Hey y'all!
So sorry about the confusion with the weekly's! For some reason,
Sister Dorian thought she could be handy and send it to everyone all
at once on her iPad but her iPad wouldn't have that so it just didn't
send it to anyone :( everyone should be getting both weekly's this
week so that's why you are getting so much!
I hope everyone had a great week! Mine was wonderful. I couldn't wait
to write the email this week because there are so many good things!
In my email from last week, I talked about the goal to baptize in
October that the president and AP's gave to the mission a few weeks
ago. We started off the week with the amazing training on Monday that
helped all of us to really gain the desire and commit to work hard to
accomplish this goal. Soon after we left the training, we tried to get
in touch with our investigator, Terry. He hadn't been able to come to
church on Sunday and we were struggling to reach him all
Sunday/Monday. We had an appointment set up with him for Monday night
and he told us not to come. We were shocked! This is our stellar
investigator that had such a strong faith and has been keeping so many
commitments. We kept trying to contact him the next couple days and
nothing was working. So, we decided on Wednesday night to bring his
dad cookies and see if we could catch him at home. To our dismay, he
was gone! However, we ended up having an amazing talk with his dad
about God and miracles and we even had a member of our church with us
to give great input in the conversation. We left super happy about the
conversation but sad about not seeing Terry. We tried again a few
nights after and the same thing happened. No Terry, just his mom and
dad. Again, we had amazing gospel discussion with them about the
gospel and our Heavenly Fathers love. After we left, I was so confused
about why we weren't being blessed with contact with Terry even though
we were praying earnestly for it and doing everything that we could to
make it happen. The Spirit was able to teach me something essential
that day. I remembered that the week before, we had been praying very
intently for us to be able to connect with Terry's family on a more
spiritual level since he needed their support to make this decision to
join the church. They never wanted to sit in on Terry's lessons or
talked about the church at all. Then, all of a sudden, we were able to
connect with them like we never could before. Heavenly Father was
answering our prayers, but in a different way than we ever thought
that He would. I learned that I need to trust in the Lord. This is His
work and His hand is in the details. As I work hard and have faith, He
will guide us to those we need to share with in His time and in His
way.
So, after being worried about Terry and having that miracle come to
pass, we continued working hard to find more people to teach. James
has also been very hard to reach (the guy with 7 kids) so we were
changing our focus more to finding than to trying to contact those
that were not easy to reach. As we were working on finding, we found a
woman named Jackie.
We started teaching Jackie on Sunday and she is literally my favorite.
She has been in contact with missionaries for years but has never
gotten very far in the lessons. Through random coincidences
(miracles!!!), we bumped into her walking her dog three times so she
let us come teach her. She works third shift (night shift) so it is
super hard to schedule appointments with her but she was interested so
she made it work. Our first lesson was so awesome! Then we weren't
able to contact her much because of her crazy schedule. After praying
about her and trying to figure out what our next step would be, we
came up with the BOM class. We decided that it would be a good way to
mix things up and it would help us in our finding efforts. We invited
Jackie and literally everyone that we talked to on the street for the
next few days and went to the church that night hoping that at least a
few people would come but expecting that no one would so that we
wouldn't be disappointed. But guess what?? Jackie came!!! And she was
the only one :) we ended up teaching her an amazing lesson about the
Book of Mormon, giving her a church tour, and committing her to come
to church with us the next day. She came to church too and really
liked it! What a miracle. The Lord truly is preparing His people to
receive His message. She is very hesitant about baptism since it took
her 5 years to even start meeting with missionaries but she is
dedicated to finding out more. Miracles happen and it is so amazing to
see our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ guiding this work in
every single aspect. It was necessary that the lesson was there so
that she could experience the feeling of the church before coming and
it made church so much more comfortable for her. Yay for tender
mercies :)
My last miracle story happened just a few days ago and I didn't even
realize the magnitude of it until yesterday. Sister Israelson and I
are in a bike area so we are always riding the bus. Because of this,
we talk to lots of people from all over Louisville. After sitting in
the back talking to a girl, I decided to move to the front to sit with
sister I for the rest of the trip. When I sat down, I looked behind me
and saw a girl with my favorite brand/color of sneakers on! I had the
thought pop into my head that I should go talk to her. Thinking it was
silly since she just saw me walk past her to the front, I ignored it.
The prompting only got stronger as I sat there so I decided that it
didn't matter what anyone thought and I moved back to sit by her. I
complimented her shoes and we started talking. I found out that she
was from Australia and that she was here dancing with the Louisville
Ballet. I remembered that a member in our Ward dances there too and
they actually know each other! After that she opened up more and
agreed to meeting with us to have a lesson. After the conversation was
over and I sat back down, I texted that member that she knows and told
her who I had met, thinking it was a super small world and not much
else of it. Come Sunday, this member (Annie) tells me that this girl I
had met was not treated very well at the dance company and because of
it, they had become pretty good friends since she was the only one who
made any effort to be nice. Annie went on to say that she had been
feeling promoted to invite her over and reach out more but kept
shrugging it off as nothing. When we told her about the meeting with
Alexia (The Australian girl), she was so touched because she knew that
Heavenly Father was watching over His children and that He is so aware
of our needs. She is going with us to her first lesson and she is so
excited!! Even though it was a small event, it made such an impression
on Annie and helped her to feel of Gods love. Such an amazing thing to
be a part of. :) It was reaffirmed to me that this mission has nothing
to do with me. The Lord is so aware of each of His children and their
needs and I feel it as such a sacred privilege to watch Him do His
work here in Kentucky. As we have faith to act, miracles can occur and
we can help our Savior bless His children here on Earth.
Some other random tender mercies of the week include cool weather for
running in the morning, an amazing Ward mission leader that brings me
Dr. pepper to coordination meeting, and free clothes and chocolate in
the mission office :) it is amazing the things that will bring you joy
as a missionary! The Lord truly blessed us with the things that we
need exactly when we need them.
I know that my Savior lives. He is so very aware of each of us and our
needs. I know that as we work hard to accomplish our work here on this
Earth, He will consecrate our efforts and cause great things to happen
As you strive to become like Him, He will become the center of your
life. I have never been so sure in my life that God lives. He wants to
bring each and every one of us home. As we apply to Atonement daily,
we will gain a desire for the welfare of our brethren and have a
burning desire to share our light. Don't be afraid to share this
gospel! This doctrine is the only way that our fellow brothers and
sisters can fully access the Atonement and even if we don't see the
fruits of our laboratory, they are there! Have faith and trust in the
Lord and I promise you, you will see His hand. I am so eternally
grateful for this sacred opportunity that the Lord has given me to be
a missionary to proclaim His truth to all that I come in contact with.
Thank you for all the support, love, and prayers. It means more than
you know. I love you all so much. The church is oh so very true :)
Much love,
Sister Dorian
Oh my goodness! I forgot to explain the caption....my brain is leaving
me I swear. Too much stuff to remember
The caption comes from one of Jackie's many funny sayings. She always
makes fun of us for how modestly we dress as missionaries. One other
awesome one was "You are on your way to looking 3/4ths Muslim right
now in that dress"
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