Nicole & Luana

We've had some good news this week. On Thursday we got to teach Luana again and we taught her about the Plan of Happiness. The principle we shared with her about the pre-earth life. It was really the first time that I've taught someone in depth about the Plan of Happiness and it was so fun to teach. I take my knowledge of that plan for granted. Luana didn't have any knowledge of a pre-earth life--that we lived with our Heavenly Father and that He knew us. She really liked that. We also learned that she was meeting with missionaries now! They finally found her! We also got an email from her a few days ago and she told us that she went to church with a friend! She loved church too! It makes me so happy to hear how much she is progressing and learning. On Sunday she is going to Portugal to visit her parents for a few months. We're going to keep in contact with her, but I hope that she can meet with missionaries while she is there. She just needs to keep learning.

 

We also got some more good news from Nicole this week. She sent us an email and told us that she is engaged to her friend John, who is her friend that initially introduced her to the church. Nicole is getting baptized on July 2 (Saturday) and then getting married on July 5 and then John goes into the air force on July 11. That's a lot of big things all within a few weeks. But we talked to her on the phone and she is really excited for everything that is going to happen. She went to a baptism last week and it made her even more excited for her own.

 

West Gate is still going well. I'm getting much better at handling five things at once. The air conditioning works there now, which is nice. We're still organizing motor coaches and language tours. It's fun.

 

My roommate, Sister Landeros from Mexico, made Mexican empanadas for everyone in the apartment. She is so nice. We all took them with us for lunch the next day. It's quite fun having international roommates. I have two roommates from the UK, one from Seattle, Sister Landeros is from Mexico, and one more from Malaysia. I don't think you'll find such an international bunch of missionaries anywhere else in the world. We just need a sister from the Netherlands because we always have requests for Dutch tours and we don't have anyone that speaks that language.

 

I'm still reading in Mark, and I still love it. It amazes me how much love and compassion Christ has for the people. It makes me realize that I need to keep trying to be a missionary out of love.

Motor Coaches, Milk, and Miracles

Hi Everyone! So we didn't get to teach Luana this week...sad. Hopefully she'll be able to pick up her phone next week. She is moving this week so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

But here is the miracle story of the week. I might have told you about Nicole, who we met on the computer. She was the most sincere person I've ever met that way and she really wanted to change and become a better person. So we sent her information to the missionaries in her area -- she's from Texas -- and we got an email from her the other day. She told us that she has met with the missionaries three times and loves it, and she is getting baptized on July 2. I couldn't believe it. We didn't really do anything except for find her, but thank goodness the missionaries over there in Texas were able to get in contact with her and teach her. As far as I know, this is the first baptism that I have played any part in since being a missionary. Missionary work is the best, you get to help people learn how they can have happier and fuller lives.

 

This morning we had motor coach training. Seeing as we can have around 12 motor coaches come through a day, it was much needed. Sister Williams and I gave the training for the logistics at West Gate. We told the sisters that they need to be there 30 minutes early (because sometimes they actually come 30 minutes early), we told them that they should try to greet their tour on the bus so that they feel welcome at Temple Square, and a bunch of other things. Hopefully it helped at least a little bit. We really want people to feel welcome here, and most importantly, we want people to feel the Spirit here.

 

So tomorrow we're going to be getting some new sisters. It's the middle of the transfer, so it's unusual to get new sisters now, but they're much needed. We are quite desperate for Korean speaking sisters. Right now we have three. There was one time this week where we had all three of them on scheduled tours and then we had a surprise Korean motor coach show up with 46 people. Sister Willis (from the UK) and Sister Bateman (from Seattle) almost had to take their first Korean motor coach--it would have been a silent tour.  but luckily the motor coach came late and we got a Korean sister to take them. It was a close call.

