Finding Joy in the Journey

Missionary work in Fremont! Sister Kim and I have been working hard trying to figure out how to get new investigators. We tried to find more opportunities to serve and we were kind of successful. We helped a member with their backyard and we went to the food bank twice this week. This past week we've had the chance to meet with some more less active members of the ward and we had a great time with them. About every week we go and visit with Sister White--she is a wonderful retired African American woman, almost 82,  and has great grandchildren. Sometimes we wonder if she really is a member of the church or if she is Baptist, but she has a heart of gold and she just wants to do the right thing. When we go over to her home we read the Book of Mormon with her and this week we read 1 Nephi 16--it's the chapter where Nephi breaks his bow. She felt the Spirit as we read and she loved the doctrine that is taught in the last verse of the chapter: 

And it came to pass that the Lord was with us, yea, even the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them, and did chasten them exceedingly; and after they were chastened by the voice of the Lord they did turn away their anger, and did repent of their sins, insomuch that the Lord did bless us again with food, that we did not perish

It is beautiful that even after all of their complaining and murmuring that Heavenly Father has a perfect ability to forgive--He didn't hold a grudge against them in the slightest because He blessed them with food. Repentance is such a wonderful miracle. 

We had a mormon.org miracle yesterday. Sister Kim and I were riding our bikes to church and on our way we passed a mother with her young daughter dressed up in their Sunday best walking to church. I was wondering where they were going because the only church close to where they were was our church. It turns out that was where they were going. She walked in the door and told a member that it was her first time here and so they introduced us to her. She has friends that are members of the church and she wanted to see what it was like, so she found it on mormon.org and came to church! She told us that she is looking for a church with structure and a place that focuses on families. She also feels that religion is something that you should take seriously. I had to smile inside because you can find all of those thing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately she couldn't stay for all of sacrament meeting because her daughter had more energy than she was comfortable with, but she said that she wants to try it out another time. I hope and pray that we get to see her again! It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father really is preparing people to hear about the restored gospel, we just need to find them or they just need to find us!

I found a scripture this week that I really like. I was studying about rejoicing and having joy and I came across this phrase in Ecclesiastes 2:10 -- "I withheld not my heart from any joy". I really like that because it is a choice to have joy and to be grateful.