A Miracle

Hi Everyone!

Sister Williams & Me

We had a miracle this morning! So calling people in the Referral Center (RC) is quite nerve wracking. I don't know why but calling people on the phone and asking them if they want missionaries to come and share more with them is scary. We practice for it all the time and we try to follow the contacting model (build a relationship of trust, create and environment to teach, teach, testify, promise blessings, invite, and re-invite) and help people to feel the Spirit. It is truly a miracle every time someone refers on the phone because if what we were sharing wasn't true, this would be SO much more difficult. Some people on the phones are nicer than others. But this morning I called a potential referral that we got on the Square from a Scottish member of the church. It was quite exciting for Sister Williams to meet some people that are really from Scotland. The potential's name is Gillian and she lives in Scotland and she referred! She has gone to church a few times and she has a Book of Mormon already and she said that she had an interest in our beliefs. We are going to call and teach her on Thursday and I'm excited for her to pick up her phone so that we can share more with her!

 

Something that I've been thinking about lately is faith and prayer. I'm realizing that it really takes faith to find those people that are prepared to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning for my personal study I read about faith in 1 Nephi 2:19, which says "And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart." When we have faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement then we are diligent in reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, going to church, and magnifying our calling. Faith is a principle of action. But then I read in Moroni 7: 33 which says "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." So we can work our hardest and because we have faith in Christ, then we will have power to do God's will. This is something that I'm learning. I'm not here to serve my mission. I'm here to serve Heavenly Father's mission and I can just do my best to be a well-tuned instrument in His hands. So in D&C 18:18 I learned that I find out how to be an instrument by prayer and listening to the Holy Ghost. Prayer is really a time for us to learn God's will and to find out how we can be that instrument in His hands. There are just so many wonderful things to learn in the scriptures.

 

Something that we do in companionship study is role playing. Someone acts as the guest or member and then someone else is the missionary. It is really helpful to practice different situations that way. One morning we decided that we were going to role play teaching a Catholic family that we had found on the Square the other day that we planned on teaching. They didn't pick up their phone, but the same day that we role played teaching someone with a Catholic background we talked with someone on the Square that had those same concerns and we were prepared to teach them. It is amazing that God sends His prepared servants to His prepared children. One of the neat things about Temple Square is that we teach people with different religious backgrounds all the time.

 

On Easter I got to go to Music and the Spoken word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Temple Square symphony. it was incredible! Easter is such a wonderful time of year. Without it there would be no Christmas. But guess who else was there? ... President Monson! He was sitting in the shadows so I didn't really see him until the end, but it was neat to be in the same room as him. He truly is a prophet of God.

 

Things are going well on the Square, I'm learning a lot, the flowers are blooming, it's marriage season, and I can't wait until people show up for summer!

Second Transfer

Hi! I'm about a week into my second transfer now! So Sister Williams came in on Wednesday from Florida and she is pretty much amazing. She is a crazy Scottish sister, but knows so much about missionary work. We've been working well together for the past week and I have a lot to learn from her. She brought back some cooking skills from Florida and she taught me how to make some Honduran (I don't know what you call stuff from Honduras) food. It was a home made tortilla with refried beans, eggs, cream/cheese stuff, and cheese. It was really good.

 

We had a miracle on the Square the other day. We were walking back to the South Visitors' Center (SVC) to get our stuff to go to the motors and I was telling Sister Williams that we needed to find someone on the Square to refer so that we could teach them. Outside the SVC there is an information booth and there was a family figuring out what to do so we told them that we could show them around. It was a mother, father, their son, and the mother's brother. They lived in California but are originally from the Philippines. We took them to the Temple model and talked about Joseph Smith by his statue by the shell fountain. The mother was especially interested and asked a lot of questions about how it compared to Catholicism because that is what her family is as well as pretty much the rest of the Philippines. We told them the Joseph Smith story and took them down into the basement of the North Visitors' Center (NVC) and showed them the display about our current prophet and the twelve Apostles. We shared with them a clip from President Monson's last General Conference talk (the one about gratitude, you can make a link if you want) and the dad really liked it. The family referred, so we are calling them tomorrow night to share more with them. It was amazing just how quickly my plea was answered.

