October 10, 2011

Some of our members are starting to get excited about sharing the Gospel...it's exciting!!! Full-time missionaries and member-missionaries working hand in hand! Some new potential people are coming out of the wood work. We've tried the last 6 months to teach a less active's (Diana) daughter, her name is Becka. But Becka has been super busy and has never been home when we come over. But this week we went to see Diana after being there 5 min she got a phone call from Becka saying that she ran out of gas at Walmart...so we told Diana we could come back in a couple of hours. As sad as it sounds it actually turned out being a blessing that Becka ran out of gas and that we came back later because that made it so that Becka was there for our appointment. Her adoptive grandparents were members and so she knows quite a bit about the church. She told us that she's actually afraid to recieve an answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon because if it's not she'll be disappointed. She looked up to her grandparents so much and that will mean that everything they stood for and believed in was false and she doesn't want that to happen. It's funny, I've never had somebody be afraid to get an answer before. But she's so awesome and she's got lots of potential, we'll keep teaching her.
A sad thing happened. Ian told us that he doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. He read the chapters we gave him to read last time and he feels like it's just saying the same thing that the Bible says and he even thinks that the Bible says it better. :( (I knew at that moment how committed I was to the Book of Mormon because I felt very defensive about it.) I used the example that was given in General Conference, if there's one dot (the Bible) and infinate number of lines can be drawn through it. But when there are 2 (the Bible and the Book of Mormon) How many can be drawn through them both? Only one. He didn't want to accept that. He just wants somebody to talk about religion with and that's not our purpose. It's to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel. So I was pretty sad about that because we found him in a super cool way. (see past emails)
We've been able to find a lot more Hispanics which makes me super happy because I'm so afraid I'm going to forget my Spanish. Plus I just love the Hispanics people so much. They are so loving and welcoming! We found this lady Marina and I said "Somos Las Misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" and she said "pasale" which means Come in! We talked to this guy from guatemala. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" "Yes, see I have a tattoo of Him." :) In Spanish naturally.
Something cool happened on Sunday! We haven't been able to teach Santos for a long long time, about 3 months. She was progressing really well, she was coming to church a lot and the Arguetas (members) even took her to Nauvoo and Carthage and she said she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But then....Satan got her and all of these trials started coming her way all at once and so she stopped coming and got super busy. We had tried to see Santos on Sun afternoon but she wasn't home. Flash foreward to that night, we were going to see Stacy but then I started thinking about Santos. I said something about her and Sis Hancock said, should we see her now or later. Now. I know it was an impression from the Lord because she was home and we had a really great lesson with her. I had the distinct impression to ask her if she was happy. And she said no, I was definately directed by the Spirit in that lesson because I felt like I was on a mission, I knew exactly what I needed to say and I knew I needed to say it. We talked about how Jesus Christ knows exactly how she feels because He's felt it before. And Sis Hancock was inspired to share Helaman 5:12 with her. I feel so sad for her.
Although I don't like feeling sad for these people, especially when they don't want to accept the gospel. I'm glad that I do because it shows me that I really care about them. I'm so grateful for the chance to come and love these people and to see them as God sees them, and to feel the LOVE that he has for them.
LOVE YOU
--

Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322