Holy Cow! TRANSFERS are this week :( I cannot believe I will be starting my very last transfer as a missionary this Thursday. I'm quite sad that my Sister Graff will be leaving me, but all is well- we will be eternal friends. Haha. I have loved every minute of serving with her. She has taught me more than I can say! I will most likely be serving in a trio companionship because of the number of sisters coming in this transfer.. Our little house of 6 sisters with 2 bathrooms will soon be a house of 8 sisters with 2 bathrooms.. Haha. Gotta love it!
I'm trying to endure to the end with my emails because I'm really tired of typing so much so I will do my best to make this email detailed and eventful.
Regardless of my lazy attitude... many things have happened this week! Lots of miracles all around..
Sunday we received a referral of this man who took himself to church. Haha, apparently he has friends who are members of the church, and he actually went through the temple open house and his friends have been telling him for awhile now to check it out.. so Sunday he decided that he would look up a place and time and went all by himself.. The sisters in that ward found him and started talking to him and he said, "Ya, I would love to learn more my wife and I are looking for a stable church to attend.." So, we contacted him the next day and set up a time to meet with him later that week. Well Thursday was the day we had planned to meet with him and we decided that we would take him through the church that he would be attending (aka in his ward boundaries). I have to admit, I was pretty nervous to meet with him because we hadn't met him yet.. So I went into a room and prayed for a miracle. I prayed that we would be able to say the right thing at the right time, and that he would see the need to be baptized. Little did I know that the Lord would answer my prayer for a miracle so quickly. It was the most amazing appointment ever. He shows up, his name is Eric, and he is SUPER friendly! Apparently he knew one of the ladies in the church that was setting up for a wedding reception that day. Ha, what are the odds?! Then, right off the bat he talked about his experience on Sunday and said how awesome he felt the minute he walked through the doors. He told us over and over again how welcomed and loved he felt by all the brethren. It was a great start to our appointment! We taught him all about the Restoration of the Gospel and he was like, "Ya, that totally makes sense that the authority was gone from the earth.." We then talked about baptism and how important it is because that is the way we come closer to Christ, and when we invited him he said, "Yes. This is right," and set to be baptized on October 12. Ahh man he is just soo prepared for the gospel.. When we showed him the chapel and talked about the sacrament, I knew he felt the spirit. He told us that he has been researching the church and found out about the Word of Wisdom and said, "At first I didn't know how I felt about giving up coffee and alcohol, but now it's not a big deal to me and I'll start now to stay away from those things.." Ha how cool is that? He's already committed to living that law which is SO hard for so many people to do! Basically, this guy is legit.. and ready to make covenants. I love when people like this come into the gospel- they make such great members and do so much for the Lord because they want to! When we called him the next day to check up on his Book of Mormon reading he said he had already been reading and was planning on reading more that night. It was like music to my ears. Sadly, he had to go out of town this week so he wasn't able to come to church, but he's very excited to meet with us when he comes back. The Lord truly does answer our prayers... and he blesses those who strive to do what he asks.. even if it's not in the way that we thought it would be answered.
Ok also this week, Sister Graff and I had a pretty neat experience. We were able to go to a Catholic Bible study group. I guess a lady in our ward is friends with the head of the study group. Anyway, one day they were talking about "Mormons" and decided they would just invite the Mormons themselves to help them understand our religion and clear up some misconceptions they had.. So the lady in our ward asked if we could come and they said sure! To be honest, I had no idea what to expect- but I figured they had to be pretty nice if they were willing to allow us into their church to teach about our church. Sure enough, they were very sweet and very respectful.. They had a lot of good questions.. but as I was answering all of their questions I just kept thinking, "all of this information doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't take it to Heavenly Father and ask for yourself.. the spirit is the one who confirms truth, and that spirit comes as we seek for it.." But I know that this wasn't necessarily a teaching appointment, it was merely an opportunity for these people to gain a better understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and in the process I was able to learn A LOT about their religion too. It was a really cool experience. It made me appreciate the truths that I treasure and appreciate the freedom of religion that we enjoy in this country. I really loved talking with those people, and I was so grateful to them for letting us in to learn more about them.
So I realized that I haven't been writing a lot about the Liberty Jail, so I will do better at telling you about it. Basically, it's the best. And I am thrilled every day to be serving there. I have already had so many special and tender experiences. It just doesn't get any better than serving at a place where the Prophet Joseph Smith himself endured so much and received such sacred revelations. I love taking people through who have powerfully insightful comments. I learn so much more from them than I'm sure they do from me. Their testimonies of the gospel always amaze me and I feel like I gain such great relationships with them because of the spirit that is there as we talk with one another. Just recently I took a girl through who was actually in my college ward before the mission for like 2 months... And from the minute she walked in the door, to the very end, the spirit kept telling me to talk about her serving a mission.. And then before I could say anything, she said, "I started my mission papers last October but never put them in because of this and this..." and then I knew at that point that those feelings I was having were real.. It was sooooo cool! So we started talking about missions for the next 30 minutes and I felt very grateful that I was able to help her a little bit more on making such an important decision to serve. Its things like that, that make me just so thankful to be serving in a Visitor Center..
Oh ok, one more thing.. I found out last week that I took some guy through the Visitors Center in Independence that was a reporter from St. Louis and he quoted me and the other sister I was with in his newspaper article.. ha funny.. Never thought I would be quoted in a newspaper as a missionary.. Anyway, I hope this email was more sufficient and fulfilling compared to last weeks email.. haha.
I love all of you very much! Don't get too trunky for me ;)
Love, Hermana Conrow
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