Sister Neel 11/8/21

 

Hey Hey Hey! 

Welcome back to another week in the life of Sister Neel :)) And guess what yall? I HIT MY 9 MONTHS last Wednesday!!! Halfway there can you believe it?! Not one day passes by I don't thank Heavenly Father for allowing me this beautiful experience of serving a mission. Time truly flies when you're having a blast! 

Miracles of the week: 

Sister Hansen and I have made it a goal to do former and less active/part member knocking for the last two hours of our evenings. And miracles have come from that let me tell ya! The first house we stopped by was Patricia Moore. Her parents are in our ward and have custody over her daughter's son since she suffered from substance abuse. Patricia has always been active but fell away after her job became a priority. Patricia invited us in and we were able to get to know her daughter better and later her husband! Two people that are rarely home but critical in Patricia's life. After everyone left, Patricia invited us in to eat blueberry muffins and we talked for a solid hour just laughing and getting to know one another better. I felt prompted to ask her what was keeping her from coming to church and when I posed the question she paused, stared deeply at the counter and let us know that she has problems with a few specific people in the ward who didn't support decisions she made while going through her divorce. We were able to help talk her through some situations and she was so impressed with our advice and spiritual power that we brought into her home, she asked us to come back! It was hard to leave her home with all the joy and laughter that filled it but we are so excited to be back!

Our next family was the Floyds. They fell inactive after covid and haven't wanted contact from ward members since. We felt prompted to stop by their home and Shauna came out to meet us. We talked outside on her driveway for almost 30 minutes, in the freezing wind but it was so worth it! She brought up a lot of great past memories dealing with her family going on vacations to Historic Sites and even bore her testimony to us! She said she had been thinking a lot about church recently and wanted us to come back and teach a lesson to her and her family. It was the coolest thing ever!! These two families have been people we were trying to get a hold of for the past 5 months but had no success. With persistence we caught them at the right time and at the perfect moment where their heart was yearning for more. So so cool!!

We had a bomb lesson with Sam and kind of made it into a testimony meeting. We each were able to bear our pure and simple testimonies and hearing Sam state what he knew was powerful! We came to find out more of where he needed extra help on dealing with the Plan of Salvation and temple work but we are feeling good with his progress! 

We invited 3 people to church and no one came which was a huge bummer :(( As a missionary it just breaks your heart to see people you come to love not keep commitments. BUT. You just gotta keep your head held high and trust that God will bless you with people who are ready to progress. And He did just  that! We had a lesson with Cynthia scheduled after church and she came!! I'll admit I didn't have a whole lot of faith after seeing 3 people not show up to church but when she walked through the church doors....I honestly couldn't describe a more beautiful sight. She was able to meet our Stake President and a member of our bishopric which helped her feel more comfortable. Our lesson was centered on the Book of Mormon and as we introduced it to her and opened up to 3 Nephi 11 and read about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas, the light in her eyes enhanced. The spirit flooded the room and we were able to testify boldly about the Book of Mormon and promised her that this would fulfill all the peace and joy she sought while enduring her trials. Specific words came to mind as we testified that centered around what she needed and Cynthia was brought to tears. She hugged the Book of Mormon close to her heart and told us this feeling was everything she had been looking for and was beyond excited to get home and begin reading. 

We then gave her a church tour and she was so touched by how our Church conducts baptismal services as we showed her the baptismal font. She told us she could see herself being baptized one day and my goodness that was powerful! As we took her into the chapel and read 3 Nephi 18 with her, going over the sacrament, she marveled at the opportunity to be cleansed of our sins each week and was touched as we shared more on Christ's Atonement and the sacrifices made so we might have eternal life. She told us this church was everything she had been looking for and brought us out to the car to meet her daughter and grandchildren who in turn asked to join in on the lessons and experience this same joy they saw in their mother. What a powerful experience!! We cannot WAIT to keep meeting with her!

Lastly, I'll end with my pure and simple testimony. In my personal studies last week I was reading 1 Nephi 8 and studying more on Lehi's vision of the tree of life. As I was reading I was confused why an angel of the Lord appeared to Lehi and bid him to follow him only to abandon him in the darkness and cause Lehi to walk blindly in the darkness for many hours. In verse , Lehi explains that he was frightened and concerned but after searching for many hours he was able to behold the tree of life and partake of the fruit. I pondered on why Lehi would be called to walk alone and wrote the question down on a sticky note to save for later. Almost immediately the spirit spoke to my mind and said, "Because like the rest of Heavenly Father's children, Lehi had to go through a mortal experience too. He had to experience darkness and loneliness in order to know the difference of how the fruit made him feel. True happiness and pure joy." 

I sat there and pondered on this thought and then it made sense! It felt like the Holy Ghost sat down right next to me to teach me certain points on this story. Lehi had to experience pressing forward to obtain the tree of life. He had the way prepared before him but he needed to act in faith to put one foot in front of the other and act in continuous obedience as directed by the angel. Lehi was LITERALLY displaying blind faith haha! He too had to go through a mortal experience to get to the tree, the ultimate destination which can symbolically represent Jesus Christ and His gospel. He then could understand more fully the dedication it took for all the other people to persevere and make it back. Lehi had to experience the depths of loneliness, worry, self doubt and fear to understand how truly sweet the fruit tasted. Only then could he experience immense joy and have that desire to save his family from the darkness and share this light. I now can now see why his heart broke so much to see Laman and Lemuel CHOOSE to remain in darkness after making the long trek to the tree, beholding it's glory and still choosing to remain lost. They were so close!!

I then related the story to myself and how as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ, I have experienced the tree of life! I have made it to the tree and partaken of the sweet fruit and left on a mission to go share it with others. I envisioned myself wandering in the darkness, searching for anyone and everyone to teach and help them grab hold of the rod of Iron as I make the trek back with them to the tree. Would it be easy? No. Would it be worth it? Absolutely! There would be times when people would willingly let go of the rod of Iron after all they had experienced and choose to wander in darkness rather than get to the light. As missionaries, it's devastating and we would make any sacrifice to bring them back. No matter the cause, we continue to work hard in bringing souls to Jesus Christ and enabling them to partake of the sweet fruit of the  gospel that is life changing and motivating. I'm so grateful that I KNOW I'm not lost. I KNOW my final destination and am so privileged to be in the work and glory of finding people who need to grab hold of the truth and persevere with faith. I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon that brings to light these truths and gives me confidence as I work everyday all day to spread this happiness that the world needs to see. I love this gospel and I love all of you!!

♡♡♡

Sister Neel