Family and friends,
I can't believe it. This transfer is flying by. My mind and even my legs are having a hard time keeping up with everything that is happening! We’ve biked all over Surf Side this week. Rain and shine…lots of sunshine. Sorry, mom, I missed a couple spots when I put sunscreen on and am a few shades brighter than usual.
One thing I wrote President Turner about this week is about how God always knows best. God is literally our Father in Heaven and He wants us to talk to Him. He doesn’t want us to shy away from asking Him for help or for specific blessings. He wants us to, as Moses did, speak to him “as a man speaketh to his friend”. We are not strangers. Because we are His children we have many of His same attributes. Some are more underdeveloped than others but we have been given them nevertheless. And because we are all children of Heavenly Father we are brothers and sisters and have some of those traits in common. What a wonderful thing to think about! We share heavenly traits with those who are sitting right next to us! Those who we walk past on the street or stand behind at the check-out line.
Donna is a fiery little lady who tells us countless times that we were God-sent. We’ve had a few stumbling blocks teaching, but she is so humble that she is willing to reconsider a lot of the things she’s learned over the years. What if we could all have that attitude, “I thought this was right but if not, I’m willing to hear you out. Ultimately it has to be right with my heart though.” I love her! Glasses and wispy grey hair, slightly colorful language, and determined to stay alive until her son and her “daughter-in-law” get married. Seriously, that is what she prays for. She believes there are some things that God wants her to know before He takes her home, and that she needs to share with those around her. Whoa! Are we actively seeking those things that God is trying to tell us? And are we sharing that wonderful knowledge with those we love and who God telling us to talk to? Just some food for thought J
Last Monday Sister Belyea and I were having a hard time with all the people who have dropped us/have fell off the planet since I’ve been here. I remembered my experience back in Spartanburg with Sister Peatross of praying to simply have lessons. Nothing more. Just to teach lessons. Monday I felt inspired to pray to find one new investigator each day, whether or not they progressed. Simply someone who would hear us out for a lesson and return to share more.
I prayed for before we left for the night to go out to be “led to those who are prepared to hear the message of the Restored Gospel TODAY! I prayed to discern the needs and concerns of those we meet.
And with that we left the apartment. Our first appointment of the night we felt strongly we should not go to his house and our other appointment had to reschedule for another night. So we picked a random place to knock. Believe me, random. But as we turn in I feel we should go to Sister Miller’s neighborhood. I say this and we decide to knock a little then go to her area. We don’t even make it to the second door and I have the strong thought, “You need to go to Sister area.” Me, my rational thinking, and my natural man came out a little as I feared having one of “those” times that you do what the Spirit says but it seems like nothing ever comes of it. I will be honest, I didn’t want my new companion to judge me for having nothing come of a little prompting. Well, God gave me a kick in the pants and tells me that if we do not leave now we will miss an opportunity, and it will be on my head. The words fall out of my mouth, “This isn’t where we’re supposed to be.” So we get in the car and pray. I still feel we need to be in Sister Miller’s neighborhood and we book it over there (within the speed limit, of course!).
We decide to start by seeing Ray, an investigator who is preparing for baptism this next month but who I had yet to meet. While walking there a guy pulls over in a van, “Hey, I gave y’all the wrong number.” It’s Sam who we talked to the day before, who I didn’t get to see. We had to stand outside because there were only two guys inside and two of us, so he yelled down the hallway and said he would meet with us Monday at the appointment we felt we shouldn’t go to. We felt good about Sam, but not so much his friend and with the wrong number and possibly a wrong address we were left a little empty handed. Now we had the means of meeting up with him. Wahoo. We figured out why we were supposed to be in that area. Or so we thought.
Over the fence were some apartments that the Elders in the area use to live in and I remembered Sister Belyea wanted to knock but we had run dry out of pass-along cards the last time we were there. Well, we have cards now, so we go to the second building. I had wanted to go to the next one but I decided to follow my companion on this one. 5 doors and we are able to find two people who said we could come back! What a miracle. Or so I thought. 6th door. Knock-knock.
A black man, father of a few kids, opens the door, looks at us, and takes a step back and all three of us just look at each other. For 10-15 seconds we look back and forth with those squinty eyes that say what Sister Belyea finally voiced, “Do I know you?”
He says no, but Sister Belyea and I know better. Pre-earth life comes streaming across our minds. We were meant to find Willie. 1hr 40 minutes, dozens of questions, and in the middle of a storm, later we finally pull our shoes off and run in bare feet through the river in the parking lot to the car.
We are both amazed at God’s goodness for the next two days before our follow-up appointment. We cannot imagine how God can be so good to us. At our next appointment Willie wasn’t ready for the fullness of the Gospel quite yet, but we were meant to find him. We don’t see the whole picture of his life and what God has in store for him.
Listen to the feelings of the Spirit. Follow them, or you will miss out on so much of what life has to offer. Of what God has to offer you!
Love,
Hermana McNeece
I can't believe it. This transfer is flying by. My mind and even my legs are having a hard time keeping up with everything that is happening! We’ve biked all over Surf Side this week. Rain and shine…lots of sunshine. Sorry, mom, I missed a couple spots when I put sunscreen on and am a few shades brighter than usual.
One thing I wrote President Turner about this week is about how God always knows best. God is literally our Father in Heaven and He wants us to talk to Him. He doesn’t want us to shy away from asking Him for help or for specific blessings. He wants us to, as Moses did, speak to him “as a man speaketh to his friend”. We are not strangers. Because we are His children we have many of His same attributes. Some are more underdeveloped than others but we have been given them nevertheless. And because we are all children of Heavenly Father we are brothers and sisters and have some of those traits in common. What a wonderful thing to think about! We share heavenly traits with those who are sitting right next to us! Those who we walk past on the street or stand behind at the check-out line.
Donna is a fiery little lady who tells us countless times that we were God-sent. We’ve had a few stumbling blocks teaching, but she is so humble that she is willing to reconsider a lot of the things she’s learned over the years. What if we could all have that attitude, “I thought this was right but if not, I’m willing to hear you out. Ultimately it has to be right with my heart though.” I love her! Glasses and wispy grey hair, slightly colorful language, and determined to stay alive until her son and her “daughter-in-law” get married. Seriously, that is what she prays for. She believes there are some things that God wants her to know before He takes her home, and that she needs to share with those around her. Whoa! Are we actively seeking those things that God is trying to tell us? And are we sharing that wonderful knowledge with those we love and who God telling us to talk to? Just some food for thought J
Last Monday Sister Belyea and I were having a hard time with all the people who have dropped us/have fell off the planet since I’ve been here. I remembered my experience back in Spartanburg with Sister Peatross of praying to simply have lessons. Nothing more. Just to teach lessons. Monday I felt inspired to pray to find one new investigator each day, whether or not they progressed. Simply someone who would hear us out for a lesson and return to share more.
I prayed for before we left for the night to go out to be “led to those who are prepared to hear the message of the Restored Gospel TODAY! I prayed to discern the needs and concerns of those we meet.
And with that we left the apartment. Our first appointment of the night we felt strongly we should not go to his house and our other appointment had to reschedule for another night. So we picked a random place to knock. Believe me, random. But as we turn in I feel we should go to Sister Miller’s neighborhood. I say this and we decide to knock a little then go to her area. We don’t even make it to the second door and I have the strong thought, “You need to go to Sister area.” Me, my rational thinking, and my natural man came out a little as I feared having one of “those” times that you do what the Spirit says but it seems like nothing ever comes of it. I will be honest, I didn’t want my new companion to judge me for having nothing come of a little prompting. Well, God gave me a kick in the pants and tells me that if we do not leave now we will miss an opportunity, and it will be on my head. The words fall out of my mouth, “This isn’t where we’re supposed to be.” So we get in the car and pray. I still feel we need to be in Sister Miller’s neighborhood and we book it over there (within the speed limit, of course!).
We decide to start by seeing Ray, an investigator who is preparing for baptism this next month but who I had yet to meet. While walking there a guy pulls over in a van, “Hey, I gave y’all the wrong number.” It’s Sam who we talked to the day before, who I didn’t get to see. We had to stand outside because there were only two guys inside and two of us, so he yelled down the hallway and said he would meet with us Monday at the appointment we felt we shouldn’t go to. We felt good about Sam, but not so much his friend and with the wrong number and possibly a wrong address we were left a little empty handed. Now we had the means of meeting up with him. Wahoo. We figured out why we were supposed to be in that area. Or so we thought.
Over the fence were some apartments that the Elders in the area use to live in and I remembered Sister Belyea wanted to knock but we had run dry out of pass-along cards the last time we were there. Well, we have cards now, so we go to the second building. I had wanted to go to the next one but I decided to follow my companion on this one. 5 doors and we are able to find two people who said we could come back! What a miracle. Or so I thought. 6th door. Knock-knock.
A black man, father of a few kids, opens the door, looks at us, and takes a step back and all three of us just look at each other. For 10-15 seconds we look back and forth with those squinty eyes that say what Sister Belyea finally voiced, “Do I know you?”
He says no, but Sister Belyea and I know better. Pre-earth life comes streaming across our minds. We were meant to find Willie. 1hr 40 minutes, dozens of questions, and in the middle of a storm, later we finally pull our shoes off and run in bare feet through the river in the parking lot to the car.
We are both amazed at God’s goodness for the next two days before our follow-up appointment. We cannot imagine how God can be so good to us. At our next appointment Willie wasn’t ready for the fullness of the Gospel quite yet, but we were meant to find him. We don’t see the whole picture of his life and what God has in store for him.
Listen to the feelings of the Spirit. Follow them, or you will miss out on so much of what life has to offer. Of what God has to offer you!
Love,
Hermana McNeece