Hey Y'all!
Latter-day Prophets?!?! That should catch peoples' attention! Unfortunatley it didn't worked out like we had hoped....
Don't get me wrong! I LOVED conference! Especially as a missionary, it's like Christmas. Literally, I couldn't sleep Friday night because of anticipation and my companion and I jumped out of bed Saturday morning because we were so excited (and that doesn't happen often at 6:30am, my friends).
Could you believe it?! 15,000,000 members and 80,000 misisonaries! Pretty amazing. That just goes to show how true this is.
So the sad thing about this week: I don't know if y'all remember or not, but in my last email, I send a picture of the flyers we've been handing out. Literally every where we went we would say:
"Hey! How are you doin today? We want to invite you to an event that millions of people watch every six months! It's an opportunity to hear from prophets and apostles in our day. Everyone is invited! They are going to speak on uplifting topics like Faith, Jesus Christ (that always catches their attention- He's like a celebrity here), and Families. There are four opportunities to attend! Do you think you could make it?"
Or something to that effect. A lot of people looked interested and a ton said "Yea, I think I could check it out. That sounds interesting." etc...
Guess how many people showed up.
Guess....
I forgot to mention that our whole district handed them out and it added up to a grand total of over 300 flyers within two weeks (my companion and I probably did 200 of the 300).
Is the suspense killing you yet? Ok. I'll tell you: 1
And this one man was kind of crazy and said that it was all a conspiracy (he probably came so that he could get into an arguement or something). Anyway, Sister Vandenberg and I were really disappointed. We had this great vision of people flocking to come and hear the prophet and then they would all be interested and we would teach them all! But unfortuantley, it didn't work out that way. This week I learned that this is reality my friends, and that Satan is working as hard as us.
Not only did no one show up from our flyer effort, but not one of our investigators showed up either. De'borah who we've been working with was so excited to be there when we taught her an awesome first lesson on Tuesday! Tthe spirit was so strong and she accepted to work towards a date to be baptized, but when we tried to call her and text her to see how she was doing on Friday she didn't answer. Then we stopped by her house Saturday night when she didn't show for conference, and on Sunday we called her and texted her and stopped by again that night when she didn't show again, and she wasn't home again. We were so sad. Especially because she was our miracle! We just knew that we found her for a reason! So everyone please pray that we will be able to begin teaching her again and that we will be able to help her resolve her concerns.
On Friday we decided to go to a park and hand out fliers when we ended up having some extra time. We went to the Sentenial Park (the park with the Parthenon! So cool! Google it!) and I noticed this man on this side of the Parthenon just chillin and smokin. So we approached him and started talking to him. Well, it turns out he is from Jerusalem! We made an instant connection when I told him that my mom has been to Jerusalem and loved it (thanks mom!). We started talking about the Dead Sea, etc. And we end up talking to him about religion. It ended up being pretty tricky because all of the prophets that he reads about in his Arabic Bible has different names than the English ones. We would have to tell the whole story about Moses before he would realize who we were talking about and then he would say, "Oh! (insert Arabic name for Moses here)!"
We are working on getting him a copy of the Book of Mormon in Arabic, he said he would read it if we would. Luckily our church is pretty amazing and has them in literally every language! I just wish I spoke Arabic...
Anyway, he was super interested in what we had to say because he decided he was Christian not to long ago, which is not what he was raised believing and he is still trying to figure out what he believes. We talked to him for a solid hour and then he had to leave to go to work, which happened to be at one of our favorite Italian restaurants here! So we ended up going with the YSA sisters to that restaurant for dinner! There was literally no one there, so we sang him a hymn while he worked! He LOVED it! He was so nice and he wanted extra conference fliers to give to his friends! So we were really disappointed when he didn't show up or answer any of our calls or texts either....
We've had a few ghostly investigators like that this week. We teach them, they are interested and want to progress and learn more, and then they disappear. It's rather disappointing. Especially when you are literally giving everything you've got into the work! Being exactly obedient and trying so hard to find people to teach and then you don't end up with anyone. But I know that if we have faith it will all work out! We just need to keep at it and all of our efforts will pay off.
