Dear
Family & Friends,
I
will go through the days this week because it was very eventful!
Tuesday:
We had a lesson with our family that we found in Walmart just the week before. Heidi, Sokol & their two children. I shared the experience with my dad
for how we found them so I will share it will you to get you
updated. In Wal-Mart, we were just shopping along and we were in the
yogurt, milk, eggs section of the store. There was this family that we walked past and
I smiled a friendly smile at the father of the family and he smiled back. (We learned from Elder Kopischke about a month
ago that when a person smiles at you, they will receive you). But I kept on walking. I cannot even begin to tell you what was going
on within my soul as I walked past this family who just received us and I did
not talk with them. The Spirit said very
softly as if it was almost faint, you need to go back. As I kept on walking I was fight in my mind
that it would be so awkward to go back because I had just smiled at them and
walked away. I was given one more
chance, this struck me so much. "Sister
McCook, you are going to regret it if you do not turn around." So I said to Sister Kloepfer that we needed to
turn around. I walked quickly to the
opposite side of this aisle in hopes to talk to this friendly family that the
angels had prepared for me to talk with. We showed them a picture of
Jesus and shared our pure and simple testimonies of the Book of
Mormon. Sokol who is from Albania said that he has 2 copies of the Book
of Mormon at home (An Albania and English) and the Book of Mormon app
downloaded on his phone and is about to begin reading it. Turns out they just moved from Ohio and are
living in the same apartment complex that we are living in.
We
brought a member along and it was a wonderful lesson! Heidi is very into the Book of Mormon and when
we followed up with her in a couple days, she had been reading it! Sokol understands our message very well and
his only concern is that he won't be able to do some of the things he loves if
he joins the Church. He thought one of
them might be Permaculture which is a very interesting gardening technique and
healthy way of living. The neat thing
about this is that I actually did Permaculture with Sister Murray about 2
months ago and so it was neat to make the connection. When a person understands the restored gospel
of Jesus Christ, they understand that there are so many more things we can do
because not only are the blessings in store for here on Earth, but the amount
of blessings that are available in Heaven because of this gospel, cannot be
comprehended.
Later
on that day we welcomed in 14 new incoming missionaries straight off the
airplane from the MTC. They were so
sweet. I met a Sister Saxton and I asked
her where her relatives are from because I have Saxton's in my family and she
said Idaho and Utah so Saxton's, I don't know but you might be related to her! Also, the first missionary from Tucson,
Arizona besides me arrived. He is from
the Sahuarita area and so I asked if he knew some my family and he said he
didn't. It was interesting being here in
President Craig's home. I felt like I
was just walking in their shoes a day ago. It was nice being there. These missionaries were very scared, just
afraid of the unknown. As we would talk
with them they would ask if I ever felt like them or if I was ever scared. When I would let them know that I felt exactly
like them, they wouldn't believe me. They would ask, "Are you sure you
felt like this? Because it couldn't possibly
look like you ever did because you're so confident”. Repeatedly they would ask and so I invited
them to ask President Craig what my first few months in the mission field were
like and that I gave him permission to let them know. It's okay to be afraid, it's normal. This is a marvelous work and honor to be in
the service of the Savior and all we want to do is the right thing. We had a very powerful devotional in the which
we listened to all of these missionaries bear their testimonies of the gospel. They are all great devoted Elders and Sisters.
Wednesday:
Sister Blotter (who is a Sister who just went home on Friday) joined Sister
Kloepfer and I for the day. What a blast
talking with everyone! We went out teaching, knocking doors, teaching
people through the car windows, it was just the best day ever. We loved being in a trio and didn't want
it to end! We found a couple that let us
right in and listened to our message. They wanted time to read from the Book of
Mormon before we came back. We had two Sisters
going home, stay the night with us.
Friday:
We went on a trade off! I went to the Hendricks Ave. area with Sister
Gillman. We witnessed TONS of miracles
but my favorite one was the first one we had. We had a teaching appointment with this woman
named Taleka. We walked up to her door
at the same time another woman was walking up to her door. We talked with her and found out her name was
Kevena. Taleka shouted out from her upstairs window that she couldn't meet with
us today. So we invited Kevena to learn
more about our message. She took us over
to her home. She is a very sweet mother
of 3. As we shared our message, she
asked us, "what is this feeling I have? It is so strong I have never felt it this
strong before." It was the Spirit
of God. And yes, she was right, the
Spirit was powerful in this lesson and it reconfirmed to me the truths of the
things we were teaching. As we shared
about Joseph Smith's experience with seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ,
we sat there for a second and she said, "Say it again! Say it again! I really want to hear it
again." There were tears in this lesson.
She desires to be baptized on May 23. We received a phone call from the Hendricks
Sisters today saying that Kevena is progressing very well. Oh how my heart is filled with so much joy!
Saturday:
As we did Golden hour, there were a lot
of people who were short with us, but that is okay. We moved forward with faith and decided to go
follow up with John about the Book of Mormon. He said that he had read a few pages but there
were some things holding him back. We had a very great discussion about the
Priesthood. What a blessing that the
Priesthood has been restored to the Earth and that our living prophet holds the
keys of the Priesthood. He had a few
questions about the Priesthood and when we talked about the Priesthood being
able to seal marriages for time and all eternity, he said, when can you come
back this week? He really wanted to
learn more.
Sunday:
I love the Sabbath and being able to
attend Church! Later on that day, we had
dinner with a family. The wife is a
member, but her husband and three children are not. We taught them about the true Church of Jesus
Christ being restored to the Earth and about the Book of Mormon and all of them
wanted their own copy. One of the
daughters even jumped up and said, "I want to be baptized." And continued by saying that she wanted us to
come back every Sunday.
Monday:
Even today Sister Kloepfer and I set a
goal and prayerfully took it to Heavenly Father saying that we wanted to find
someone in the paper towel aisle of Wal-Mart and invite them to be baptized. Well, we went to do our shopping and found
ourselves down that aisle talking with everyone. We found many wonderful people who loved their
Savior, but did not find the person to invite to baptism. We came out of that aisle and straight ahead
was Jarvis. He is a man that we gave a
Book of Mormon to about a month ago. We
followed up with him and said that he wanted us to meet with him and his family
to share our message. We then invited
him to be baptized and he said yes! Miracles
upon miracles. God answers prayers and
knows the desires of each and every one of His children's hearts.
I
love being a missionary.
-Sister
McCook
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