First Area Week 7-Undecided between Praise to the Lord the Almighty and Come, Ye Disconsolate (9-16-2013)

Family and Friends!
So this week has more ups and downs than I thought possible for a week! So I had to choose two hymns for my week instead of just one :D

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!
Join the great throng,
Psaltery, organ and song,
Sounding in glad adoration!

Praise to the Lord! Over all things he gloriously reigneth.
Borne as on eagle wings, safely his Saints he sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How all thou needest hath been
Granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee.
Surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with his love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath breath, join with Abraham's seed to adore him!
Let the "amen"
Sum all our praises again,
Now as we worship before him.

Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish;
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts; here tell your anguish.
Earth has no sorrow that heav'n cannot heal.

Joy of the desolate, Light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure!
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
"Earth has no sorrow that heav'n cannot cure."

Here see the Bread of Life; see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above.
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heav'n can remove.

So I will start on last Monday and move on forward in order of what happened.
We taught our recent convert little boy, Austin, and he was way distracted. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was all over the place. His younger brother was throwing a temper tantrum so we were trying really hard to keep the Spirit there, but it just wasn't. We are really hoping that our lesson this week will turn out better.

Tuesday we got to pick up our new companion! Sister Valikoula is the "greenie" that we added to our ranks. She is just really quiet! She gives us answers but never really volunteers stuff about herself and she never starts a conversation. I think she does know that Sister Roberts and I have a really good relationship, so that is probably really hard for her. She was recently reactivated right before she came out. She says she has had a really hard life, but I don't know what. Both Sister Roberts and I have tried really hard to include her and not get to reminiscent about last transfer. I think she talks to Sister Roberts a little more, because she is her trainer.  Transfers pretty much took all day, but we did get to do some service for a family in our ward after dinner. It was a pretty good day!

Wednesday we got to experience a really wild storm. It was raining so hard and there was so much lightning that we couldn't see anything! But, we were still able to make it to our appointment with Heather. Heather is an awesome less active that we have been working with. She is slightly less accountable and she has some crazy health issues for someone her age, but she is so great. She has progressed so much since the missionaries have started visiting her. She has completely given up tea and now she is working on giving up coffee. She lives in a kinda sketch part of town, but her apartment is a safe haven of the Spirit that is always a joy to walk into. I remember the first time I visited her apartment the feeling of it was so much different! I am so excited for her and the changes she and Heavenly Father have made in her life!

Thursday was the best day ever! The Finks who feed us every Thursday ended up cancelling their dinner appointment with us. Well... we ended up getting 2 referrals from the Church Headquarters, which never happens. And because the Finks cancelled dinner, we were able to contact the referrals the same day! Linda asked for a Bible and Book of Mormon and asked us to come back Friday. She was great and happy to see us. Elizabeth was beyond awesome. She has a whole bunch of Mormon friends. She just moved here from California and decided she wanted to talk to the missionaries. We were able to visit with her briefly and share a Book of Mormon with her. She said she wanted to come to Church on Sunday and that she wanted to start meeting with us regularly.

Friday was a blast, the best Friday the 13th I have ever had. We taught Linda the first lesson and she said that she believed that everything we said was true. We also got to do some tracting and Sister Valikoula had a great time doing that for the first time. We also taught a less active family, The Boles. Sister Boles son was there at the beginning which was really great. He was baptized when he was younger, but questions about the Church have risen to the surface and he is kinda iffy about it now. He is going into the military and said that it was okay if we had his records sent to wherever he goes. Brother Boles wasn't there so we changed our lesson plan. Sister Boles is actually friends with Linda and she asked if she could come to the next lesson, so we went over the Plan of Salvation so she knew what was going to happen in Linda's lesson next week.

Saturday is the reason why I chose Come, Ye Disconsolate alongside Praise to the Lord the Almighty.During our lunch hour while I was making some calls, Elizabeth sent us a slew of texts. In these texts she said that her best friend, a less active in Idaho, knows her better than anyone and she said that the Mormon Church wasn't for Elizabeth. She backed out of our appointment with her and told us she wasn't going to come to church on Sunday. After a companionship pow-wow Sister Roberts called her to talk to her in person. She committed Elizabeth to find out for herself and not just take her friend's word for it. She said she would consider it, but she really had some strong concerns. I never felt so bummed in my life. Here we were standing in front of her face, with exactly what she had been looking for all her life. And because of the words of one person she turned away from it! 

After the initial shock and disappointment of this sad series of events, I came to a realization. How often does the Savior come to us with the healing powers of the Atonement and because of the word of one other, Satan, do we turn our nose away from exactly what we need? All He wants is to give us what we need and He knows that it will bring us the joy, comfort, and peace that all of us seek. I have never felt a stronger sense of gratitude towards the Savior and a tiny sliver of understanding. Because of this turn of events I have been given a stronger desire to utilize the Atonement to its fullest! If I can be this saddened over a person turning their nose at the Gospel, how saddened is Christ that we turn our nose at the greatest gift He has given us! " For behold, I , God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent..." He gave up everything for us, all we have to do is come unto him!

Remember the Lord loves you and the Church is True!

Sister Nay