March 2, 2015

This has been another good week. These past few weeks have been an interesting learning experience for me. There have been many beautiful and many sad moments. Teaching people is such a wonderful experience because you also learn so much yourself. But it can also be sad when the people you teach understand what has been taught and then act contrary to the testimony and knowledge they have of the truth. But what is interesting is that though it has made me feel very sad I feel very at peace within myself. I know that my companion and I do our best and what we could for each of them, that we were important parts of their progression, and that only God sees the beginning and the end of his eternal plan.  We never know what effect we have on the lives of others and only time will tell.

We have an investigator named Jean Nanette that we have been teaching for about two months.  We met him one day when we were in town walking along and talking to people in the street.  It started to rain hard so we ran to find some cover and then talked to the poor people who now had no way of escape (just kidding;).  Jean was one of them and we had a little conversation and invited him to learn more another time.  He has been coming to church ever since and has been learning so much and progressing.  He has some good friends in the branch and he has such a high spiritual sensibility it is amazing.  Well we were teaching this last week about how there is a living prophet on the earth today.  He was surprised --he had already prayed about Joseph Smith and knows that he was a prophet chosen of God to restore the church to the earth but he did not know that the revelation has continued.  Each time a prophet passes away the twelve apostles come together to prayer to learn whom God has chosen as the next prophet and that this organization continues to this very day just like during Christ’s life and with the prophets of old. 

We showed him a clip of President Monson and he prayed on his knees to know if he is the prophet today.  He got his answer right then and there with a great burning in his heart.  This is often how Heavenly Father answers us when we want to know if something is true, he sends his Holy Spirit to testify to our hearts (D&C 9:8-9).  Every time that Jean has asked for an answer he has received it and it is because his heart and his actions are sincere.  And that is the promise that God has made to each and every one of us.  That if we ask with a sincere heart we can know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:3-5).  That strengthened my testimony that President Thomas  S. Monson is the prophet today and the God and the Holy Ghost truly testify of that.  What a great blessing:D

Alyssa Despain has been one of my great friends for many years and recently got home from her mission and I wanted to share a thought from her:  "One of my very favorite scriptures is D&C 100:4-8. I used to share it with members so often that even my companion knew it by heart. It tells us that where we are right now is where God put us to save someone: sometimes ourselves. And, no matter how simple our words are, the Holy Ghost will testify if we speak of Christ with a sincere heart. I had a blessing once that told me ‘you do not need to be scriptural or eloquent. Just do your best.' And I found that I didn't need to find just the right words: I need to testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word. Words are so powerful and are the way God works."

What a powerful message and it made me think about what one of my own strong convictions is.  I think for me what has been the most important thing that I could give to the people I have met here during my mission was my love because it is something that the world has such great need of.  Also, because love is the greatest motivation for change and the very essence of God and of Jesus Christ:)  We just need to love people:)  And each person on this earth has something unique to offer, their own talents and convictions that can help those around them if we just share.

A funny story from this week is that we had our District Meeting in the church building like usual.  The Elders got their first so they unlocked the church and we didn’t take our keys.  We ate together afterwards and then the Elders had to hurry off for a lesson.  Soeur Thomas and I kept eating a l'aise (in peace) and when we went to leave we found that the Elders had looked the door to the church after them thinking that we had our set of keys..... Hmm yes, we looked at each other and said "haha how is this possible?"  We thought about trying to climb out one of the windows but in Mauritius ALL building have bars across the windows and so there was literally no way out.  Luckily we reflected for a moment and had a more reasonable idea come into our minds than trying to break ourselves out.  There is a long driveway leading up to the church with a big garden and we could see the gardeners sleeping a ways off on the benches.  We called them over and gave them the keys to our car and they kindly got the keys to the church out for us, unlocked the door, and we were saved:D   It was pretty funny:)

Hope that you all have a great week:D

Love,

Soeur Wilson