After three back to back trade-offs Monday through Thursday all over the mission, we saw an incredible miracle in our own area. It truly has been one of my absolute favorite experiences on the mission yet, and though it hasn't turned out quite how I'd prayed for, I'm oh so grateful for it.
Sister Ashcraft and I have set really high goals this month as I've mentioned before and those goals have caused me to spend quite some time on my knees praying to know where we are going to find the people The Lord has prepared. One night this week, the letter "D" came into my mind. I just assumed it meant that we should knock on streets that have "D" starting letters. I felt a little weird about it, but I decided it'd be better to go forth with faith than let the chance of finding someone to teach pass by. Little did I realize what He was trying to tell me.
Remember the big #discoverthebook Facebook event we were doing? We did it with the intention of sharing the gospel I know, but I am continually stunned with the fact that it worked out SO well. We received a referral the very next day after that "D" prayer from a set of sisters in Gainesville. A woman had asked for a Book of Mormon from them on Facebook and they gave us her address....a woman named DEE. She let us straight in and was more open than anyone I have ever met in Mandarin. She asked questions, LOVED Moroni's promised in Moroni 10:3-5, came on a church tour the very next day, stayed for all three hours of church the day after that, and kept talking about a feeling that our church has that she hasn't been able to feel in other places. I really have been stunned for the past four days. The Spirit is usually a subtle thing in my life, but I've found that as I ask more and more specific questions, we really can receive incredibly specific answers. God will and does answer us.
Just like in 3 Nephi 14: 9-11 when Christ says, "Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" I know that He answers us perfectly. After those three days, I really could tell that God was answering me.
But often, we look at our circumstances, and feel like God is NOT answering us or is answering us the wrong way. I know with all my heart, that if we do all we can and wait patiently, that His perfect plan will come about. Just this morning Dee asked to stop meeting with us. And honestly, most of our other investigators decided to drop us this week too. At first, my heart felt like it was breaking and doubt filled my mind that maybe God wasn't hearing my prayers. But then I was reminded oh so quickly, that God's ways are not my ways. His thoughts are not my thoughts. This is His perfect plan and as I continue to work my little heart out and trust Him, my will will become His and His miracles will come about perfectly. I truly am so grateful that I can completely and fully rely on my Heavenly Father. Not one bit of me doubts that He has a plan for Dee, Carla, Cindy, Fred, and Isaac. I couldn't have said that a year ago.
I'm so grateful for the many lessons I learned on my mission. They are more precious to me than I can even describe. I know Heavenly Father loves us. I know there are prepared people all around us, but we can't be afraid to face a little heartache along the way. More often than not, it's through those heartaches that God can guide us even better. My goodness, I love being a missionary. I love this perfect gospel more than I ever believed was possible.
Side note: I adore my companion. We tend to analyze the world through personality colors (Red, Blue, White, Yellow) and somehow began analyzing Book of Mormon prophets and characters this week. This led to us having our own Book of Mormon personality twins. It's made us laugh so hard. I don't know if any of you have this in your mission journals, but y'all should start drawing.
p.s. We went to the ZOO. LOVED it.
pps. Pictures are from birthday, 4th of July, and zoo fun. :)
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