 

Update on Aleck: we tried to call him again, but he didn't pick up his phone. That is the biggest problem I have here with teaching. We can get a bunch of referrals but none of them pick up their phones afterwards even if we set up a time to call them back.

 

Sister Williams and I have desk duty almost every day. It is usually in three hour blocks that we are at the desk. Sometimes it is busy and other times it is really slow. The main purpose of that job is to welcome people into the Visitors' Centers. It is a little frustrating at times because we would rather be out talking to people and finding people to take on tours, but I'm learning a lot from doing the desk. We can ask members for potentials and so I'm working on talking to people and inviting them. I feel like the weather is always something that we talk about here and so I'm trying not to talk so much about it because it is really a pretty boring subject. If I can find a way to bridge it back to the gospel it would be fine, maybe I should think about that. We do a lot of bridging from one topic to the next here. I played a kind of game with Sister Williams today where you pick three topics from the lessons in Preach My Gospel, like Tithing, Word of Wisdom, and the Book of Mormon, and then you have to bridge the three topics in that order. It's a fun game to play and also helps you learn how to make transitions in a tour.

 

Today I was studying lesson two in Preach My Gospel about the Plan of Salvation. I was trying to find a theme in the lesson because it helps me to focus my teaching on something. For example in the first lesson about the Restoration, the theme could be that Heavenly Father wants to communicate with us. As a was reading about the Plan of Salvation I was realizing that every principle in the lesson points to the Atonement. Without Jesus Christ's perfect Atonement the Plan of Salvation would not be possible in the slightest. We could not overcome physical death or spiritual death (sin) and there would be no way for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for the Atonement and what it means in my life. Because of it I can become a better person and feel the burden of pain and sin lifted from my shoulders. My favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon about the Atonement is Alma 7:11-13. I love how it talks about how Christ didn't only suffer for our sins, but also for the pains and afflictions that we have in this life. It is comforting to know that because He walked alone that we will never have to.

 

Happy Easter!

Transfers!

This morning we had a General Conference miracle. The very first contact we made on the Saturday of General Conference was a family from South Africa that was up here in the States for vacation and making a stop for General Conference. They gave two referrals for their friends back home. Both of them accepted the gift and missionaries and this morning we got to teach one of them--Aleck. He is the driver of the family that was up here for conference and we taught him about God and prayer. It sounds like he has great faith in God already, which is really great! He already prays, but I don't think it's regularly (I had a hard time understanding some of the things he said in his accent) and so we asked him to pray personally twice a day and also to pray with his family every day. He said that because we asked him that he will do it. That was such an incredible response! I don't think I've seen such beautiful but simple faith in anyone else that we've taught yet. I'm excited for him to do that because I know that prayer can play a powerful role in his and his family's lives. What a blessing it is to be able to talk with our Heavenly Father and that he answers us.

Just so you know, we're also teaching people in North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Texas. There are others we try to call, but they don't pick up their phones so I didn't include them in this list. But that's one of the neat things about the Temple Square Mission, the world is our proselyting area.

Oh yeah! Yesterday was transfer conference! Drum roll...Sister Guanzon and I aren't going to be companions any more because she is going on outbound to the Oakland/San Francisco California Mission! She is quite nervous. I'm really excited for her, though, because she is going to be great. Not all missionaries from Temple Square go on outbound (going to a different mission in the U.S. for 3-4 months)  because we have this new teaching program here where we get to teach over the phones (for example Aleck) which keeps us busy. So there is no guarantee that I will go on outbound. It wouldn't surprise me if I didn't. So my new companion is Sister Williams. I've never met her before because she is coming in from outbound. She is from Scotland and everyone tells me she is going to be such a fun companion. I'm also staying in the same apartment so I don't have to move, which is really great. Transfers at Temple Square are probably a little funny compared to other missions because moving really just means going to a different apartment in the same building. I'm also in a different zone, but that just means that I have a different "motors" schedule. So as of Wednesday I won't be a "greenie" anymore.

