Hello everyone! Hope you're all enjoying
life and finding the good in every day! And most importantly following the
promptings that you get. That sure was
the theme for my week! I've found that it's so easy just to push aside a
prompting because we feel like it is inconvenient or silly or out of our
comfort zone. But, just as President Monson has said "never postpone a
prompting!" I really love sister Jacobson. She is a pro at following inspiration
and has taught me so much, especially this last week about doing so! It's a
good thing the Lord gave me a great companion!! Here's a sneak peek into our crazy week of
following promptings:
Tuesday: Last week during weekly planning I
had the thought to ask the Relief Society President, Sister Stansell, if she
needed any help with anything this week. I kind of started to push the thought away
because we had just asked her a couple days before and she was good. But I set
a goal this week to "follow inspiration courageously". So we called
her and she told us she actually did need help with her weeds! Holla! So we went over and helped her out and it was
really cool to talk to her and listen to her life stories.
Wednesday: Every Wednesday we go paint nails
at a rest home and this time we were talking to one of the receptionist there, Kerri,
who is super nice to us! Well I talked
to her before and she mentioned how she “used to be a member but wasn't active.”
So anyways we are talking to her and she
goes: "Girls you called me a few days ago and it made my day to be
remembered and to know the sisters have the same number that they had 10 years
ago. You're still saved in my phone!!" She showed us and told us about all
these experiences she was having recently running into the church: the call
from us, old memories of when she first joined, and she even found her Book of
Mormon on top of her fridge! She told us she wants to have us over for dinner
sometime soon. J We
also were able to invite our investigator Emma in our lesson last week to come
to Book of Mormon Class. Well we got the
prompting to follow up once again with her this morning to see if she would
come to class tonight and she said she had an awful day and had some good
excuses for not coming but said she knew she needed to come and be uplifted. So she came! It was awesome and she loved it!
Thursday: Okay so remember the story about
how we were out tracting a couple weeks ago and this man came out and talked to
us and gave us Gatorade and paper towels ‘cuz we were sweating so bad! Well his
name is Jerry and he's awesome. We felt
like we should call and follow up with him and ask if he needed help with
anything. He said he needed help playing
with and weighing his puppies (he's a breeder.) So, we went and helped him and it was not only the best service ever but it also
helped us build trust with him and see that we are normal people serving the
Lord and helped to soften his heart.
Friday: Weekly planning days are always so
longgggg. Ugh! Ha, ha, but Sister Jacobson and I have worked on making them
more inspired. Just like Elder Perkins
told us to make meetings (and I added planning to that) a "revelatory
experience" we have tried to follow inspiration better. It's been amazing!
After we say our long opening prayer we take a few minutes to write down any
names of people that come to mind that we could reach out to specifically in
the upcoming week. Sister Jacobson is super great at this! Last week she had
thought of Kerri (see Wednesday highlight) and this week she had 3 less actives
come to mind. So we called them up during planning and 2 of them answered and
we set appointments with them! See-
isn't she just the best?! She definitely inspires me to be better!!
Saturday: Okay let me just tell you more of
Sister Jacobson's awesome example. So our plans fell through:/ joyssss. But we decided to follow up with some people.
Surprise they weren't home. So we pray
to know what to do. I feel like we
should try a referral we got a couple weeks ago that we hadn't been able to
contact. So we do and turns out he just recently died from cancer. But we left
a little note on the door reminding the wife that she's loved. Walking back to
our car, Sister Jacobson goes "hey do you see that guy up there?"
*points to guy washing car up this giant hill...* I respond that I saw him. She
energetically says "Sweet! Let's go ask if we can help!" Panting as
we got to the top of the hill she asks this man if we can help wash his truck.
He laughs, kind of confused - probably because we just came out of nowhere and
were in dresses- but tells us to knock ourselves out. We drop our bags, grab sponges and get to
work! His mouth drops open and he runs over grabbing the sponges from us
exclaiming how he didn't think we'd actually do it. We told him what we do and
had a great conversation about why we love to serve and about the savior. He
invited us to come back again and even gave us a referral for the widow lady
next door. We go knock her door and she lets us right in. She tells us she's one of
our members that’s in the long-term care at the hospital's sisters. She gave us
a huge snack bag because she couldn't believe we were so far from our mothers
and families! We had a great conversation with her too and the spirit was
strong. She told us that her daughter is also a member of the church and is so
impressed at how kind the members are. She agreed to let us come back next week
and help her clean her carpets! 2 miracles right there under an hour just
because Sister Jacobson followed a prompting!!
Sunday: my last prompting for the week
happened all through church. It was simple but powerful- just listen! As I
listened, I realized the simple truth of "trust God and everything will
work out in his time" repeated over and over again. It was just what I
needed to hear!
I am so grateful to have the gift of the
Holy Ghost to constantly be with me to prompt me and guide me if I keep myself
worthy. I know that following promptings
is not always the easiest thing or most comfortable. But like they told us way
back when I was in the MTC (that sis Jacobson reminded me) "there's no
growth in comfort zones and no comfort in growth zones". This week I want
to invite you all to really follow those promptings and let the Lord help you
stretch and grow!!
~ Sister McDonald
Ponderize: Acts 17:27
"that they should seek the Lord... he be not far from every one of
us"
Committment: Stand Strong!
~ Sister Oscarson
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