The One Where Sister Nisse Said Goodbye to Her Mama

So, the day has arrived. It's my last day with my mother.

(Mother = a sister missionary's trainer).

I feel like throwing myself on my bed a-la Sleeping Beauty style (post-finding-out-her-true-identity-as-a-princess), but the work must go on.

This week, I wish I could say that the wonderful and glorious Herring-Nisse duo went out with a bang, but sadly, we had a looooot of meetings to attend, and as such, things were not at their most fabulous. 

However, things are looking good for the weeks to come! We have a precious thing to look forward to-- APPOINTMENTS!!! Believe me when I say that such things are rare and marvelous. People out here aren't as fond of set appointments as the missionaries are, but I'll take what I can get :)

Um, ya, Sleeping Beauty definitely had it easier. 

Our Purpose

So, having a member of the Quorum of the Seventy address you and your mission summed up in a word:

Haha! Just kidding, we all know it's impossible to sum up.

But in all honesty, it was amazing. Elder Sitati and his wife came from Ghana, Africa to speak to us for our annual mission conference. You wanna know what he talked to us about?

Our Purpose. 

Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

He taught us about how all the questions that a missionary can come up with can be resolved by a re-evaluation of where we stand in regard to our purpose. And, to extend that to you, whoever you are reading this, the same can be said about where you stand in regard to your purpose. What's your purpose, you might ask? Well, let me tell you:

Your purpose is to come unto Christ by receiving the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism (and weekly renewal of baptismal covenants), receiving and being worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. 

I promise that by continually working to embed this purpose into our hearts, we will eventually be able to not only come out of the other side of life's storms with deepened faith, but to return to our Father in Heaven knowing that we've done all that was required of us to return to live with Him.

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."

Missionary Work on Halloween?

Ha, so Halloween is totally awkward as a missionary. Sooo many people opening their doors, excited to give candy to trick-or-treaters, and then boom. They see the little black tag and their faces DROP. I wish I could show you, because it really is one of the funniest things eeeever.

In any case, we had a miracle last night! We knocked on the door of this one man's house, and well, he's never home...but for whatever reason, last night he was! I love it when that happens. He has such a testimony of this gospel, and I loved hearing about how having a knowledge about the truthfulness has gotten him through some very hard times. The only problem is that he's not a member.

Ha! Just kidding! Well, kind of. He was baptized when he was 16 and living in Bolivia, and somehow the records of his baptism were lost. And so now he gets to be baptized again, the lucky duck. 

Other than that, it's been a rather uneventful week, a lot of working with the other sisters in the zone, so I'm sorry that I don't have more to report about the people in our area! The sister who committed to be baptized is named Mary Henderson, so please include her in your prayers.  

 

Here are some pictures from the beautiful (and extremely terrifying) roads in Virginia.

 

 

AMAZING THINGS ARE HAPPENING!!

Soooo, I hate to say this, but here goes:

I told you so.

I told you that we were going to have something amazing happen! Bad things only mean that good things are just around the corner :) 

This week, we had one of our investigators agree to be baptized.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

#awesomeweekworthit

She's on date to be baptized on November 23rd, and we would appreciate any and all of the prayers that you could send our way to help her to make it to that date, and to help us as her missionaries to know just how to be able to help her. 

Ah! I'm so happy :)

Sometimes There are Good Things, and Sometimes There are Bad Things

"There must needs be an opposition in all things"

A very wise man said that. A wise man that I, for one, trust. So while things may seem dark and dreary, I don't have a doubt in my mind that good things are on their way. 

I won't go into the details of this week, but let's just say that Sister Herring and I have really learned how to rely on one another. And maybe that's just what the Lord wanted from us this week! 

Either way, I'm happy to have had another week here in Virginia, laboring in the name of the Lord. It truly is a blessing. Even when the bad days come, it really is okay. It's okay because I know that I'm doing something very important, something of a lot of worth. So when the people don't listen, and the time seems ill spent--I just remember that I am 100% exactly where the Lord wants me. I am not cheating Him out of any of the time that He has to have me work where I am. And I will be forever grateful to Him for allowing me to do that.