Side note--One of my roommates is from Australia and she has introduced me to Vegemite. It is kind of an interesting thing to eat because I'm not really sure what it is or how it is made, something about yeast, but it tastes pretty good on toast or on a bagel. She says that her dad puts it on everything. I could see how it could go with a lot of things. I don't think I'm ready for a peanut butter and vegemite sandwich, though.

Temple Square is blooming and it looks wonderful. All of the cherry blossoms are out and the tulips have bloomed. I can't wait until summer when the tourists are out too. In our mission meeting yesterday for transfers President Holmes emphasized that we are a finding mission. We call people on the phones and meet them on Temple Square looking for those that Heavenly Father has prepared to receive this message. Sometimes I forget that because it's scary to talk to people sometimes, but really this message that we have to share is more important than my own fears of asking people if there is anyone that they know that would want to hear a message from the Prince of Peace or if they want to hear it themselves. It has made such a difference in my life and it would be selfish of me to deny someone else that opportunity to hear about it.

General Conference

Sisters Smiley & Guanzon and Samantha's friends from BYU

So I survived General Conference and it was AMAZING! I have never seen so many people on the Square. The Friday before Conference we had a big mission meeting, they called it conference pump-up. In that meeting they told us our goal for the number of potential referrals we should collect from members over the next three days. The goal was to get 6,000 potentials. That's a TON! I guess the goal for last October conference was 5,000 potentials and the conference before that was 3,000 potentials, so in just one year we doubled our goal (and by the way, they exceeded their goal for the last two conferences). We spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on the Square. On Friday and Saturday we were there an extra hour until 10pm and we had two twenty minute breaks for the day. President and Sister Holmes provided food (which was really nice of them because then we didn't have to cook). We talked to SO many people. On a normal day it's a good day if we can maybe get 3 potentials, but for Saturday and Sunday we needed to collect 37 potentials per day. I didn't think it was possible, but miracles do happen. On the first day Sister Guanzon and I collected 38 potentials, and then on Sunday we collected 48 potentials. So we exceeded our goal for our companionship. On Sunday night we had a mission meeting in the Tabernacle and we invited the members we contacted to come. We tried to show our gratitude for them and then they also announced the number of potentials we collected...6,455! And it even snowed and was really cold on Sunday! Imagine what we could have done if the weather was nice. So for each potential we collected we put a sticker on a butcher-paper model of Temple Square that was in the basement of the South Visitor's Center. That should explain the picture. There were a lot of stickers! Now we just have to call all of these people. It's going to take ages, but I know that miracles will happen.

All nations shall flow unto it

More than just stickers!

As a celebration for meeting our goal for conference weekend, on Monday night we had a mission celebration. President and Sister Holmes are so great (they actually just had their 45th grandchild born yesterday, that's a TON of grandchildren). We had a catered dinner (tacos stuff) and we watched Secretariat. I felt so worldly because I'd heard of it before. It was a really inspiring movie. It made me think about my own "race" here as a missionary. I know that I can work harder and be less selfish in my work. It's easy to get scared of approaching people and being a little persistent in asking for potentials or referrals, but I realize that if I really want to provide people their agency I need to get over that fear. I'm grateful that I have Sister Guanzon to help. She's such a great example of hard work. I'm getting better at it, though. I'm going to try this week to be more focused on the work and really finding people to teach. The ultimate goal is to find people on the square or over the phones so that they can go to the temple with their families too. I just need to be better at keeping that in mind. I'm coming to love my mission more and more every day. I love being able to talk with so many people. Yesterday we talked to a girl from Ireland, she sounds like she's quite the pioneer in her country.

I got to go to the Saturday morning session of General Conference. It was really a wonderful meeting. We sat next to a family from Utah that came to Conference to celebrate the birthday of their oldest son. This was something special for them because their oldest son had passed away five years ago. They shared with us that the greatest blessing in their life was being able to be sealed as a family and being able to know that they would be able to see each other in the life after this. I can't even imagine the emotions that were running through them, but it just made me even more grateful for temples.

Miracle of the week: Sister Guanzon and I had an Investigator Confirmed Referral (IRC)! We usually just call them IRC's which means that the missionaries met with the person that referred and shared a lesson with them.  I had to ask what IRC stood for so that I could explain it in this email. After five weeks of work, we finally got one IRC. Such a blessing.His name is Marlon and he is from Texas. We met him on the Square and he was interested in the Book of Mormon, so he referred for missionaries. We got to call him and talk with him about the Book of Mormon before the missionaries came and he said that he was really excited to receive his Book of Mormon. I got a voicemail on Monday from him saying that he had met with the missionaries and "they had fun" and that the missionaries would be coming back next week to share more. He even left us a verse from the Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 14:8. YAY!

So many miracles on Temple Square. I love my mission. 

Service project at the Utah Food Bank

Two Weeks Until My First Transfer

Oh my goodness! Only two more weeks of my first transfer left! Then I won't be the newbie anymore. Only slightly seasoned...

Anyways. Probably the best part of this week was going to the Salt Lake City Temple this morning. It was my first time. We're only allowed to go once a transfer (about every six weeks) and so Sister Guanzon and a bunch of other sisters in my zone went this morning. It was a beautiful experience. As beautiful as the Salt Lake temple is on the outside, it is ten times prettier on the inside. The work that the pioneers did inside that building is incredible. I loved being able to sit in the temple and just feel the peace that the spirit provides. Missions aren't easy--as I've come to find out--but going to the temple just reminded me what this is all about. Something that I had reaffirmed to me is that this is truly Christ's church on the earth today. I know that through living prophets the ordinances that we do in temples have been restored and that through those ordinances we can find the greatest peace and hope. This is something that those pioneers also new and their testimony of that is reflected in their work on the temple.

Conference is coming up, and I'm pretty sure that it is going to be crazy. Usually we have "motors" (computer time, but President Holmes calls them "motors" so we all do) for about half of the day, but starting on Thursday and extending until Sunday we don't have motors. We'll spend all of our time on the square inviting members to share this message with their friends by filling out referrals. SO, if you're coming to General Conference, bring the name of a friend that you would like to have with you at Conference next October. You'll probably be asked to share their name.

Oh! We just had Young Woman's conference here this past week! There were TONS of young women on the square. It was quite exciting. We took a few groups of young women and their moms through the God's Plan presentation that talks about families and how it the gospel applies to them. It is a really powerful presentation and it touches a lot of people. It sounds like the young woman's conference was a lot about the thirteenth article of faith. I bet it was a really good session. I hope that someday I can serve in young woman's. They look like such a fun bunch to be around.

My most memorable miracle from this week was a tour that Sister Guanzon and I gave for a mother (Lisa) and her daughter (Katie). They were up here from California because Katie had an audition for a ballet company. We took them to the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle and also to the Christus statue. I know that they felt the spirit here because both of them referred to have missionaries bring them a copy of the Book of Mormon. I'm so excited for them to receive it because I know that the Book of Mormon has the power to change lives. And also bring people greater hope.

Every time I read the Book of Mormon I'm reminded of how amazing and true it is. My favorite verse from the Book of Mormon this week is Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." That was such a help to me when I read that because I had been reminded of that all week. I'm learning how to be humble and how rely more on my Savior because really I can't do much of anything if I'm not humble and seeking for the spirit, because it is only by the Spirit that a person can learn for themselves that Jesus is the Christ and that this is His church today (Matt 16:13-17). President shared that this week. He is really an inspired man.

Until next week!
Sister Smiley