June 24, 2013

Hey ya'll!!!

Another awesome week has just flown by here in virginia!! Can't believe how fast the time is going! The work is going pretty slow right now but we are working like crazy and i know we will be blessed for our hard work, there must be opposition in all things! Otherwise there would be no growth in this work. There is a reason people say that missions are the hardest but the best thing. One thing i know for a fact is that there are people who are being prepared, who are ready to hear the gospel and seeking for the truth here in virginia.... but the only way that i will be led to them is if i am doing all i can to find them! And i am, i am doing the very best i can and i know my companions and i will be led to them! Our best is what the Lord expects from me and what he expects from all of us and as long as we are doing the very best we can we will be blessed for it! So we have an investigator named Chris, he is 19 and just so awesome!! We had an amazing lesson with him this week and for the first time i could tell that he was actually feeling the spirit and feeling something different and recognizing the importance of the gospel and that our church is the one true church here on the earth. He is really starting to gain a testimony and progress! He is all about finding out for himself and searching the scriptures and he really just wants to know before he sets a baptism date and rushes into anything which is understandable. He is so great though and its so awesome to watch someone go through this conversion process and see their improvement and be able to recognize when and how they were able to get that seed of faith in them! So Chris was actually a referral from sisters in richmond... they ran into him downtown and he didn't want to give them the time of day. He wasnt interested at all and was pretty set in his ways, but after talking to him for a minute he started to seem interested and he actually lives here in charlottesville so we get to teach him! He works a lot so we have a hard time meeting with him often and we have been teaching him for about over a month but have only met a couple times. He wants to meet more often though and you can tell he is really wanting to learn more and that desire is there and he just wants to know for himself! it is so sweet. So i had someone ask me this week how we, as missionaries, go about teaching others how to have faith in jesus christ. I've been thinking about it a lot this week and just feel like i should share what i learned especially since the church is really pushing on member missionary work. So the only way that faith gets kindled in the heart of people is by hearing the testimony of those who have faith. As we are an example to those around us and live the gospel and share what we know to be true to our friends that is what first plants that seed of faith in their hearts. Also, joseph smith taught that faith cant be exercised unless others know the character of God. Everyone wants to be loved right? When others hear and recognize that they have a heavenly father who knows them and loves them so much and when they hear that you know heavenly father loves them then it gives them the desire to come to know and come closer to the person that truly knows their every need, desire, or fear. I talked to a recent convert named Harriett about this, she was baptized about a month ago and she said the biggest thing that helped her gain her faith was hearing and seeing the testimonies of those that she was surrounded by... friends, missionaries, etc. One of her friends who is a member of the church told her to just try and live the word of wisdom and to just see if her life got any better if she started to live it.... and so she did. and after she recognized the blessings from it she didn't want to go back and so she picked another commandment to try and live and continued to recognize blessings and could see how her life was improving and getting better by the experiment she was performing. Eventually this led to her interest in the gospel and she knew that she had been blessed by living just a couple principles of the gospel and she wanted to receive even greater blessings by learning more about the church and striving to live all of the commandments! Faith requires action, but before others can act, they must hear and feel the powerful testimony of someone else. The coolest thing about this gospel is that we don't expect anyone to take our word for it... i'm not here on a mission to try and convince anyone of anything. I'm here to guide them along the path, to believe in them, and encourage them to experiment upon the word of god and find out for themselves if this church is true. A huge thing i learned about this week is how important love is toward others. Love is what softens someones heart toward the gospel. When people recognize that you truly love and care for them, then they trust you and they will have the desire to know what you know and live how you live. Even out here in the mission field when people tell us they aren't interested (in a nice way) then we continue to go back and visit them and continue to serve them in any way that we can to show that we truly care for them. We are all brothers and sisters here on earth... unfortunately some have gotten lost along the way but as members of the church it is our duty to not only live the gospel but to teach it. I know that the lord prepares people in his own time and even though people may not accept right away, they will remember the impact of love that we as members of the church left on them and they will have that desire to either come back or know more. Everyone is always welcome into the church with open arms no matter what their past may be. We all have such huge potential to bring others to the church and we can be a light and example to everyone around us.... but we need to act and if our actions are motivated by love then we will help rescue a spritual son or daughter of our heavenly father. We are here to assist in the work, there is no script to follow on how the work should be done... as long as we will be in tune with the spirit then our mouths will be filled with what the lord would have us do or say! i know this church is true with all my heart! i know why i am here and i recognize the importance of my calling not just as a missionary but as a member of the church as well! I'm so happy to be serving here in virginia and i know it is where the lord called me and needs me to be! Thanks so much for all your love and support, i've got the best support around by far! Keep being amazing and working hard, and never forget that you are good enough :) LOVE YOU ALL XOXO

 

Sister Roosendaal

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Macy's Email- June 17, 2013

Hey ya'll!!

