Sister Jessie Louder: Unplanned Opportunities

We saw Jesse this week and he is just doing absolutely amazing. We asked him how he has been feeling since the baptism, and he told us that overall, he just has so much more patience which I just love. Patience is definitely a gift that comes from having Holy Ghost with you always. He shared a couple experiences and it strengthen me. He is doing so well and that brings me so much joy.

So, in this area I feel like we just hit a wall with all of our friends. None of them are really progressing and so I was studying more about how "the field is white already to harvest." I know that there are people being prepared and who are WILLING to act on our message right now! Doctrine and Covenants 123:12 reminds us that people have been kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. One thing that we have been praying for more lately is to have unplanned opportunities to serve and teach and to have spiritual sensitivity to recognize these opportunities. With this understanding and with this faith we were able to do a lot more finding this week and we had success!!

We met this lady from India named Jean while district finding. When I first saw her, I asked what made her happy and she smiled and said, YOU. This made me sooo happy. When we told her we were missionaries, she got excited because she knew we weren't trying to sell her anything haha. She then invited us to dinner with her at this Filipino shop right then and there, so that was super cool. We talked and talked about the church and then we left her with a Book of Mormon with our testimonies in it. She said that some really nice young men gave her this book years ago and so she was grateful to come in contact with missionaries again. This was an unplanned opportunity to teach that we had prayed for! Agh so awesome.

We also had a mission challenge this week (so fun) and one of the challenges for my companion and I was to find one house that had a "no knocking" sticker and to knock on THAT door. We were planning on skipping this challenge cause my comp had to go to the chapel to call her family for a bday, but on our way to the chapel I took a wrong turn (so weird because I never do this) and it lead us to a certain street. I just kept driving because I thought that if I keep driving to the end it would lead me back out to the other side but turns out it was a dead end. I thought "man if we are already in a neighborhood let's just knock on the next door that has the "no knocking" sticker just to get the challenge out of the way" haha! We go up to the door and this lady answered. We asked where she was from. She said she was from Samoa. So, with a bit of hesitation, I said, "oa mai oe?" and she replied with a big smile on her face. She opened the door completely. Turns out she is a member, but she has been inactive for just over 10 years. She has two daughters, 13 and 19 years old and they both are not baptized. The mom’s name is Sia and she just opened up to us. She was so grateful we went to visit her. She wants both of her daughters to get baptized. She got a bit emotional and told us to come back again on Tuesday so, wow this was all just a huge miracle/blessing. She told us to keep doing what we are doing. She also said that she could feel the Spirit just from us being with her which made me get a little emotional. I love being a representative of Christ. I love that in this missionary work, even though my comp and I are far from perfect, we can help people feel the Spirit.

I am just amazed as I look back on this whole situation because if Sister Tematuanui didn't have to go to the chapel, I would have not driven in that direction, and if I hadn't taken a wrong turn we wouldn't have ended up on that street and if we weren't given that challenge we probably would not have knocked on her door. GOD IS SO GOOD. There really are people prepared to receive our message. God showed me this once again through this small but big unplanned opportunity!

I LOVE YOUS. HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVER!