THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY!!!!
So Tuesday I went on exchanges with Sister Francis. It was way fun to be back with a previous companion! My favorite part of the exchange was being able to see Desi. Just a refresher, I taught her when I was here last time and then she got baptized in February. She attends the Plainfield family ward. She has since moved in with a member family. We taught them about Elder Bednar's talk "Bear Up our Burdens with Ease". At the end of the lessons I asked the family if there was anything we could do for them. The father of the household said yes, I ahve a question that maybe you can help answer. He asked how he could get ride of the burdens in his life that weren't providing the necessary spiritual traction. I didn't really know what to say. I gave some long answer that probably didn't make any sense. But what I took away from that was his humility. He said she since we had been set apart to teach maybe we could help answer his question. Members never cease to amaze me. I'm grateful for what he taught me that day.
So basically Wednesday was our last proselyting day of the week. Sister Gil and I set ridiculously high goals for the day, teaching 15 lessons to be exact. We didn't have single appointment scheduled so we would spend the entire day pcing campus. I was definitely exhausted by the end of the day. We didn't reach 15, but we did get 10. A new record for me!
Then on Thursday we had MLC at the mission home. I learned so much! First off both President Cleveland and the assistants trained on key indicators and there purpose. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite other to come unto Christ. How do we do that? Through finding investigators and teaching lessons, both of which are reflected in key indicators. He also talked about goals. We have a goal as a mission to baptize 121 people in two transfers which ends at the end of the month. I think we are at about 70 people. President explained that it doesn't matter if we reach it our not. What matters is that we push ourselves to meet it. Even if we don't meet the goal, we will probably have had more baptisms than if we hadn't set the goal. I applied it to my experience the previous day. We didn't reach our goal, but I know we taught a lot more than we would have if we had set a lower goal. We set goals not so we can reach them 100% of the time, but so we can push ourselves and grow from it. In the afternoon President spoke on conversion. It was really just what I needed. One of the scriptures that he shared was 2 Corinthians 13:5
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
He talked about the importance of taking time to examine ourselves and waht we are doing to show conversion. What I personally got out of the scriptures was the importance of proving to ourselves what we are capable of doing. Heavenly Father knows exactly what each of us are capable of doing, but we often don't see the potential in ourselves. I remember at a youth fireside long ago the speaker said that we aren't here on earth to prove Heavenly Father that we can make it back to the Celestial Kingdom, but we are here to prove it to ourselves. I also love our Jesus Christ is in all of us. This made me think of grace. We are capable of doing anything with the help of our Savior. I loved being able to sit in the basement of the mission home and be taught by President Cleveland. It's such a blessing to be around him more often.
Friday was a lot of fun! In the afternoon most of the zone got together and we had a picnice and did some "olympic" stuff. Like sack races, stick pull, water balloon tosses and the limbo. That evening we went downtown and got some food and sat on the circle center steps. That was a very interesting experience. As I sat there I just people watched and that hundreds of people around me. I could actually feel how I was set apart from the world. I started talking to one of the elders and he said he felt the same way. That night we got to stay out until 10:30 to watch fireworks! We sat along the White River and watched them shoot them off from downtown. I have to admit, they were quite disappointing compared to the Celebration of Lights.
Saturday night a girl we had met on Monday texted us and invited us to come to church with her. On Friday I had been telling Sister Gil how I've always wanted to attend another church. We didn't have any of our early morning meetings on Sunday so we decided to go! It was just a non-denominational church. It was crazy! We get out of the car and I can already hear the band playing. We walk in and there's people dancing in the front of the church. Iman goes up and Sister Gil and I just sit in the back and watch. After about a half hour the service finally begins. They take communion, we didn't. The preacher didn't actually speak, but just a member of the congregation. Afterwards the guy sitting next to me knew it was our first time and after I introduced myself he asked if we were Catholic. I explained that we were Mormon missionaries. I think he was quite taken back. He admitted that they service was pretty crazy but that we should come back again. He was definitely working hard. Then I whipped out my mormon.org cards and started explaining more about who were were.
Unfortunately we were late for church so we didn't get to take the sacrament. But we had four people at church! After that experience I had just had I knew I needed to bear my testimony. As I was sitting at that non-dem church I realized that we have the entire truth. Those people love God, but they are missing so much. If anything that experience gave me a clearer perspective of my purpose. But I've never been so grateful to walk into a chapel in my life! I coudl feel the Spirit immediately as I walked in and I was very glad to be able to listen to people share their testimonies. One of the investigators that came was Kiki. She's from China and we met her a couple weeks ago but haven't seen her since. She even brought her boyfriend! After sacrament meeting they always have visiting/new people stand and introduce themselves. I told Kiki that if she didn't feel comfortable doing it that I could do it for her. She was just fine with it! She got up, said her name, that she was going to school at IUPUI, and wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. The members SWARMED her afterwards to introduce themselves to her. I was a very happy missionary :) The rest of church was great, members were very nice to all our investigators at our break the fast after church.
Elliot should be getting baptized this Saturday. We are very, very excited! This week is also going to be crazy, but good. The time keeps going by faster and faster.
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