Our Faith Must Be Tried In All Things

ELDER CONROW

Man, I cannot believe that my little baby bro is entering the Missionary Training Center this week to go to the Angeles Philippines mission. SO INSANE! I swear I was just at the Missionary Training Center, and now here I am- an old timer in the mission.

Sister Adams & me

Well yesterday was a humbling experience for me at church. While Sister Graff and I were sitting there listening to Bishop go through the program after sacrament had finished, I heard, "First, we will hear from Sister Conrow, and then... so and so and so and so..." Haha I was like a deer in the headlights. That has never happened to me before on the mission where a Bishop has called me out of the crowd to give a talk. It wasn't just a testimony, but a straight up 10 min talk because one of their youth speakers never showed up. Ha. So I get up there, nervous as can be, and NOTHING is coming into my head. For the first time on my mission, I honestly had no idea what to talk about. So I nervously stumbled over my words and talked a little bit about my family, while trying to think of what this ward needs to hear about.. and still nothing is coming.. So I decided I would just open up my Book of Mormon to where I was reading during sacrament and the chapter I was reading was all about sacrament, so I thought, "Ya, I can speak about this.." Haha. Needless to say, the beginning was a little rough, but somehow I made it through and just bore powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and how important it is that we have His light about us. I'm sure half of it didn't make any sense, but I learned how important it is to always be thinking about what we, as missionaries, can share with those around us and be prepared to give it at any moment in time. I was sure to thank Bishop for giving me the opportunity to speak. Ha and afterwards one of his counselors came up to me and said, "I asked Bishop if he wanted me to talk to you before sacrament started to give you a little notice, but he said, 'Nahhh, she'll be fine,' so I never said anything to you. Haha sorry." I will never forget that experience, that's for sure. Thanks Bishop Garcia.  

   

Anyway...This week has been a test of my faith- to which I am grateful for. Sister Graff and I have had a lot of faith building experiences while tracting all day, and not one person answering their door. I have to say this has been my hardest area in that people aren't as willing to listen to the messages that we have to share with them that will change their life. According to many that we have spoken with, "we have everything we need.." Agh, isn't that just awful?! They think they have everything they need when in all reality they have nothing that they need. I have to constantly remind myself that they aren't rejecting me, they are rejecting the Savior. Sister Graff put it pretty well when she said that, "The Savior tests our faith by allowing us these experiences so we can have a tiny taste of how He felt when He was here." I know that is true.

But- despite our hard times, the Lord always reveals His hand through the tender mercies he provides, especially when we feel as though there is no hope left. Yesterday Sister Graff and I decided that we would fast for our current friend Ola, who is amazing. We also fasted that we would find those whom the Lord has prepared to receive His gospel. Well, within a few minutes of being out in our area we contacted this lady Isabel, from Peru, who's brother recently joined the church. Anyway, she wanted a Book of Mormon (I think just so she could see for herself what was in it) and so we gave her one and testified how we knew it was another testament of Jesus Christ. And then she said, "Oh, I always thought this was just some book you guys wrote up." I love when people say that because it gives us an opportunity to testify and to clear up the many misconceptions people have about our church. Long story short, Isabel ended up telling us how her and her family have been looking for a church that is focused on families and brings them closer to Christ. So we said, "It's right here! Here is the Lord answering your prayers.." So now we are teaching Isabel and hopefully her family soon. Then right after we talked with her, we got a call from some other sisters that told us about a lady they met who wants to meet with missionaries tomorrow but is in our area! So now we are going to meet with this lady they told us about, who is from Africa! So many answers to prayers!

Oh yes, I almost forgot- we had the most amazing experience earlier this week with one of our investigators we found outside of a restaurant, Greer. She is so awesome. When we pulled in to her house, we prayed and as I was praying I just had this overwhelming impression to talk about baptism with her. So I told Sister Graff how I felt and she said, "Ok, let's do it then." So we get inside and we start teaching her about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, and when she took the book, she looked at it and with the most sincere look in her face said, "thank you." It was like she knew and could feel how special this book is. We then went on to teach about how Christ's gospel has been restored to the earth and the same authority he gave to his apostles, was given to Joseph Smith. And then, that same prompting came to my mind as it had in the car- "You need to teach her about baptism." And so I just said Ok, even though we weren't really talking about it at the moment, I somehow segwayed into baptism and how she can be baptized by someone who holds that proper authority from God and she said, "That is so weird that you say that because I was just thinking about being baptized. I have been wanting to be baptized my whole life, but I've just never known when I should be, by who, or when." Man, that was the coolest thing ever to hear. I knew, at that moment, how important it is to follow the spirit. The spirit really will tell you all things which ye should do. So we continued to talk about baptism and how she can be cleansed of her sins and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which must come after baptism in order for our baptism to be complete in the eyes of God like John talks about in the bible. Ah it was just the neatest experience. She said she could feel the spirit as we were there, and so we invited her to be baptized and she said she would be when she comes to know what we have taught is true. SO GREAT! Sadly, she actually isn't in our area, so the Elders will continue teaching her, but that's ok! I'm just happy she has found her way, and received her answer. Now all she must do is act on what she knows.

My baby brother

I am so grateful that the Lord is aware of me and my companion and our desires to do this great work, and I know that if he is aware of us- he truly is aware of everyone! Never doubt that, and never question a prompting from the Spirit. If you do, you'll never know what would've been. I love this work, and I love my comp. We have lots of fun together. We always talk about how lucky we are to be serving together and what a blessing it is. I love you all! Good luck Bry Bry! Go out and work hard!

 Love, Hermana Conrow :)