionary work is hard work, discouragement, frustration and weariness. But there’s 2% that is PURE JOY, and it’s what makes all of the other 98% bearable for these 18 months. And when I saw her walk into Sacrament, that 2% was there. And so many others felt it, too. I’ve never seen someone be so well received in my life. And there were a swell of other less-actives who had come back that day, as well. The Spirit and the love was so strong. So, while we didn’t have any investigators come, The Lord still got one of his sheep back 🙂
One of the reasons we didn’t have any investigators at church is because our two most incredible investigators are in Seattle for the next 3 days. Womp womp. Their names are Maria and Emmanuel. We met Maria 2 weeks or so ago, and she invited us and the entire Pimentel family into her house, she listened to the Retoration message, she asked some good questions, but in the end she didn’t seem too excited about our baptismal invite. She shakily agreed to read the pamphlet that her 2 year old was tearing to shreds, we promised her blessings – it was great. But she wouldn’t set a return appointment. So of course we couldn’t find her at home for the next little while… BUT! On our 2nd night together, Hermana Taua and I were in the Beaudry Trailers, and lo and behold, her giant, angry German Shepard wasn’t patrolling her house! So we knocked, got let in right away, and had an incredible lesson in which she told us she’d read the pamphlet with her daughter, she had a question about the atonement, and her non-religious boyfriend was there, so she started teaching HIM the restoration, and having HIM read in the pamphlet and asking HIM questions. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen! In teaching to their needs, we learned that they really didn’t know that Heavenly Father loves them, and they hadn’t prayed to establish even a relationship with Him, so we committed them to do that and they asked us to come over again on the day they get back from Seattle 🙂 So that was super cool. Although it would have been way cooler if they’d have been able to come to church this Sunday because…
The Sunday School lesson was on Eternal Families! And they have a cute little family that they want to be eternal! There was a returning member family in the class through, and an investigating couple, though, so that made it super fun 🙂 I was asked asked to teach the class about, oh, 3 minutes before it started, so the fact that it went well at all is a complete miracle. I have a firm testimony of the Lord qualifying those whom He calls, although those were still the most nerve-wracking 45 minutes of my life.
So we’ve had some really cool things happen this week 🙂 The Lord is definitely very merciful to us.
On Friday night, as I was trying to figure out where some potentials live (which I had visited on multiple occasions before), I just started crying in the car as we were turning around for the umpteenth time because I felt so completely overwhelmed with my inadequacies for the task of taking over the area. We said a super humble, sincere prayer, asking Heavenly Father to just guide us to where we needed to go, I stiffened up my upper lip, we got out of the car, and we started walking. As we were praying, I had seen in my minds eye the right way to go to get to the house we were looking for. The entire time we were hiking up the long route, I just had one thought running through my head: “If we can find Lupita’s house, we can do this. If we can just find Lupita’s house, I know we can do this.” And after 10 minutes of walking, with no more turning around/getting lost, we found it. And even though no one answered the door, and it was almost time to head back, I know we can do it. We can do this transfer by the same power that lead us through the darkened streets of Moxee all the way up the winding hill to Lupita’s house: with the help of the Lord.
So keep me in your prayers! 🙂 I hope y’all have a FABULOUS week!
Leah Arnett, one of the wonderful sisters who attends our weekly Bible Class every Monday night at the Brookdale Senior Living Center. She has several grandsons serving missions right now, and she played a key role in the conversion of her husband, Lee. Lee and Leah are some of the highest caliber people I’ve ever met, and Mr. Lee can play just about any instrument he touches, with or without music.
This was taken the last time Hermana Harston and I went to the Salvation Army in Yakima together. It was also the last day we had to hang out with Sister Moetala who returned home to Samoa this past Friday. Every week in the basement of the Salvation Army we work with this incredible lady named Annie who has been clean and sober for the last 6 months now, and has completely turned her life around through strong faith in the atonement, and sincere repentance.
Hermana Mrozek // Kennewick Washington Mission 