Hey Family!
I just want to let you know that God knows best, and He loves us.
This week was CRAZY hard and CRAZY amazing!
You know how when you plan to go to the temple and EVERYTHING goes wrong? Well that happens a lot in the mission field! Whenever something really good is about to happen, the adversary goes in full force against it! He works overtime on missionaries, and its rough sometimes. This week was one of those times. Satan knows that I have my wonderful fathers temper:) (love you daddy!) And he knows that if he wants to get me, that's the way to go! It just seemed like anything and everything that my companion did this week just got under my skin and I just got so mad at her! For no good reason. And this lasted ALL WEEK LONG. It wasn't until last night that Heavenly Father smacked me over the head and reminded me of a talk from the priesthood session of conference, "Lord, Is it I?". (ITs an awesome talk! If you don't remember it or haven't heard it, go read it!) And so I prayed and basically said, "Heavenly Father, I really want to be mad right now! BUT I know that I'm in the wrong. Please help me to cowgirl up and get over it, because I can't get over it without your help." And I went to bed, still feeling angry and miserable. But when I woke up this morning, I was happy as a clam. And I loved my companion SOO much! I know that God is helping me!
So why was the adversary working so hard?
Well, first because of David. I think I mentioned David before... he's the guy that we met on the street that randomly showed up to church a few weeks ago! After he came to church, he went out of town for a week and a half and we were unable to get in contact with him. But Friday, we were finally able to teach him a lesson! He is incredible, and incredibly prepared! God saved his life from suicide and helped him overcome all of his addictions and he has been doing Gods will ever since! He has a ton of faith, and he told us that he is sincerely looking to find what God wants him to do. So the lesson went well and we committed him to baptism. THEN he came to church on Sunday. He shared with me how he had prayed to know if this is true and he got a very powerful answer, but the answer didn't come from God. But he knew then that this must be good if the adversary would take time out of his busy schedule to try and convince him otherwise. Then the meeting started. There were two people that were confirmed in sacrament meeting that day and he said that both times it was like he could feel a light coming down. I smiled and said, "This is the truth, and Gods power is here." And he agreed. He leaned over to me a few moments later and said, "Thanks for finding me." I broke down and bawled right there!!! You guys, I have been praying and praying. I knew that there were people here that I promised in the Premortal World that I would find. And I have been praying and praying to find them! What a powerful answer to my prayers. Towards the end of the meeting he asked if he could go up and bear his testimony. Now if any of you have served missions, you know how nerve-wracking that can be! Who knows what they are going to say! But I told him he could. And he got up there and bore powerful testimony that this must be true. After church we met with him and did a brief Book of Mormon intro and committed him to baptism on November 23.
The next reason is Greg. Greg is someone that we met out in front of his house. We went up and introduced ourselves and he was like oh I know who you are! You talked to my boss yesterday and he gave me your card! And he pulled out of his pocket our Mormon.org card! So we started talking to him and his friend about Christ and what they believe. His friend is atheist but he was very kind. Just a little lost. But Greg has a ton of faith in Christ. He has been attending the church around the corner for 10 years. But he readily accepted our invitation to take the lessons and be baptized. He has a light in his eyes that I recognized right away. Sometimes when we are street contacting if people already go to church or seem solid in their faith I tend to get scared and back off a little and give them a card and take the easy way out. But something in his eyes said, "Don't give up on me! I need this, I want this, even if I don't know it yet." So I was persistent. We taught him the first lesson the next day and he said that he knew that it was all true. He couldn't explain it but he could feel that it was all true.
The third reason is the Seminole Ward. Somethin's a-stirrin here! The members are beginning to get really excited about missionary work. There is one family that gave the elders FIVE FULL FAMILY REFERRALS that they had carefully prayed about. One man gave us the names of six of his good friends that he would like to share the Gospel with. Another lady, who is pretty severely handicapped, gave us the business card of one of the ladies that helps care for her and asked us to call her. She said she really wanted to help out with missionary work. It was incredible! We taught the lesson in YW about how to find solutions to the challenges they face. Once we came up with some of the tools that we as members have to overcome challenges we asked them to think of someone they know that doesn't have these tools. The look in their eyes told me that it clicked, the reason for missionary work clicked in their minds. We are going to follow up with them this week!
Miracles are happening in Gods time. And sometimes He takes a little longer than we would like, but He knows best. He loves us, He loves all His children and He will do what's best for us. I know that's true!
I love you all so much! Hope you have a fantastic week:)
Love always, Sister Rowland
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