Hello everyone! What a week! We have been strugglin hard core this week. We've both been kinda frustrated this week because we can tell Satan is working really hard on us. But it seemed like everytime something bad happened, we saw a miracle! And everytime we saw a miracle, something bad happened. Haha.
So this week, we had Zone Conference in Saratoga (me love) and then went on exchange with our STL's afterwards! The Toga zone is seriously awesome. Sis Camp and Sister Reintjes are both in my zone so it was awesome! This ZC was seriously wonderful. We focused on how to teach the Restoration in 5 minutes! Wow, so much information in so little time. We learned how to focus mostly on Joseph Smiths' experience and reciting the first vision and then having both companions testify of how it's true. Holy cow we have seen so many miracles from that! We were able to pick up 4 new investigators the next day from teaching the Resto in 5 minutes!!!! We've also been able to teach 5 min resto at least twice a day since ZC. We've definitely seen miracles happen from that and we know it was inspired that we practiced doing that. I absolutely know that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Everytime I recite his experience, or even listen to it, I just know it's true. Like Elder Chidester said, "Elders and Sisters, you can not make this stuff up." It's true. I know it is. And I'm so lucky I get to share it with my brothers and sisters who need to hear this message and be brought back home.
Sister Folkman and I are just working our little butts off here in Manchester! It's definitely a hard area, but it's incredible the people we're meeting and the success we're having! We both have the biggest desire to have 3 baptisms this transfer. We keep that goal at the forefront of our minds and in our prayers daily. We've been focusing on finding a lot. We followed Presidents advice and got lists of Part member families, unbaptized children, and prospective elders. Everyday we try to see a few of these people and WOW MIRACLES HAVE HAPPENED.
We met this awesome woman Brittni. We ended up finding her sister in law because Brittni had moved, but we found her! She cried twice while we were there because she needs this. Her husband is pretty anti and her kids aren't really interested but she was so sweet and said we could come back anytime! It was such a blessing that we got to meet her.
We also got to meet Shayna and John! Wow does the gospel change lives. We met them through tracting. We knocked on their door and there were so many kids screaming and running around. This one girl came to the door and just screamed as soon as she saw us cause we scared her! Haha but she grabbed her parents and they sat outside and talked to us. Shayna told us she believes in God but not really sure what to believe because there are so many different opinions out there. John pretty much told us that he doesn't really believe in Christ. Well, we started teaching them the 5 minute Resto, and at the end, they both committed to come to church and read the Book of Mormon! It was incredible to see someone who didn't have any belief in Christ, to truly listen to what we said. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson.
We were supposed to do a church tour with them on Saturday, so they called us and said they would come!!! But then a few hours later, they called and cancelled :( but they said they would be at church the next day! But then they didn't come. We know they are truly interested and want to bring their daughter but we also know how hard Satan is working on them. It's so frustrating. But we also met a few other awesome people that have sooo much potential so I'm super excited about that!
It's just a huge struggle getting return appointments and having set lessons. Most of the time, we open up our planners and have nothing planned for the whole day. It's a struggle but the happiest struggle of my life. I never thought I could be so happy doing something so hard! Sister Folkman just has the best attitude about everything and it makes it so much better!
Oh, another struggle this week. We parked at a post office in Arlington so we could meet the Elders there and drive with them to Saratoga, and when we came back we found that someone hit our car! They didn't leave a note or anything. So messed up. SO we've had to take time out of our day to go get it fixed. We're gonna go try to figure more of that out today. We can just really see the adversary working so hard on us! But we absolutely know it's because we have miracles coming! Opposition in all things.
P.S. I spoke in church yesterday on Luke 22:32 and personal conversion! I was able to share a lot from the talk "Converted unto the Lord" By Elder Bednar that my dad sent me a while back. It caused me to think a lot about my personal conversion and I hope you will all take the time to read that scripture and that talk and think about how you can improve your personal conversion to the Lord. This gospel is all about the one. I love that concept. The Lord knows us each by name. It is so personal. He wants us each back. He suffered so much for YOU. He loves YOU. We NEED to be converted to HIM. And we will never fall away. The way that we become converted is by living the Gospel/Doctrine of Christ: Faith, Repentance, Baptism/Sacrament, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Our Mission President has told us that ANY problem we have in life can be resolved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we need more faith, other times we just need to partake of the sacrament, sometimes we need to repent, etc. So next time you have a concern/problem, just think what part of the doctrine of Christ do you need? It WILL help. I LOVE YOU ALL AND I LOVE THIS GOSPEL AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AND I LOVE VERMONT.
President Rogers: "This is just advice from your seasoned old, salty mission president" (we don't think he knows what salty means so we were all just crackin up)
Chidester: "Elders and sisters, the pizza's been ordered, go deliver it." (the pizza meaning the gospel) 
Also, we found a Jehovas Witness pamphlet on someones door while we were tracting, so we took it and replaced it with the truth, a Pass Along card. :)
xoxo
Sister Rodriguez
1. My girls at ZC
2. our poor car :(
3. Vermont 
4. In Saratoga Springs, they have natural springs you can drink from, this one tasted like rotten eggs. Sister Saunders and I hate ourselves for trying it
5. This is a TERRIBLE picture, but Sister Folkman and I accidentally drove to New York on our way home and didn't realize it until we saw "Welcome to New York" so I got a picture of Vermont on our way back home. It's always an adventure
No comments:
Post a Comment