Dear Family & Friends,
Transfer calls are tonight but I already know
that Sister Kloepfer and I are staying together. What a huge blessing I get to
serve with my best friend for 6 more weeks! If this description gives you an idea for how
much fun we have every day it would be this, "The companionship that
rejoices in miracles." We find joy
in doing the work of the Lord daily. And
if I can feel this joyful daily by sharing the gospel, I am totally going to
apply it back in Arizona.
It was a very busy week as we had three tradeoffs
with Sister Training Leaders. So we
drove all the way down to Gainesville, Hendricks Ave., and Whitehouse. I can't adequately express how grateful one of
the assignments to this calling I have is to work with all the Sister Training
Leaders in the mission. These Sisters
are sharp. They came prepared with
amazing goals to work on. I was with
Sister Crawford from Gainesville and we stayed here in Mandarin. What's neat about this is that about 8 months
ago, she was serving as my Sister Training Leader in Whitehouse and we went on
a trade off together. Now we can see the
transformation that has taken place in each of us. We learned how to fully exert ourselves as
missionaries with using the Spirit in every aspect of the work. What it means to be focused on the Spirit from
what we learned is to be disciplined. Every thought, word, and action is devoted to
inviting others to come unto Christ. Not
risking of thinking of anything else besides P-Day hours, but that is it.
The trade off with Hendricks was so fun because
I stayed here in Mandarin again and Sister Murray, my previous companion joined
me! Her goal was to focus on teaching
the Atonement in finding and teaching situations. This was fun to learn that with talking about
the Atonement, the teaching and testifying doesn't have to be anything big or
long drawn out, even the shortest and simplest testimony of the Atonement will
bring the sweetest Spirit into the room. It was powerful. I went to Whitehouse with
Sister Sorensen and she wanted to focus on becoming a consecrated missionary
which is what I have been focusing on. I
feel like all of the tradeoffs this week led up to me doing this one. Focusing on the Spirit and using the Atonement
allow for a good missionary to become a better missionary and disciple of Jesus
Christ.
I am looking forward to another transfer full of
learning opportunities from these Sister Training Leaders. Tomorrow is a beautiful day because we get to
welcome the new missionaries into the mission by having a devotional and dinner
at President Craig's home.
Best miracle of the mission. Are you ready?
About 3 Fridays ago, Sister Kloepfer and I were
prayerfully pondering on how we can get referrals. Referrals from members are huge because this
is one very crucial way for how a Ward grows. We so badly desired to have a solid media
referral because we just want to witness baptisms happen here in Mandarin and
we just wanted a media referral miracle. So we prayed mightily and faithfully for this
desire. Weeks go by and we received a
phone call from our Bishop on Thursday with a miracle for us. He was giving us a referral from the media. A 15 year old girl named Ashley who has been
waiting for missionaries to come to her door. We had her first lesson on Saturday and she
has committed to be baptized and confirmed on May 9 & 10. This is her story
for finding the Church. She was watching
a movie with Mormons in it and the entire time she just thought about how kind
and happy Mormons are. It led her to googling
Mormons and what a blessing it is that she was led to mormon.org.
She began talking with missionaries
online who are actually serving in the California Oakland temple visitor’s center.
They then sent her information over to us and we have been teaching her! She absolutely was excited for Church and
LOVED it. She loved young women's. And one of the best parts, her mom is
completely supportive for whatever she chooses. Best miracle ever. And tonight, we are going over to President
Craig's home for Family Home Evening with Ashley! We are so happy!
Love, Sister McCook
No comments:
Post a Comment