First Area Week 6- Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy (9-9-2013)

Family and Friends!

I know most of you are waiting on pins and needles to find out if I have gotten my visa... My visa is not here yet, but I get to stay in Ohio with Sister Roberts and we are getting a Sister fresh out of the MTC too!         

Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From his lighthouse evermore
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning;

Send a gleam across the wave.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save.

One of my favorite things about missionary work is to know that Heavenly Father is the real missionary here. Every person that I come in contact with is Heavenly Father's investigator first, and I just get to add a little bit on top. But, the neat thing is that they need both Him and us missionaries to get all the way to the shore of eternal life!
We have learned that there is a woman who has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to know more about what we believe. She is the Young Woman's President's daughter-in-law. We are trying to make contact with her and stuff like that, but it just amazes me that Heavenly Father watches out for all of His children, wayward or not.

Dark the night of sin has settled;

Loud the angry billows roar.

Eager eyes are watching, longing,

For the lights along the shore.

Let the lower lights be burning;

Send a gleam across the wave.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save.

Sometimes the world confuses and distracts those that we love and teach. We have lost Tammy and Susan as investigators this week. Tammy has moved out of the mission and has turned off her phone. Susan is moving and doesn't have time to meet with us anymore. But, I have no doubt that their meeting with us was not in vain. One day they will remember the light which they saw and felt while speaking with the missionaries and begin looking for it again!

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;

Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,

Trying now to make the harbor,

In the darkness may be lost.

Let the lower lights be burning;

Send a gleam across the wave.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save.

Sometimes God works in the wildest ways and I cannot help but feel undeserving of all the miracles that He puts in my path. But, 6 weeks ago when I got here, Kurt seemed like the least likely to be a stalwart investigator. And here he is, our last hold out who has changed so much in the past 6 weeks. He is taking baby steps towards coming to the waters of baptism, but those baby steps are huge bounds for him! He did not grow up religious and has never prayed before. He suffers from PTSD and really has a hard time reconciling what he has seen with a knowledge that God loves us. But, Friday he said that he had been praying with his wife, who is a member. He says that he is not good with words and often has her say what he is trying to say in everyday conversation, which is so true:D  So we thought that it was so cool that he was praying with Christi! We have been talking with him about baby steps and we asked him what he thought the next baby step for him would be, and he said that he thinks he should pray by himself. I almost cried at that moment, the Spirit was so strong and I know Kurt is making small changes in his life everyday! I have never been so happy to not have my visa in my entire life! I am so glad that I get to stay here longer and see Heavenly Father work more on Kurt! Also, his favorite thing is NFL football and his team was playing Sunday. When I got here, he said that once football season started he would not be coming to church. Guess who came to sacrament yesterday and THEN went home to watch the game!?! Kurt did! I can't believe the changes that I have been able to witness in him just in the past 6 weeks!

Like I said many times before, the bulk of our work is with less actives. Heather is a reader like no other. She is reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon together and she just gets through stuff so fast. She has stopped drinking tea all together and she is weaning herself off of coffee. I also can't believe the change that has been wrought in her the past few weeks. The Boles are pretty good, neither of them had ever really had a strong religious background or anything so we are working with them to gain a faith in Jesus Christ. We have an appointment with the Davis family who has an 8 year old who hasn't been baptized tomorrow and we are so excited for that!

Miracle of the week: well one of them... :D

Sister Roberts got something absolutely wild in her eye Friday night on the way home. After an hour her eye had kinda swollen up a bit and it really hurt. There is an eye doctor who lives in the Elder's area and our ward, which means she is in West Virginia on the other side of the river. It was about 9:45 at that time and we decided to call her for some help. Well, she just happened to be in St.Clairsville with her husband and came over! Crazy right, not really, God totally knows what's up! Anyways, she took the thing that was in Sis Roberts eye out and gave her some eye drops. It was some sort of grit that ended up scratching the surface of Sister Roberts cornea, so we got some more eye drops the next day from Sister Wiley. God really looks out for His children and provides a way to help all of us all the time!

I am glad that we have had this time together! I miss you guys and am so glad that you are so supportive of my efforts as a missionary! I know that this Church is true!

I want to challenge you guys to go to mormonchannel.org and watch the Bread of Life mormon messages, they are awesome!

I could write so much more... but I don't have enough time!

So long until next week!

Sister Nay