 

Yesterday we had a bit of an accident in the kitchen. Sister Williams was looking for her lunch meat in a hurry because we were late for the square. She managed to knock Sister Willis's gallon milk off of the shelf and somehow it got punctured. It was gushing milk all over the place. So we had to put her milk in a metal mixing bowl and put tinfoil over it. I wrote on the tinfoil "Sister Willis's milk, be VERY careful". The best part was that Sister Willis wasn't there. So she found her surprise when she got back in the evening. At first she thought it was Yorkshire puddings. I guess she can just pour her cereal right into the mixing bowl. Saves time...

 

This week I've been reading in Mark. I really love reading about Christ's life. In chapter 5, Christ heals three people quite miraculously. Preceding each time He healed someone, they had to come to Him. They had to exercise their faith first. Then I love verse 34 when he is talking to the woman that he healed: 

 

"And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole"

 

How important it is to have faith in Jesus Christ! He is the great healer. No matter our affliction He can heal us.

 

This week Sister Williams had a really bad cold--she was quite miserable--so she decided to go get a blessing. By the end of the day she was feeling better. The Priesthood really works, and I believe it was because of her faith that she felt better so soon. Heavenly Father really is aware of each of His children.

Teaching Around the World

This week has been a really great week. Yesterday we took around a group of four young men (probably mid 20s) from the UK. I was pretty skeptical when we met them because people from Europe almost never want to have a discussion about religion. They were here for a soccer camp thing and they were coaches for it. We took them to the Tabernacle and then to the basement of the North Visitors' Center where there is an exhibit which is pretty much the first lesson with visuals. I didn't know how that would go over, but we took them through it and they were asking sincere questions and we tried to emphasize how having a living prophet is relevant to us and really helps us to deal with trials. We invited them after showing them a part of one of President Monson's talks about how the restored gospel of Jesus Christ can help us overcome hard times. Three of them referred for missionaries! It was a miracle! We didn't even have to re-invite them. They just said "why not?" So we'll teach them over the phone for a while until they go back the UK in September (they're traveling a lot here) and then the missionaries can come and teach them! It was a lesson for me that you don't always know who is or isn't prepared, but Heavenly Father does, you just need to invite to give them the chance.

We also taught Luana -- she lives in the UK too -- some more this week. This past Thursday we taught her about baptism and asked her if she would be baptized as she comes to know for herself that these things we're teaching her are true. She said "yes". Luana is the most prepared person that I've ever been able to teach. She has been reading 1 Nephi and she really likes it. The missionaries still haven't found her yet, but she is planning on going to church this coming Sunday and I hope that she can find them there, or someone that can help her get in touch with the missionaries.

On of the Senior couple missionaries -- Sister Moore -- gave us her recipe for carmels that are REALLY tasty. We're going to try to make them today. I hope they turn out edible. She said that once we bring her our carmels she'll give us her recipe for carmel popcorn balls, which are also heavenly.

So funny story...the supply coordinator ordered six boxes of English referral cards and they sent us six boxes of French referral cards and we're out of English referral cards. Therefore we have to use the French ones instead. I don't read or understand French at all and neither do most of the guests.

The church website (www.lds.org) is such a fun website to brows around on. Today we found a fun mormon message. You should take a look!

This past week I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 109, which is the dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland temple, to see if I could learn about more temple blessings that I could promise people. I found a verse that I really liked about blessings for temple attendance:

22.  And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them.

It is difficult to help people understand exactly what the temple is for, but the blessings that they can have from going to the temple are just tremendous. It's where we can find true happiness and peace in this life. A lot of people don't really understand that when we try to tell them, but it's true. The temple is the best place that you could be.

