WEEK 67 "Juan --our best bud who is a Jehovah's Witness"

transfer calls were last week and Sister Atwood is my new companion. She is an absolute dream of a comp! wow, I cannot say enough good things about her. She also played for Timpview and apparently kicked our butts in high school soccer so that's fun!

This week we had a killer training with President Garns and his wife and some of the leaders in the missionary department. It was super inspiring. Here are just a few things that I learned..."It's who you are and not just what you do that helps people fill the spirit." Brother Donaldson spoke a lot about three actions of faith that lead us to unity with the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. The first is Prayer. Here in the mission when we ask our friends to pray with real intent we are teaching them how to pass through a telestial world to a celestial world. Jesus Christ is the mediator but we are directly talking to our loving Heavenly Father...The second action that connects us with Jesus Christ is the Book of Mormon. When we read of the ancient stories of Christ and his visit to the ancient Americas there is nothing more pure and sweet than the spirit that testifies that He LIVES. 

This past week we had the lovely return appointment... yes a return appointment!!! to teach a Jehovah's witness. We wanted to create a beautiful spiritual experience so after he began to target us with all these random scriptures we decided, okay we aren't just going to try and teach him a lesson but we are going to fill this experience with the spirit. And so we did. We asked him if it would be alright to do the challenge together that Moroni extended to us and he agreed. We read the whole chapter of Moroni 10  and wow was the spirit sooo strong the entire time. When Moroni says that we will be held accountable for reading the Book of Mormon at the judgment seat the spirit hit us like ton of bricks. it was cool to see his reaction. Halfway during the chapter, I saw his eyes change and the spirit working in his soul. As soon as we finished he was right back to his quarreling way of "proving us wrong" but I tried asking him how he felt. He paused and he didn't know what to say. At that moment I could see the change in his heart. For a split moment, I thought he was going to say he felt good but he just changed the subject. In the end, he told us that he wasn't going to keep learning more because we believe Jehovah is Jesus Christ. I know he must have felt good because we read the whole entire chapter. there's no way this man would have kept reading with us if the spirit wasn't there. All he wanted to do was argue with us but as soon as we opened the pages of the Book of Mormon the spirit brought a perfect peace and testified that this Book is of Christ. I love how these ancient stories always draw me to the Savior.

The third action that connects us deeply to the Holy Ghost is attending sacrament meeting. Jesus is the literal Bread of life, and He is the living water that leads us to eternal life. Of course, we need to partake of the sacrament. This week was so special. He truly is everything to me. Elder Holland described it perfectly- that He is the bread of forgiveness and the cup of redemption. As we remember and renew our baptismal covenants with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we are filled with the spirit. Oh, how we need this sweet spirit to nurture our souls throughout the week.

I loved this council because this is truly how we connect ourselves with the Godhead. This is how we connect our lives with heaven. My favorite scripture right now is found in 3 Nephi 28: 10. "And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy, and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one. And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me, and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men because of me."

Wow, talk about no cooler promise. This is actually how we got Juan interested. We asked him if he knew what the best promise is in the Book of Mormon. We gave him a book and told him to look for it. 

I know that God and his Beloved Son and the Holy Ghost are one in purpose and that purpose is the missionary purpose. To apply faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. It's simple but the apostasy made it complicated. All we have to do is follow Him and one day we will have eternal life. Sorry for my missionary soapbox! ugh, I know I've probably made you all so bored. I promise I'm still fun too. But I just love the gospel so much. It truly changes us as soon as we study, apply and live the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to become something.. To become like God. 

I love you all and I do think about you often. I know our prayers connect us wherever we may be. I promise that if your prayers haven't been answered just know that one day they will be. That is what I have learned on my mission.. especially with our friends Jose and Anabel. I will tell you about their story next week.

Love you all:)

xo,

hermana Richards

highlights:

- a mariachi band came to the ward Saturday night to celebrate all the Latin moms

- we currently have the best zone leaders one just came from being AP praise  the heavens

- we played a Paul Cardall song in sacrament meeting and my favorite member Hermano Quezada told me I wasn't a terremoto this time:)