LABOR OF LOVE!

Wow, this week has been INSANELY busy!!!!!

It's been the best:):)

 

Hope y'all had a great LABOR day!! I love being on my mission. THE LORD'S LABOR!!, the true labor of love! "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God...Then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?" (Mosiah 2:17,18). "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy..." (D&C 18:15). "For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee" (Psalms 128:2). " ...but he that gathereth by labour shall increase" (Proverbs 13:11). I know no efforts are wasted!

 

Monday-- we met a cool dude sitting on a bench that was reading the bible. HELLO, if that isn't an obvious sign from Heavenly Father to talk to him! His name is Ben.. he was SUPER interested in the Book of Mormon, but wanted to study on his own. So we gave him the book and a Mormon.org card and he wouldn't give us any of his information. But that is OK!! Seed planter--- that is my title out here:) hah

 

We also met with a LA of ours on Monday- Bernie. She is just really needing so GOOD friends. We gave her a new Book of Mormon and invited her to start over with us. (Speaking of which, I hope y'all are starting over... we should be on page 45 today!!) Bernie came to our FHE that night and we had a good time playing "sticker tag"..... hah.... adults weren't made to play tag. It was humorous.

 

As I was saying my nightly prayers on Monday, Heavenly Father again revealed to me that He is SO aware of me!! At the end of my prayer I was praying for this certain person (with whom I will not name) that I love SO much!!! And I was just conversing with the Lord if I'm doing all that I need to. As SOON as I ended my prayer, the phone rang. The number was under "restricted" so we were a little confused... and I heard this voice on the other end that I had no clue who it was.. they wouldn't tell me who it was either, but they wanted me to take the phone off speaker and speak to me only. I was sooooooo confused.... Turns out that it was that person that I had just finished praying for, saying that she called me because she had a prompting to and just to reassure me that Heavenly Father loves me and that I was doing really good. I was BAWLING!!!! That is the fastest Heavenly Father has ever answered one of my prayers. I will never forget it.

 

We had the chance to talk with a lot of our members and LA's this week about Depression. Something that has taken over A LOT of time in peoples lives that I have been serving and been serving with. Depression is real, folks. And it is scary. But it IS possible to get out of it if you learn to conquer it through the gospel. It's been heartbreaking to see many of those I love encompassed in it this last week and to help reassure them that they DO have the strength to push through. I as well have had to fight it since I've been on my mission- It is a SCARY thing, but never forget that your Heavenly Father is aware of you and will NOT give up on you. Don't give up on yourself and seek the resources you need to fight back!!

 

Again, we were SO BUSY this week.... We taught 8 lessons on Wednesday alone. It's been incredible and this week we received 8 new investigators total! That's like a record in this area! School being back in session helps a TON more that I remembered and these investigators are SO PREPARED!!! I have never felt more faith and hope in someone as I have in some of those we met this week.

 

Megan-- one of our new investigators loves Jesus more than anyone I've ever met. She is always willing to learn about him and share him with EVERYONE she sees, but she jumps from church to church fellowshipping with all different people. She was in a rehab place all summer and now that she is back, she is taking things slow and really starting to figure out her life. Perfect timing and she's allowed us to start teaching her :)

 

Mike is another one we found this week by a MIRACLE. He was out fixing his headlights one morning at 10:30 and we went to help him. He is SUCH a good guy and just figuring out what he wants to do with his life. Turns out that he is the roommate of one of our former investigators that we had lost contact with. MIRACLE!! We gave him Book of Mormon and found him as a new investigator all before 11 am! We had the opportunity to follow up with him this morning and he has already read ALL of 1st Nephi!!! So now he's about at the point that all of us should be at:):) He's so great!!!!!! And him and our former investigators will probably be coming to church this Sunday!

 

We're REALLY working on cleaning out our area book.. it's quite a mess since there are still records from 2007 and YSA age people are constantly moving in and out. So that is a big focus of ours. It's been really good!

