I can't believe I've hit my one month mark. This has been the
busiest/best month of my life. I had a couple really cool experiences with some
of our investigators this week. I think I mentioned Idalid; we found her just one day knocking. She's
incredible, and somewhat of a "golden investigator." The hard thing with her is
finding a time when she's home. I don't think she understands that when we make
appointments with her, that means we will be coming over at that time, because
she's usually not home. But every time she is, she lets us in and we have an
awesome lesson. She's so interested and willing and already has such great
faith! We visited her on Wednesday and talked a lot about prayer. The three of
us bore testimony of the power of prayer and why it's a commandment. We taught
her the way we pray and asked if she'd pray with us. At first she said she was
too embarrassed, but after we showed her a simple example, she prayed herself!
It was so cool. We left her with the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to read
and pray about and she said she would. We haven't seen her since Wednesday
because she hasn't been home, but I'm so excited to go
back!
That same day we had an appointment with this woman named
Doris. She's in her mid-20's and hasn't been progressing. This time we asked her
directly if she was interested in our church and just as directly she said,
"Honestly, no." Dropping investigators is so sad, but we always let them know
that we're still here for them and care about them. Even though Doris isn't
interested, we've started teaching her sister-in-law, Kelly. She's 26 and here
from Venezuela learning English. She lives with 3 members who go to BYU. She's
most interested about the Book of Mormon so we started talking about that, along
with prayer. She listens so intently, asks questions, wants to come to church,
and the Spirit is always so strong when we're with her. We have an appointment
with her tonight at 6, which we're all pretty excited
about.
We had another really awesome lesson with Michele. Her
daughter Lucia has been sitting in on lessons which is also really cool. Lucia
speaks more English than Spanish, so the English Elders in our area teach her
(and her boyfriend Anthony), but we still always welcome her in our lessons and
even though she's kind of quiet, I know she's listening. Towards the end of the
lesson, Lucia goes, "I'm gonna be honest. When I first heard of the Mormons I
thought you guys were crazy. I really did. But when I read the Book of Mormon I
get this feeling. It's the same feeling I get when you and the Elders come into
our house. It's a safe feeling. It's comforting. Like even though when I wake up
in the morning and think today's going to be another bad day, I can go to sleep
knowing that everything will be okay. It's a feeling that tells me that God
loves me and is looking out for me. It's making me a different person. I don't
really know how to explain it, but I don't want it to go away." Oh my goodness.
It was the best thing in the world. I love Lucia and
Michele.
Last night we went tracting after dinner because all of our
appointments fell through and we ran into this crazy cat lady. She has 20
something cats and I guess animal control has been called a few times. She's
sweet, but extremely odd. She asked us to come in and leave her with a prayer of
health and safety. And she asked me to say it. It was super awkward and I had no
idea what to say that would make this crazy cat lady feel safe and healthy, but
she really appreciated it so I guess that's all that matters! Haha she told us
she served a mission, but her neighbor said she's never been baptized, so I'm
not quite positive she's all the way there. Her neighbor is really cool though.
She's 26 and from Brazil and is a single mom. She's a member and she said she'd
feed us whenever we want! She also is the manager of the Forever 21 in Orem and
said she'd hook us up with some free clothes. Hooray for
that.
Speaking of food, oh my gosh. I wanna die. I think we're
gonna try to cut our dinners with members down to only 3 days a week because we
just can't handle all the food. Haha it's good, but way too much. And they get
offended when we don't eat it all. We go to the faculty gym at BYU every morning
though, so that makes the situation a little better. I'm going to enjoy that
luxury while it lasts.
One of my companions has been struggling lately. I think she
really misses home and has had a couple down days this week. We brought one of
her family friends with us to teach a lesson and afterwards when we walked Maria
home, Maria grabbed her, and in the most loving, firm way, she said, "When you
get back to your apartment, go answer these three questions... One, who are you?
Two, why are you here? Three, what is your goal? And when you have a bad day,
read your answers." It was awesome. So the next day during personal study, I
answered those questions for myself. This is what I came up with. Who am I? I am
a daughter of God. I am literally the daughter of a king and an heir to a royal
throne. I have a divine heritage. Jesus Christ, the most perfect man to ever
walk the Earth, is my brother, friend, and my Savior. I am a full-time
missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a servant
of the Lord. I am His hands in the great work of gathering His lost sheep. I am
a Mormon. I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I wear his name proudly. Why
am I here? I am here because I love God. I am here because after all Christ
sacrificed for me, and all His selfless love has allowed me to do, 18 months of
my life dedicated to Him will never seem like enough. I am here because I want
to be. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me
and I want to share my knowledge of truth, happiness, peace, and love with
everyone that will listen. I am here because I have been called by God himself,
through a living prophet, to serve the people of Provo Utah and Madrid Spain.
What is my goal? My goal is to invite as many people as I can to come unto
Christ, and to show them the goodness of the Gospel. My goal is to love others
with all my heart; to care less about myself and more about them. My goal is to
help people see, recognize, and feel the love God has for them and that their
life has great purpose. My goal is to change - to be truly converted unto the
Lord. My goal is to make myself, my mission presidents, my family, and
ultimately, my Heavenly Father proud.
Love,
Hermana Munden
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