August 26th, 2013

What a week!!

So, my testimony of priesthood blessings, the power of obedience, and the powerful love of members GREATLY increased this week! So... where to start?

 

Well, a week ago today. Sister Thomas and I had been feeling the need to ask the elders in our district for priesthood blessings. We had been feeling like even though we had been working hard, there was so much more we wanted to accomplish and could accomplish if we set our minds to it. So we set very specific goals, practiced perfect obedience, and received priesthood blessings. What an amazing thing. We now have 3 new people who are taking the lessons and interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ (3 new investigators).

One of them, his name is Mikey, came to church on Sunday after only taking one lesson. He came to church and felt so welcomed and loved, he was greeted by so many kind people in our ward who were sincerely interested in him and wanted to make his experience wonderful. This week in sacrament meeting, a boy in our ward was giving his homecoming talk since he had just returned home from his mission in Brazil on Tuesday. He gave a fabulous talk and when the meeting was over, Mikey turned to us and said, "wow that was so amazing." :) It was incredible to see how quickly he was able to feel the Spirit, and how touched he was by the kindness of everyone there.

On a different note, there is a lady who we have been in contact with for a while now and I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned her. Either way, I wanted to share an interesting experience we had with her. This lady, Terrianna, is very interesting. I met her about a month and a half ago and she loves the missionaries. We have taught her all the lessons, but she won't come to church. She has told us many times that she would come, but always ends up dropping off of the face of the earth Sunday through around Tuesday and then we get a call about some crazy experience she had that prevented her from going to church. We were really frustrated, but could tell that something else was going on behind the scenes. We would continually ask her if there was something holding her back that we didn't know about and she would always quickly say no. Sister Thomas and I were become more frustrated with every lesson/meeting with Terrianna because we could feel the Spirit and knew that she could feel it too, but yet she wasn't taking the necessary steps to do what she knew was right and follow her Savior. So, we decided that it was time we needed to tell her that we couldn't teach her any longer because we only have so many hours in the day and as missionaries, we have the responsibility to find all those who are ready to learn about their Savior. When we got to her house, she told us that she had bad news for us and that she only has 3 weeks to live. She told us that her doctor had given her the wrong medicine that she normally receives for headaches and now she is going to die.... holy cow. We didn't know how to take this information. Terrianna just broke down and kept saying how she doesn't want us to leave her, but that she loves us so much. So, we had a to change our plans and instead of telling her we couldn't come to teach her any longer, we just talked to her about how she can obtain peace.  When we left that night, Terrianna kept expressing her deep appreciation for us and how much love she has for us both. I'm not sure why I wanted to share this story but I feel like we can learn at least one simple lesson from it~ we don't know the problems that people around us are dealing with.. but, we can do our best to love everyone, no matter what, and do our best to lighten someone else's load.

 

I love you all so much. This week was a tremendous week and I'm sorry I shared the one sad thing that happened, I'm not sure why I felt the need to share that. Well, I'm so grateful for all of you! I hope you have the most amazing week!!

 

Love, Sister Walborn

 

p.s. Pictures: Sister Thomas and I with Terrianna, a picture of Sister Thomas and I in the car after the most wonderful day of our week where we saw so clearly the hand of the Lord leading us along, and a picture of the beautiful Susquehanna river.