Sister Vandenberg informed me that we are serving in the hardest area of the mission today. I think she has been holding off on saying anything about it because she didn't want to use that as an excuse. But because we are serving in the "affluent" area of the mission, it's really tough to find people to teach. Tracting is pretty ineffective and we don't really get referals from the members either (we are hoping that Conference helps motivate them. There were great talks about member missionary work. We need their help so badly!). So contacting in public places is our best option right now, and that isn't going so well either. But we will keep trying! We are trying different ways to help the members feel engaged and want to get involved because that is really where we will see progress.
What is really cool about our area though, is that we are in the area where the mission home is. So sometimes we will go on exchanges with Sister Anderson, which is so fun, and we see the Assistants and the President all the time. I really like having the opportunity to get to know them and have their help with the area.
Also, this week the sisters and I were randomly singing our songs together after lunch in the church during conference in a random classroom. President Anderson walked by and heard us and got really excited and asked us to sing hymn 335, "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy." It's a male song, so I had never heard it before, but apparently it's his favorite hymn! So we attempted to sing it with the piano, but it didn't sound great because we were just figuring it out. Then the next session of Conference was about to start, so we rushed to go get our seats and everyone forgot about it... but I have secretly started working on an arrangement for women for us to sing it at the Trainer/Trainee meeting coming up that they asked us to sing at next week. So excited!!!
This week we also had the opportunity to meet again with a sister that has terminal brain cancer. She was the one who gave us the flowers last week. She is so sweet, but when we went to visit her this week, she was much different. She had a hard time speaking and would ramble about random things. It was obvious that she didn't have a lot of time left. It reminded me of how precious our time is. Whether it is here on earth, here on a mission, or with our families. It's so crucial to remember what is the most important in life and focus on that, because you never know what could happen.
It's so comforting to know that the atonement it real. I've come to have such a strong testimony of the Savior and His sacrifice for us. The atonement is what makes it possible for us to live together as families forever. It's what makes it possible for us to be sanctified (I've been learning a lot about that word lately) and have eternal life. So many people out here think that they don't need to listen to what we have to say because they believe in Jesus or have accepted Him as their Savior. They don't realize that that is not enough.
When the Savior says to Peter to leave his nets and come unto Him, to be a fisher of men, he isn't just saying for a year and a half or two years, or when it's convenient, or when you aren't afraid to. He is saying to cast you nets aside to never return. This week I've been trying to identify some of my nets, or the things that I'm holding onto that I need to let go of, in order to truly come unto Him. I know that if we make the sacrifice to let go of worldly things and make the Savior and His work our priority, we will never regret it, and we will see miracles happen. I've experienced a couple of miracles this week by doing this, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. It's simply a matter of deciding what is most important to you.
Usually when we give scriptures, Sister Vandenberg will pick one and talk about it and then I'll add my testimony. This is mostly because I am not great at instantly thinking of a scripture that applies to who we are teaching and she has really awesome scriptures. She often offers to let me share one before we visit and I will decline. I realized that I was letting her do it all the time, not only because I know that she will do a good job and I'm unsure if I would do just as good, but because I was afraid and I was letting it hinder me. It's ok to be afraid at first, but it's time to over come that fear. So I was working on memorizing The Living Christ (suggested by my mom. Family: I'm going to do it by Christmas and then I will recite it to you! That is my goal!) and a scripture really stood out to me, so I decided to read the section in the Doctrine and Covenants. I found some powerful verses that I LOVE and I had the opportunity to share this week. It was such a good experience, and it really summarizes everything I know and believe, as well as the reason I am here on a mission. So I'd like to share it with you. It's D&C 76:22-24,40-42:
"22. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, shich we give of him: That he lives!
23. For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father-
24. That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God
40. And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us-
41. That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;
42. That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him;"
I love this chapter. Definitley check out the whole thing if you get the chance. It's so powerful.
I love it here! Even though it's hard, I feel myself getting stronger each day. It's so much easier when we give everything we've got and then rely on the Lord to do the rest. He will help us to be strong when it feels too difficult for us to bear. It's true. Try it out for yourself :)
Have a great week! Love you all,
Sister Hulme
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