We
told her we were not going home for the night until she talked to
someone (we are evil I know muahahah) it took her a couple laps around
the block to realize that we were serious and then finally out of
nowhere she just walks up to this blue haired, 10 earring, headphone
rocker chick out of all people. And my German goes out the window and we
begin probably the most imperfect convo complete with awkward pauses
and everything. (I think mostly because I was still in shock that we
were talking to her and that she was actually listening) it was so crazy
to me how she started to soften up and to tell us about how she had
lost her faith in God and such. In the end you could see her start to
tear up and she ended up taking a Book of Mormon. Ah I am so grateful to
our little mini and her no judging eye. People like that? Gah. They
need this stuff.
I don't usually let my heart
break for potential people to teach but man this was a doozy. Picture
this: rain pouring. 8 flights of stairs with about 10 doors each. And we
get to the last door (it is always the last door isn't it?) and a
little girl with a one direction shirt answers the door. We ask if her
mom is home. Talk to the mom. SHE INVITES US IN. She has a family. WITH
FOUR KIDS. We teach this family. Watch because of him. With all four of
them just glued. Testify of everything under the sun. Ask if we could do
family home evening with them. No thanks. Ask if we could bring a Book
of Mormon. We have the bible. Ask if we could teach her family about the
plan of God. Rejected. Actually she was way nice about it all but she
didn't invite us back. Ah it was killing me! What else could we have
testified about? But I still have faith in her and someday some
missionaries can stalk her down and her cute little family will be
baptized and sealed in the temple hehe
My
obsession with teaching Asians is continuing don't you even worry. We
had kinda felt like we were going in circles every time we were teaching Yang Shui and just talking about who God was and drilling prayer and
such over and over again and so we decided we needed to give him more of
a reason to believe in God. Like by showing him how it would help him
rather than just telling him about it. And so we taught him about the
plan of God. And specifically about how Jesus Christ is such an
important piece of that. Who he was. And what he did. When we asked him
if he knew of the miracles Christ performed he said "no. Tell me
please!" You could see the excitement and desire in his body language.
And in the end you wanna know what happened? He told us he had been
praying everyday and it's not weird anymore and he now believes in God.
Whoa. It's only been 3 weeks.
I have been
thinking about that a lot lately. How amazing it is that people can
change their whole life so quickly. Sometimes I think I just get so
impatient because from the outside looking in it doesn't seem like they
are changing their life as fast as I think they should. We are on a
quick time table over here as missionaries. I mean who knows how long
before you get transferred or go home in 18 months. Time is always
ticking. But these people are making sacrifices in Gods timing. So many
sacrifices. Way more than I have ever had to make. Sure I have made a
couple sacrifices in my lifespan. But really it's nothing at all in
comparison to the sacrifices these people we teach make. Or the pioneers
made. Or better yet the infinite and atoning sacrifice of our brother
Jesus Christ. Sacrifice. Everyone wants the easy way. But he is the way
and there is no other way. Being a member of this church does not mean
you automatically receive a "get out of trials free" card. You still
have struggles. You still have hardships. You still have pains,
weaknesses and sorrows. So what is so great about it?
"Belief
is something we choose-we hope for it, we work for it, we sacrifice for
it. We cannot just accidentally come to believe that Christ is our
savior."
No wonder we have these commandments
to literally change our life. I made that connection this week with why
your faith grows when you start keeping the commandments. As you make
the sacrifice for your belief it becomes that much stronger. It is the
easiest way to put your faith into action. Sometimes I really hate
teaching people the commandments because I know how much it is going to
help their life but I know it is so hard for them in the moment and then
to just watch how much pain and heartache it brings them. And here you
are promising them all these blessings but they can't see them in the
slightest. And then you just come back the next day and throw another
one on them... but when I made that connection it became so much easier
for me to really teach that way. Why we would want to make these
sacrifices.The whole point is because Heavenly Father wants us to be
happy and we are happier when our faith is stronger. And our faith is
stronger when we live it. And we live it when we sacrifice for it. And
We love what we sacrifice for.
Seriously took
on a whole new meaning for me of why we have commandments in this
church. Why we are asked to sacrifice so much. When in reality it is
nothing at all in comparison to everything he has given us. Whatever I
do I will never be able to pay Christ back. Thank goodness He's not
looking to be repaid.
love ya oodles
xoxoxo
s. heywood
ps:
Naomi and (from back in Duisburg if you don't remember) got baptized
this weekend. Eep. So so so so so happy for them! We had just started
doing fhe with their cute little family right before I left. Gah. Good
stuff.
so long my dear.
tearing up over here don't mind me.
love this crew.
forts for days.
classy chinese food. finally tried a German spring roll.... happy now Sister Kopischke?
singing in the rain. quite literally. But it was actually way cool. People here usually think we aren't Christians and so we just picked out a couple hymns and sang our testimonies to them all. Clever eh? And this one lady stopped and asked us what church we go to and when we said we were Mormon she told us how she thought Mormons didn't believe in Christ but how the words to our songs said otherwise and so she was going to have to do her research. Took a Book of Mormon too. Way way cool.
this pretty much sums up missionary life.
happy happy birthday bobby dear
Yang shui. Cool kiddo.
just befriending the neighbors. Nbd.