Another week has just flown by here in Charlottesville! I can't believe how fast the time is going! It's crazy. This week was awesome... we didn't exactly have tons of success this week or tons of spiritual experiences with investigators but i have found that the best days are when we have all 0's for our goals... it is days like those that i know i gave it my best effort and did all i possibly could to bring others unto christ. We have been working super hard, every hour of every day is flled and we are so busy and although the work is slow right now i know the lord is preparing those who are ready to hear and accept the gospel but i will only be led to them if my comps and i keep working as hard as we are and keep having faith!  I know there are good things around the corner and something i have really come to learn is that there must be opposition in all things. There is no one in the scriptures that the lord called that didn't have opposition. The scriptures are full of people and prophets that had to go through so much opposition and exercise so much faith in order to be blessed and be able to fully carry out the lords work. And guess what? All those people in the scriptures weren't any different than we are... they all made mistakes and had to learn from those mistakes to get to where they needed to be. The lord only calls the weak and the simple and i'm so proud to be apart of the weak and simple club. I know that opposition in our lives only allows us an opportunity to grow and to go through hard things so we can be made stronger. We should celebrate the opposition that we have in our lives cuz when we are strong and things seem to be going perfectly in our lives... then usually that is when we are weaker spiritually cuz we aren't relying on the lord as much as we should. The work right now is going very slow and it just seems like no matter how obedient or right we are doing things that we are just getting nowhere. haha but don't worry i'm not discouraged at all cuz i know that becaue we are working so hard that there are miracles waiting around the corner. The lord definitely lets us struggle and loves to give us opposition so we will turn to him, hold onto him and rely on him to bless us in the ways that we need and in the ways that our best for us and i am sooooooo beyond grateful for that. i love the lord i know he knows who i am and i know he knows each of us and the people in virginia. he knows what they need, he knows better than i do and he has sent me here to teach all that i can to the people of virginia. I carry the most important message here in charlottesville and the lord is relying on me to do all i can to tell everyone i can about this important message that we have. This past week we were able to go to richmond for a mission conference and unfortunately had to say goodbye to our mission president. it was really sad but i'm excited to welcome in the new president and to see how he will run the mission. i'm excited to get to know him. So president perry shared some amazing messages at that conference and one thing that was mentioned a lot is the scripture in 1 samuel 16:7 talking about how the lord looks on the heart and knows what are true desires are. This life is not about popularity or what others think, the mission isnt about the number of baptisms we have... it is about our heart and the desires we have to faithfully hold onto christ and bring others unto him. I was reading this week in 2 nephi 31 that talks about righteousness and how we shouldnt just manifest the appearance of righteousness cuz the lord knows us, he knows our thoughts and the desires of our hearts. i know there are a lot of people out there who strive to do all they can to make it appear that they are righteous so others assume that they are. They don't actually live the gospel, they don't have that desire to come closer to christ cuz they are so wrapped up in the world and what the world thinks. i know that if we seek not to obtain riches or praise in the world but instead seek to obtain a hope in christ then we will receive spiritual riches that are more powerful than any sort of worldly thing. i know that if we hang onto christ, turn to him, let him lift us up that we can overcome the many temptations in this world. One thing our mission pres. ALWAYS tells us is that "you are good enough!" he knows how discouraged we can get out in the mission field and he knows that we are good enough cuz we are doing all we can to be obedient and to share our testimonies with the people here in virginia. So i just want you all to know that YOU ARE ALL GOOD ENOUGH. we can always strive to be better but i know that we are always good enough in the lords eye as we are doing all we can to obey him and to serve his children here on the earth. So yesterday we had quite thee interesting experience.... hopefully it isnt one of those "ya had to be there" moments cuz i got a pretty good kick out of it. So we went to go teach one of our investigators named derek and it was only like our 2nd time meeting with him and he invited us into his house and took us down into this tiny little room probably about as wide as a car that i'm pretty sure is supposed to be a closet but he had a couch and a tv in there that were about a cm. apart from each other and all three of us sat on the couch or squoze into sitting on the couch and we were just like an inch away from the tv and couldnt even see him cuz it was just a bizarre angle... anyway, his dog started to freak out so he let it out of the cage and just threw it onto our laps and its just crawling all over us and it ended up on sis walkers lap and all the sudden derek goes "uh i'm pretty sure he just peed on you" haha bless poor sis walkers heart... this brand new missionary getting peed on during only like her 3rd lesson here and all he did was threw her a towel at her and didn't do anything about the dog so i politely threw the dog off the couch and we taught an interesting long and uncomfortable lesson to him while sis walker had pee all over her. ha! It made me laugh... sis walker didn't think it was too funny in the moment but i think she does now. haha lets just say i'm really learning how to be comfortable while being uncomfortable. we get put into some pretty interesting situations here and all ya can do is laugh its the best thing ever and i'm loving every minute. i love you all sooo much and am so grateful for your prayers and support. i hope that baseball is going good and i just wish i was there to cheer everyone on that is playing! i miss going to everyones activities and being involved but i really just love to hear about everything that is going on at home and what ya'll are up to. you don't have to respond to any of my stories or anything i'm up to i just want to hear how ya'll are doing and what you are up to! LOVE YOU ALL. have a good week!! XOXO

