Why Serve a mission?

When I was 15 years old I listened to the mother of a close friend talk about serving a mission. For the first time I remember really wanting to serve a mission when I turned 21. I just had to hear hundreds of missionaries sing "Called to Serve" in the MTC! Time went on, and I prepared for the different eventualities of life. When the age sister missionaries could serve dropped to 19, I was super stoked! I was 19, almost 20! I could go early! Well, it turned out that wasn't the time for me. November of 2013, I felt strongly like I should reconsider the mission idea. I did, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place :) This is all really nice, but it's not really the WHY, it's more of the HOW.

So WHY am I choosing to dedicate 18 months of my life away from my family, friends, school, and a closet full of clothes to talk to people in Missouri? Well, 33 years ago, 2 male missionaries started talking to my dear sweet Momma. The message they shared with her changed the course of her existence, and our family. I'm so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the knowledge I have of who He is, and what His plan for His children is. I can't help feeling like if I choose not to share this message with others that I'll be ungrateful for the amazing gift that I've been given. I've also been blessed with some talents that I'd like to give back to the Lord. As much as I love my family and the other things listed above, I love my Heavenly Father and Savior more. They have called, so I'm answering.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Miracles truly happen if we believe!

Hello everyone!

Well, as you can tell from my heading, this week was so great! Miracles truly happen if we believe! Also I hope you sang the heading to the tune of the song in "Princess Diaries". If you didn't, repent, go back and read it singing it with that tune :p haha

Anywho, this week was wonderful! My district leader asked me to give a training at District Meeting last Tuesday! Sister Barret was like, "Whoa! They never do that. He's mean!" but really the Lord knew that I needed to study what the training was supposed to be on. It went well. The Lord has shown me a lot this week that I am improving as a missionary! Yeah! The First few weeks I felt like I was coasting. I thought I would NEVER be able to lead as a missionary because I knew so little! Well, I still don't know very much, but I know enough for this moment. The Lord can still use me the way I am. I am getting stronger line upon line, precept upon precept. It's the way it works!

Also, Friday was my 1-month-in-Paris-and-Sister-Barret's-Companion-aversary! Yahoo! We went out for dinner to celebrate. We ate at a popular pizza place. Fun stuff :p

Alright, now for the miracles!

Tuesday after District meeting Sister Barret decided that we needed to focus our study and efforts this week on helping people attend Church. During our lessons, we made sure we made extra time to focus on church attendance and to invite people to our ward's ice cream social on Saturday. We started a fast of sugar as well to try to help our efforts. We made a plan and exercised faith that things could happen with the Lord's help.

Wednesday the miracles continued. So my area covers a lot of tiny towns surrounding Paris. We don't usually go into the other towns because of miles, and there aren't very many members there to help strengthen our investigators and various reasons, but this week we had a dinner appointment out in Redmond, close to Brocton, so we felt like we should go see some less actives we've been trying to focus on. They weren't home, so we tried contacting potentials. The potential we were looking for wasn't home, but her daughter, Chris (short for Christina) answered the door. At first she was like, "Sorry I have Native American beliefs". We responded, "Oh really! We have a book all about some of your ancestors!" (well, not exactly like that, but basically!). She asked us where she could go to buy that book..... Alright that's amazing! People don't ASK where they can BUY the Book of Mormon! She proceeded to ASK us where our church was, and when it started and all of these things! We talked a little bit more about our other beliefs, and got her number. We prayed for her and all of our investigator the rest of the week and guess what?! We walked in the door on Sunday and she was there! She drove 20 minutes to go to church! And she had read all the way to 1 Nephi 17 and apologized for not having read more! And she had great questions. Pray she keeps coming!

All week we kept inviting people to come to the ice cream social and church. Saturday rolled around and we had 3 investigators who each brought someone with them (so a total of 6 people) come! It was awesome! The ward did a great job at friend shipping them and trying to help them feel comfortable. One of our investigators, Kelly, has had some reservations about coming to church, but coming to the building, meeting the people, and feeling the spirit really helped her. Sadly she didn't make it to church because she wasn't feeling well, but in our lesson later that day, she told us she prayed Heavenly Father would forgive her and accepted our invitation to be baptized! I was concerned it would be because she loves us as people, but she said it was because she's felt the closest to God she's ever felt in her life. AMAZING! She also said on her own that she needs to study the BOM more on her own. Pray for her that she will feel good enough to come! Her husband, Mark, is less active, so our lessons and prayers also help him a lot. I love them!

All in all, this week was a great lesson in the power of acting in faith. We can say we have faith, but until we do our part and act in faith, we can't receive the full blessings of that power. We still have a long way to go in helping everyone we want to help come back to our Heavenly Father, but things are starting to change for the better. The members are starting to trust us and be more willing to help us. The Lord is also teaching me so much! I am becoming more comfortable as a missionary. I still have a ton I need to work on, but the Lord is at my side. This is His work! He won't let it fail :)

I love you all! Most importantly the Lord loves you! I hope all is well in your lives. I love the gospel! I love the joy it brings into my life! I love the vision that the Savior has for all of His. He sees who we can become. We just have to trust Him enough to let us shape us into something better. Have a super week!

Lots of love and support,
Sister Janea Edgel
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