Sister Anna Meredith: "This is my joy!" (May 28, 2018)

Buenos dias!!

Hold onto to your hats amigos because this has been one cRaZy miracle-filled week!!

We discovered that there is this amazing little nature preserve literally in the backyard of our apartment so our morning runs are 500 times better now through a little bit of nature.

One of the Hermanas in our district is from Haiti, so she is fluent in French, so last week she helped me brush up on some of my lost high school french skills, with a few expressions including "I'm a missionary". Then on Tuesday morning at service, we help teach English classes, and turned out the woman I was helping was from a country in Africa where they speak French. So I happily told her "I'm a missionary!" and some of my relearned phrases and she was so excited to hear someone speak her native language.

There was this amazing less-active family we were teaching last time I was here. They started coming to church basically all by themselves and we started having weekly family home evenings with them. But a little while after I left, they whitewashed this area, which means they put in two new sisters into an area instead of one leaving and one staying. And after that they never got in to meet with them again and they haven't come to church since. They had tried texting and stopping by and never had any luck. So we stopped by on Tuesday and the mom remembered me and told us we could come back the next day, so we had an awesome family night with them on Wednesday, and they know they should come. We think they are experiencing a little bit of pressure from extended family to not be involved in the church. But their little girls are so passionate about learning and want to come, so we are so excited to begin working with them again.

Then holy cow there is this amazing part-member family we were working with, and their 14 year old son was getting ready to get baptized last time I was here. Then after I left at the beginning of January, the family told the missionaries they were too busy with school and stuff for the lessons. Then, again with the whitewash, the new sisters, they never really knew about them or that he was interested. So, we decided to stop by on Wednesday afternoon. The son and his mom were home and were super excited to see us. Turns out that his last day of school was that day and they had just gotten home so we had gone at the exact right time. And he told us he still wants to get baptized and wants us to start coming over every week to teach him again!!

This other investigator who had dropped us right before I left last time because he felt he didn't have enough time and some other personal problems he was dealing with at the time, we called him and he told us we could come over next week. AND he came to church yesterday!!

We got a referral from a part-member family in the English ward in the area when we cover, they just told us they had some Hispanic neighbors. So we stopped by one time, and met one woman, who told us we could come back a different night. So we stopped by again, and a different family member let us in, and we sat down and got to have a lesson with their whole family. The grandma, the parents, and their 4 kids. Turns out the husband is a less-active member, he got baptized in Mexico when he was little, and has only come to church a couple of times here. And we had never heard of him or their family so we are super excited that we found them! And the rest of the family is open to have us come over every week to share more of our message as well.

Then remember how last week I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting and at the last minute changed it to be about missionary work. Well we went to dinner with a member this week and while we were helping her in the kitchen, she told me"Hermana, I've been thinking a lot about the talk you gave and the ways that we can do missionary work. I really want to be able to share the gospel with some of my friends but I don't know how to start." So it opened up to an amazing discussion about member missionary work, and it was really cool to see that someone was listening and that it has touched at least one person.

Oh and we had two baptisms in the ward yesterday!! Our investigator, Yeimy, got baptized, and another investigator from the other area and it was amazing! It's cool to see the whole ward come together to support our newest members.

This has been such a fun, rewarding week of missionary work. It's getting pretty hot, but we are having a blast biking all around Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center. We have found nine new people to teach this and they are all so ready to receive the message of the restored gospel. It has been so much fun to be outside in the sun, and talking to everyone, and sharing the gospel and seeing miracles. I feel so much joy to be on the errand of angels, on the side of Christ. "This is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." Alma 29:9

Quotes of the week

"The spider bit me so I ate it. I'm at the top of the food chain" Elders Dyerly

"Do you want to see my book from God?" A little girl whose family we are teaching and she proceeded to go to her room and get a copy of the Book of Mormon.

Hermana Meredith