Monday, September 15, 2014

Hold to the rod, the iron rod! (9/15/2014)

Hello from Canada! Here's the update for the week: 

Monday! We just had a pretty relaxing P-day last week because it was Sister Bartlett's first one here in Courtenay. We got to have FHE and ice cream cones with a family before going out tracting. It was so fun :) 
Tuesday we volunteered at the Food Bank in the morning. We got to help put bags of food together and talked to some of the other volunteers. We even raced to see how many bags we could do at once :P Then we went and knocked on some doors for a bit. We met this First Nations man who had some horrible experiences with Christianity. We tried to help him understand that's not what Jesus Christ would want. Hopefully, he'll have a better perspective of Christians now! In the afternoon, we decided to walk to save on some kilometers. We visited with a less active lady named Shawna who we are trying to help return to church. She brought up some valid concerns and we're going to help her resolve them. The Book of Mormon can help resolve anyone's concerns and it's the keystone of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon can help her just like it helps me :) Then we walked to a Buddhist investigator's house and talked to her for a bit. After that, we went tracting in the evening and then visited with a member family. They have 8 kids and are the cutest ever! We met with Debbie as well and watched the restoration DVD with her. Her husband came home on Thursday, so everyone PLEASE pray that he'll be open to learning about the gospel. Ahhh, so exciting! 

Wednesday we met with Mandy and tried to teach the restoration. You would think that I'd know how to teach by now, but nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes still, and have to continually learn. We also taught Triston . . . finally! He's our 18 YO atheist friend. He has a hard time having faith so we're trying to start him with the basics of reading and praying. Hopefully that will help him! We also taught our cute older lady friend, Agnes. She loved the restoration! We're praying that she'll feel up to coming to church so that she can see what it's like. Lastly, we taught Mick. He's doing great. We taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and he thought we were chastising him for not coming to church. We weren't...really....trying to at all ;) haha.

Funny tracting story: We knocked on this man's door and he said he was Christian. He walks away and we were like...uhhh....and then comes back with a guitar! He then proceeds to serenade us and it was probably one of the best things that's happened while knocking on someone's door! hahaha :) 

Thursday we did weekly planning and knocked on lots of doors. We met this awesome potential named Crystal who met with the Elders about 10 years ago! She said they would come over all the time, but then they lost contact. It was such a miracle to be able to find her! 

Friday we went and visited a lady in our ward who lives in a nursing home. She told us about how, in her prayers in the morning, she always prays to say something funny. She thinks that people are too bored and gloomy and wants to help make people laugh! That is the sweetest thing ever! Then we had a zone meeting! New rule: we can eat dinner with just members now! And no more consecrated finding time from 5-7pm. The WHOLE day is consecrated to the Lord. What a surprise! I'm excited though. And I learned a ton from our new zone leaders and the sister training leaders. I'm so excited to be a missionary! After zone meeting, we visited a family that just moved into the ward. Then we went finding and met this awesome lady named Sheila. She volunteers at a bunch of places and even had a "free store" for people in need. She told us to come back and she would give us some of her vintage skirts. Ummm . . . yeah sure! free clothes! and we gave her a Book of Mormon! Afterwards, we met with this 19 YO girl who got baptized 3 years ago and hasn't been to church since. We finally got a hold of her! She wants to come to church, but is just having a hard time getting over the fear of coming back. Hopefully, we'll be able to help her get over those feelings! We also met with Kim and her daughter. They are working on coming back to church as well. They have a 4 month old pit bull and he's SO cute! It was an awesome day full of helping less actives!

Saturday...dun dun DUNNN! We both woke up feeling sick!!  : (  We tried to power through it. We got a media referral from mormon.org and dropped off the Bible at his house. That was exciting! And then basically, we just died for the rest of the day and Sunday. We made it to church though! And we're now starting to feel better. Oh the joys of being sick. And yay for living with members who take care of us and feed us!  :) 

Spiritual thought: This week I've been studying 1 Nephi 8, which talks about Lehi's dream. Everyone who enters onto the path is a member of the church, and it describes three types of members. In vs. 23 it talks about people who went on the path but then left because they weren't holding onto the rod of iron. In vs 24-28, it talks about people who gained a testimony but then left. Lastly, in vs 30 it talks about people who hold on to the end. Which group are you in? How can we make sure that we're in group 3? We need to continually be studying the scriptures, praying, and going to church so that we can "continually hold fast to the rod of iron." 

The Church is true! I love being a missionary :) Please write me letters! They mean a lot!

Sister Struempler 

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