Teaching Luana

We've had a good week here at Temple Square. Probably the best part of this week was getting to teach Luana over the phone. Luana lives in the UK and she is originally from Brazil (but you wouldn't know it by talking to her over the phone--her English is perfect). We met her through RC and we could tell that she was "golden". The first time we taught her we learned that she wants to have a closer relationship with God and feel His love more in her life. So we shared with her about prayer and that we can share with Heavenly Father the desires of our hearts instead of a memorized prayer (she is Catholic). We committed her to pray like she was talking with God and also to pray about Joseph Smith to know that he is a prophet of God. So this week we called her and she said that she tried to pray like the way we showed her and she said that she likes it much better and she keeps a prayer in her heart throughout the day. It makes me so happy to hear that something we shared with someone made a difference in their life. This time we taught her about scripture study and how it helps us throughout our day. She loves to read the Bible and she turns to it when she needs council and a little pick-me-up. I could hardly believe the faith that she already has. We shared with her 2 Nephi 32:3 --

 

"Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

 

It's true that the scriptures hold the answers to all of our questions. The more we feast instead of just nibbling on them, so to speak, the more we get out of them. I love the scriptures so much! So we committed Luana to read from the Book of Mormon for 10 to 15 minutes a day. She said that she would and she is excited to do it. Missionary work is the best.

 

We also found a girl named Nicole over chat this past week. I've never found someone that was so willing to change as she is. Nicole is my age and she has a friend, John, who is a member of the church that has been sharing with her about our beliefs. She wants to know how to change and how to find relief from the burdens of sin. I love being able to share about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because of the Atonement we can always be better, there is always hope for a brighter future if we will just turn our hearts to Him and let Him lift our burdens. It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures Matt 11:28-30:

 

28.  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

Repentance is such a wonderful gift that we have been given to be able to be freed from our sins. I'm so excited to be able to share with Nicole about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it can do for her.

 

Today I was on exchanges with Sister Nakajima from Japan. She is in her first transfer and doesn't speak very much English yet. Sister Williams was with Sister Gilbert and they were singing for a youth conference. It was interesting being the senior companion for about an hour. Since Sister Nakajima doesn't speak much English it was pretty much just me contacting people. I'm glad that I'm not a senior companion right now. I still have a lot to learn.

Summer is Here!

I think summer might finally be here! This morning we had five motor coaches come within an hour of each other. It was pretty intense. At the West Gate booth we are in charge of making sure that all of the sisters taking motor coaches have their bags with the right number of referral cards (also in the right language) and the right number of pens. Also we hand out the microphones that sisters use on their motor coach tours. This morning we came to West Gate and because we weren't the ones to close up at night, we didn't know when early the earliest motor coach was coming. It turns out that the first motor coach was at 9:00 am. It's a good thing we left early this morning and that the sisters that were there last night put all of the bags together. It was a life saver. Then we spent most of the rest of the morning assembling the bags for the tours that are coming tonight. There are about six motor coaches coming this evening.

Another thing that we do at West Gate is we send out pages for language tours. For example, a sister from one of the desks will call us and tell us that they need a Mandarin tour for five people at the Eternal Families desk. Then we send out a mass page (we use pagers here on Temples Square...old technology, I know) to all the sisters that speak Mandarin. Then they are all supposed to call us back and one of them will take the tour. The most stressful part is when no one responds back and there are guests waiting to take a tour. It's quite exciting though.

I've had a number of dreams about West Gate in the past few days. The other night I dreamt that we paged out a Russian tour and no one responded. It might have been because the day before we paged out for a Ukrainian tour and no one responded to the page! There are only two sisters here that speak Ukrainian and one of them was on P-day. It was a little ridiculous. So we got someone to take them around in Russian which kind of worked, but it was a little frustrating that we couldn't get the sister to answer her page.

Today is Brigham Young's birthday! So after this we are going to go to the Lion House for some pie. It's going to be pretty good. I've been there twice since I've been on my mission. It's really tasty.

Since being on West Gate we don't have as much time as we used to on the computers to call people, but I've still had the opportunity to talk with some wonderful people on the phone this past week.  As you can probably imagine, calling someone out of the blue (for them) and then trying to have a conversation about religion over the phone is something that is unusual for a lot of people. RC is a bit nerve wracking, but once you get talking to people it's usually fine. A lot of the time when I'm talking with people on the phone it is hard to get things to flow exactly right, so it is always a miracle to me when someone refers to have missionaries over the phone. I've learned that the Spirit makes up for a lot of things, that's why it is so important to have it.