 

Sister Roosendaal

Pictures

Hope On, Journey On-June 3, 2013

Hey everyone!!
It's been an awesome week, i cant believe how fast time is flying!!
It's so crazy but i'm loving it. So transfers are this week and I will
be staying put in Charlottesville which means i will officially be
serving in the Virginia, Richmond Mission :) :) .... BUT... I will be
training a brand new fresh off the plane greenie. Yikes. Haha I hope
president knows what he is doing since I still have 6 weeks left of
greenie in me haha but it will be great! My companion Sis. Tanner and
I will be training together so i'm not alone. Thank the heavens. But
bless this poor new girls heart. I hope she doesn't freak when she
finds out her trainer has only been out six weeks. Haha oh man.... i'm
so nervous, but soo excited it's going to be awesome!!! The work is
going great here, still a little slow but we have a couple of awesome
progressing investigators. Jocelyn actually just called us this
morning and told us she wants to be baptized on June 15!!! HOLLLLA.
I'm soooo stoked for her!! She is BEYOND ready. She already acts like
she has been a member for years, but we get to make it official very
soon and its so exciting!!! I can't wait! We met with a new
investigator this week named Chris and he has also said he wants to be
baptized but is just praying about a date right now. He just really
understands that he needs to find out for himself if this church is
true or not. He understands that we are just his guides along the way
and we arent trying to convince him of anything. It's his job to find
out for himself and that is what he is doing and he is just so pumped
about the gospel and i'm just so excited for him. He is so refreshing
to teach cuz people get the wrong idea that we are just trying to
convince them and get them to believe that what we are saying is true.
But in reality i'm just here to help them discover for themselves and
help them gain a testimony of this church and how true and real it is.
I wouldnt ever want anyone to join the church just cuz i sounded
pretty convincing during the lessons. In Moroni 10:3-5 it says that if
we have the desire to know for ourselves and if we pray to our father
in heaven with a sincere heart and real intent then we can come to
know for ourselves if this church is true. We all have that agency to
act for ourselves and come to know for ourselves. This week i read a
conference talk by elder holland that talks about faith and holding on
to the faith and testimony that we do have no matter how big or how
small. what we know will always trumph what we don't know! i know that
is true and i know that if we hold onto the faith that we have during
trying or difficult moments that those moments and the leap of faith
that we take will allow it to grow! I know that when life gets crazy
and your just not sure how you are going to make it through that it's
so important to have the faith that whatever comes our way can be
examined and resolved. In elder hollands words "dont hyperventilate"
haha i could use some work on that one...since that's exactly what i
did when i found out i'd be training :) haha just jokkkin. anyway,
patience is something i have been really working on and thinking a lot
about. sometimes it is so hard to be patient with yourself and with
others.... but if you think about it imperfect people are all that God
has to deal with and if he can do it... then so can we! Well at least
we can try harder to be better at it. None of us are perfect and we
all are seeking for the same thing in this life. we all want to be
happy. we all want to live a good, secure and happy life. The end goal
is the same for most everyone. We are all on this journey together and
we are all trying to do our best. I know how important it is to strive
to be patient. Especially as a missionary, cuz all of us missionaries
have sacrificed so much to be out here, we all miss our families and
loved ones and we came here so that we could bring others closer to
christ. We all have the same goal and none of us want to fail so i
just know how important it is to be patient with others on this
journey and to be understanding toward them. This week we had a zone
meeting and the ap's, stake pres, and sister training leaders were all
there. Pretty intense. Ha but it was awesome and one thing that
someone talked about was having Christ as our main motivator. I know
that one of my biggest motivators our here on my mission is my family.
I want to make you all proud and i want to return home to you all with
honor. Although, that is a good motivator, Christ should be at the
center of my motivation and i should constantly be focusing on him and
i know that through him i can receive strength and motivation to do
the work. He has called me here to virginia and he needs me to BE
HERE. Every bit of me needs to be focused on the work and how i can
bring others closer to Christ. He has done so much for us and i know
that if we go throughout each day focusing on him and allowing him to
be our main motivator then each day can be filled with new and
uplifting experiences that we otherwise wouldn't do without our
motivation centered on Christ. I know how important that is! And i
know it isnt easy at all but i know that if that is what we strive to
seek then we will be blessed!! I'm so grateful to be here and so
excited for the work to move forward in Charlottesville, Virginia!
Love you all sooooo much!! XOXO

Macy Kate