 

We worked at Goodwill this week and I met this woman named Doris-- she is older and lost her husband to cancer 3 years ago. She said it has been the most miserable 3 years of her life. I testified that she would see him again and has the opportunity to be sealed with him forever, and she was questioning it.... I asked her if she had ever seen the Mormon temples and she went right to "Oh, I don't believe the Mormon religion is right!" I then told her I was a Mormon and she felt so bad. Her heart softened A LOT by the end of conversation. She wouldn't commit to us coming over again, but she asked for our # and said she's pray about letting us over. Pray for Doris!

 

Then while leaving Goodwill, we had this Spanish guy that doesn't speak ANY English come up to us saying "Christian? Christian??" We said YES!! And through broken English were able to give him a copy of the ONLY Spanish Book of Mormon we had... what are the chances?? #nocoincidences We took one of our members-- Luke out with us to our appointment with this man since Luke just returned home from his Spanish speaking mission to Argentina. MIRACLES!!

 

We got another new investigator, Jordan, who is one of our members- Nya's new co-worker. He has come to a few of our activities and randomly showed up with Nya at mission prep this last week. Since there were only 3 people at mission prep, we turned the lesson into a "member-present" lesson and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He told us that it "just feels right!" And he's now reading the Book of Mormon and taking the lessons. Seriously, it's been a MIRACLE week!! Jordan is on probation for 3 more years, but he's REALLY trying to turn his life around.

 

We helped Arlys with another garage sale this week. We FINALLY met her son Doug and her granddaughter Segrid. They are sooooooo fun! They told us that apparently Arlys has put us in her will.... HAH I love that lady:) She cracks me up!!! It was good to finally meet Doug and answer his questions. Arlys even bought one of Segrid's shirts to give to me... she's the cutest <3

 

Labor day was fun!! We shopped REAL fast and then met up with one of our LA's apparently, another one of our LA's took more sleeping pills than she should have this last week.... SO SAD. But this LA isn't too fond of us missionaries, so we can't really do much to help. But we went to my FAVORITE couples dorm (he works at UNK)-- the Terry's and played a bunch of awesome games with them and the other sisters and elders, then we went to a pet shop to hold a bunch of animals. And that was our Labor day!! Fun stuff:) We got permission from the AP's to call a couple of other sisters to ask them a favor, so I got to talk to my FAVORITE person--- Sister Call!!! SHe's serving in Omaha now and finishes her mission in October. I love her tons. Sister Dumont and I are the best of friends... she has literally changed my life!!

 

 

We just got word that Jose--- one of our LA's has "found another church"..... :( It breaks my heart!!!!!!! he means so much to me and is just being a PILL because he has a hard time with a bishop..... Being dropped is the worst feeling ever.... But I know that it will all work out in the Lord's timing. KEEP GOIN!!!!!!!]

AHHHHHH and we JUST BARELY got word that another one of our LA's... the one who took the sleeping pills and has avoided us for so long... WANTS TO FEED US DINNER THIS WEEK!!!! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, FOLKS!!!!! I love her sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much and am so glad she is speaking to us again. SERIOUSLY mission life is a ROLLAR COASTER!!!!! But is SOOOOOO WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 I love missions. I love mission. I love missions!!!!!

 

I know this is the truth! I've had the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ which is found in the true Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints my whole life and my testimony of the gospel has been growing in small incriments every day, every week, every year. I PROMISE you call have this happiness and peace in your life if you take the time to APPLY the gospel and LEARN the gospel yourself. Read the scriptures. Ponder them. APPLY the things that you ponder. DO IT!!! I know this to be true. I love my family more than life itself-- which is a good thing because they are the thing I get to keep with my BEYOND this life!!!! I know it can happen!! I have faith in our new investigators and ask you to pray for them!! Because there is NOTHING greater to witness than seeing the light of the gospel enter into the eyes of those you love.

 

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! Keep going!! keep Pushing! Never give up!!

 

Love you, Sister Checketts

 

-Ferrets are cool... Jordan Checketts... this picture was for you:)