Monday, August 17, 2015

Mon, Aug 17, 2015 "lovest thou me?" -John 21

Hello,
The story told in John 21 has been on my mind constantly this week. In this chapter Christ asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him. He says "lovest thou me?". Peter in reply says, "Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Christ's reply each time was "feed my sheep". As I have gone throughout each day this week, many moments through the day, I imagine Christ asking me, "lovest thou me?" I've come to know that the moments I serve my mission because I love Christ, I am happy, I work harder, I am determined to share the gospel with everyone I see, I love my companion more, I pray with more meaning, my faith grows, the Spirit guides the work, I love my friends that I'm teaching. Truly, when we are keeping the first and great commandment, which is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", the only thing we will want to do is feed His sheep. 

We taught Laura with our new member CONNIE. Yay! I love them.




My whole mission, the worry of just "going through the motions" of a mission has been on my mind. That is my biggest fear. I don't want to have to go through the refiner's fire while being on my mission, then when I go home, go back to being the person I was before. I want to be changed, and I want to stay changed. This week, I learned that to really love my mission and really love serving the Lord, I must love. I must have charity. That is how I let my mission go through me instead of me just going through my mission. To see the blessings of the gospel, we must be living the gospel within our families. My family right now is my companion...so the very first thing I needed to change is to have charity towards my companion. Let me tell you, Sister Wright is the most amazing missionary I've met. She gives everything she has and absolutely loves every second of her mission. I have come to know this quote is true, "The companion that I remember the most is the one I served the most. Therefore, they are the one I loved the most." -Elder Snarr (one of senior missionaries). Charity never faileth and I have been so happy and have found so much joy in serving as I focus on loving God and loving my companion! There's no time to be angry or be filled with hate. Leave all that behind and dive into the work.






Good thing I got some Spanish practice in. Right when I got back to Sidney, Sister Wright and I went contacting on Beacon, the only street that has people on it. And guess who we met! We met a lady from Columbia named Margary. Wow. Right when we sat down, she missed her bus. Thank you, Heavenly Father. We were able to teach her about Jospeh Smith and the Book of Mormon and we set up a return appointment with her. Miracle.


Blackberries are everywhere! We may eat them as we are out tracting . . . don't worry. we've only been caught once.



Now, I'll tell you about the biggest miracle we had this week. Her name is Tabitha. We were out tracting on Pauquachin, one of the reserves. I felt like we should go down this random street, but Sister Wright said that she had already done that street just before I got there. We decided to do it anyways and good thing we did. We walked up to one of the houses, and a crazy, mean dog started barking at us. Then Tabitha runs out of her house to save us. We strike up conversation and Tabitha tells us her life story. She has had it rough her whole life. At the end of her life story, she was just silent. Sister Wright asked, "can I give you a hug?" And immediately Tabitha started crying. She just needs somebody to love her. She needs the gospel. After our conversation, we ran around everywhere looking for jumper cables so we could start her truck. No one on  the reserve had them. We invited her to church...not realizing she would have a ride, and left. We texted her the next morning, reminding her of church. She texted us back and said she would come, but church was half way over. We found a ride and brought her to church. She loved it. She felt the Spirit so strong. We gave her a tour of the church after and right when we entered the sacrament room, the Spirit just flooded our hearts. She just balled. She has never felt God's love before, and now she knows He's real and His love is real. Incredible. We will be seeing her tonight! Oh, and we set a baptismal date with her for next month!:)


Sister Evans...she has been having missionaries eat with her every week for over 50 years. love her...she is quite the english character.


a lady let us in her house . . . look what she had. she is from Germany.


#hahahaha #embarrassedtree #wedied 



Ya . . . chocolate strawberries . . . mm hmm



Sweet miracle that I found out today.Esperanza, one of the ladies I was teaching in Surrey, just got baptized! My heart is so happy. And Sister Wilson, my MTC companion, was able to teach her too. The work is amazing!
From the mission newsletter:
Baptisms 
Francisca “Esperanza” Obregon Caicedo, Surrey Spanish, 
Sister Wilson Sister Kartchner Sister Hoth 

I love Sister Boswell . . . she made us scones. winner

Few side notes:
1. We were walking up to this house to knock on the door. All of the sudden, a man runs out and yells "NOOOOOOO" and is shaking his hands like an umpire yelling "safe!". Needless to say, we weren't able to share the gospel with him. 
2. Sister Evans, a lady in our ward, told us that "flattery will get you everywhere."
3. I have been sharing my dad's amazing story about a family he taught in Taiwan with everyone! Dad, you should post that on my blog so everyone can read it! Share the gospel with everyone, you never know what will come from it!:)
4. We took Connie, our new member!, to a lesson with Laura. It was amazing to hear Connie bear her testimony on her baptism. It was great to teach 2 amazing ladies that I have come to love so much. 





Well, I will leave my testimony with you. I know that God is real. I know that His love for us real. I love my mission and I love the people I get to work with. Before, my mission, I was so excited to change people's lives. Well I've realized, that they are the one's changing my life. I am so grateful for your support and love! Keep being so good. Have a great week!          Love, Hermana Hoth