As a missionary, I recognize that it's very easy to say, "I'm serving the Lord each and every day." However, the commandment to do so is not exclusive to those of us with this pretty little name tag. So, I would encourage you to always, always, always be looking for something to do so that you can say that at the end of each of your days, as well. Maybe keep a journal, and list the things that you did to serve our Lord. I promise that as you do so, you will begin to search for more and more ways to keep serving. 

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Two Miracles for Two Months of Service

A mission is a horribly wonderful, tragic, amazing, heart-wrenching, spirit-lifting thing. 

On a mission, the pains are deep, but the joys are sweeter than any joy you've ever known. The most amazing part of it all is that the happiness you feel as you labor in the Lord's vineyard is so consuming and uplifting that you are able to turn back to the times of sorrow and question why you ever felt that way. 

This past week is a perfect example of that. We had transfers this week, and as a result, things were super slow. But when the time came to go out and work hard to make up for the time lost, noooooobody was home.

Fabulous, right?

Miracle #1: When things seemed their bleakest, we stopped at a store we have in the area to follow an impression Sister Herring had had for the bulk of our day out. We were then able to have an amazing lesson with the cashier at the store. Sisters in the area have been trying to teach this lady for moooooonths, because she really is the sweetest lady, and for whatever reason, that night was finally the perfect night for things to move forward. We told her about how God truly loves and cares about her specifically, and how the Book of Mormon would allow her to feel that love as she learns more and more about Him and His desire for her. 

Miracle #2: Last night, we knocked on a door that Sister Herring really wanted to try because they had lots of pretty decorations up, and while we had knocked on the door before (they hadn't answered), we figured that trying again couldn't hurt. This time the lady that lives there opened the door and invited us in to teach her and her husband our message. They hadn't really heard a lot of fabulous things about the Mormons or our church...despite that, they were very receptive to the Spirit that was present as we taught them about a young man's humble prayer to our Father in Heaven that was answered so that we could have the chance to accept the Lord's restored truth today. As we walked away from their home, we realized that we had forgotten to give them our number (you really can't blame us. We walked out in a miracle-induced haze) and when we came back to give them our number we found the husband at their dining room table, already reading from the Book of Mormon.

I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am to be apart of this mighty work. Miracles are things that just become a part of the life of a missionary, as you do the work with an honest heart, full of love for those that you serve. 

I love my trials, and I love my miracles. They stand equal in my sight, because with out the trials, the miracles are never wrought. 

"It is your reaction to the adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life's story will develop." --President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Inspired by Words of the Prophets

So, this weekend we had conference, and some amazing things were said. 

Everything was truly inspired. Of that, I have no doubt. Of course, as a missionary, the things that stood out to me are pretty obvious. 

"Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto Him."

That's what our Prophet said.

D&C 1:38-- "...my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

So.

Do you believe Thomas S. Monson to be the Lord's prophet, or don't you? Because that's really what it comes down to. The Lord's servant has spoken, and the work will go forth and there will be lives changed and hearts that will be softened, and there will be promptings from the Holy Ghost, of this I testify. 

But what will you do? 

You might be asking, "What in the world can I do?". And the thing is that you can do a lot. 

A WHOLE lot.

There was a promise made to us by another one of the Lord's servants. He promised that if every member reaches out to just 1 person, we as a church would gain millions of members. That's huge! Can you even imagine how many new stakes and wards would need to be formed? Can you wrap your mind around the lives that would be changed?

And that's just the work involving members in the next 3 months! (Yes, exclamation point.) Imagine if that was each member's goal for every month. 1 person per month. The Lord has made it very clear that the work is to be done with members AND missionaries if the hastening is going to work. My advice to you is to decide right now to set a member-missionary goal to reach before Christmas, and then: 

• Pray with faith that the Lord will help you to make it happen. 
• Allow yourself to follow the direction of the Spirit in everything that you do as you go about reaching the goal that you've set for yourself. 
• Have pass-long cards ready to hand out.
• Look for ways to love every single person that is around you. 

I know that the Lord will then bless you to reach your goal, as long as you are doing all that you can to heed this call to the work that has been issued to us all. It may seem impossible, but that's only because we can't see the big picture...the Lord does, and He has called every hand to the work. 

Don't let yours be one of those left behind.

"Forget yourself and go to work."