Hey everyone!!!
Another week has flown by... the
weeks get faster and faster every time it is crazy! But it has been such an
awesome week! We found a couple new investigators and had some awesome
experiences, i have learned a TON about how important the spirit is this week!
So we got a referral from the elders last week and we spent a couple days
trying to contact him... and one day we were just out tracting and we passed a
big group of guys and just kept walking but my companion just all of a sudden
stopped after we passed them and said that we needed to go back and talk to
them.... so we turned around but it was too late, they were already gone. We
felt terrible about it cuz we knew it was the spirit directing us back to them
but they were gone. So the next day we were able to get in contact with the
referral, his name is Dre and he is soooo sick. But anyway, turns out he was
one of the guys that we passed by the day before and that we were supposed to
go back and talk to! If we would have followed the spirit the first time and
talked to them, then we would have been able to get in contact with Dre sooner
and also be able to talk to all of his friends cuz he always tells us how he is
trying to get his friends to come to church and try and help them change too.
So the spirit is so important and if we would have just talked to them the
first time we saw them and if we would have acted on the spirits prompting
faster we would have been able to meet with Dre a lot sooner and also be
able to talk to and meet his friends. I know that the spirit is real and so
crucial to this work and although Dre is a new investigator and we still get to
teach him, the spirit was just trying to help us out by helping us meet with
him earlier and also his friends. But i'm just so excited for Dre and i just
feel like he is so prepared and ready especially since the spirit is working so
hard to get us to meet with him. he is obsessed with basketball, it is
hilarious and he struggles with drinking and smoking but he is so ready to
change and we have only taught him the restoration and he just wants to learn
about the word of wisdom right away so he knows what he is going to have to do
to change. haha its pretty funny. i'm way excited for him. We also met with
Chris this week and he came to church yesterday too and loved it! He says that
he wants to be baptized in august before he moves back to richmond for school!
I am sooooo excited for him, he is so great and he just fit right in at church yesterday!
We taught him this week the importance of church, scripture study, and prayer
and although those are all really simple things and things that he already
knows he should be doing.... after the lesson was over he told us that he now
recognizes the importance of those three things and constantly striving to do
them and i'm pretty sure he wasnt planning on talking about baptism or setting
a specific time for it but i think it just unexpectedly came out of his mouth
cuz he seemed so surprised after he said it! haha it was awesome!! I feel like
i have taught about church, scripture study, and prayer a million times this
week.... and i've learned so much about it and i'm so grateful i was able to
teach so much about it. We met with a less active this week named Tanna.... the
biggest sweetheart in the world! I was super nervous cuz i had no idea what to
do or say to a less active to help them.... so i was just praying and praying
the whole time for direction on what we could do to help her. Well, turns out
the reason she hasnt been to church is cuz of her job, she works a lot on
sundays.... but as she started working so much and not coming to church, she
stopped praying and reading her scriptures and eventually all desire was lost
to live this gospel and so she fell away for awhile and her life got kinda
crazy and she says she just feels a huge hole in her life and she wants to come
back. So the spirit just took over in that lesson.... we had no idea what we
were going to say or teach before we went in there and i have never really done
much with less actives so i had no clue what i was doing and that is why i know
that the spirit took over in that lesson cuz what we told her and taught her
brought her to tears and really touched her heart and helped her see and
understand the importance of coming to church and the importance of reading and
praying. Those three things are crucial for us to have a strong testimony and
desire to live this gospel. They all seem so little and so simple and just
typical sunday school answers but really without those three things in our life
we end up falling off the path and end up feeling some sort of hole or
emptiness in our lives. It was such a cool lesson, i was literally worn out by
the end cuz the spirit was so strong and so powerful. I could truly feel
heavenly fathers love for tanna... and he just wants her to come back to him,
he just wants to hear from her and wants her to do those things that would
bring her closer to him. We left her with a chapter to read in the b.o.m... cuz
she said she would do better if she had something specific to read and what
came out of my mouth was ether 12... and i wasnt really even sure what was in
that chapter but it just kinda came out and this morning i read that chapter
and realize how perfect it is for tanna and how the spirit was really working
through me when we taught her and guess what! she came to church yesterday!!
I asked her if she had read and prayed and she said yes and she got teary eyed
and said that what she read in the bom was perfect and exactly what she needed!
The spirit is soooo real and sooo amazing! I am so grateful for it... cuz
without it we wouldnt be able to effectively help these people come closer to
christ. the spirit knows them better than we do and its not anything i say or
anything my companions say ... it is what the spirit says... and what the
spirit says through us that converts people cuz heavenly father is aware of
them and their needs! i know how important church, prayer, and scripture study
are and i recognize that they must all be used together in order for us to have
a strong testimony and to be living this gospel the way that we are supposed
to. i know that if we continually do those things that our relationship with
our heavenly father will be stronger and we will come to recgonize how
much he truly does know and love us and he is just waiting to pour out
blessings upon us if we will simply obey him and do what he says. he wants to
give us everything and he wants to bless us but only if we will turn our hearts
to him and do his will! One last thing... sorry this week has just been full of
cool experiences. But we got a new investigator named Niko. He is also sooo
awesome. we taught him downtown just on some steps outside in a grungy lookin
place with people all over and i was worried that it would be difficult for the
spirit to be there as we taught him cuz what was around us was so busy and so
crazy but as we taught him it was almost as if no one was around. all the
sounds, noises, and distractions of the world were completely blotted out and
we were able to teach as if we were sitting in a quiet rooom. After we taught
the restoration, Niko had tears in his eyes and a look on his face as if he had
just found what he has been looking for his whole life. it was sooo amazing!!!
He said he wants to get baptized and he has been reading the book of mormon and
texting us with his questions! i am so excited for our investigators and the
journey they are on and the journey they will begin when they enter the waters of
baptism. There is no greater thing in this world than the gospel. It is soo
true and so amazing and i know how important it is to live by it and i know
that if we do we will be blessed and guided and continually watched over by our
father in heaven who loves all of us soooooo much. I love being a missionary,
there is no greater joy than helping others come to know of the truth and to
help bring them to the gospel path that will guide and bless them for the rest
of their lives. I know this is where i am supposed to be and i am soo happy i
get to be here teaching the gospel! I know it is true, every bit of it! Happy 4th
of July this week! have tons of fun at fish lake and the cabin, i cant wait to
hear all about it!! Love you all sooo much!! Thanks for everything!! XOXO
Sister Roosendaal
Sister Roosendaal in her trio
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