October 15, 2012

Hello everyone,

How are things going? I am doing pretty good here.  I am still trying
to get used to everything with the new changes.  The good thing is
that i am really starting to get to know the people here.  One thing
that is still a bit of a struggle is getting new investigators.  That
is one thing that is pretty hard.  There are just not a lot of strong
people that we are teaching, so we have a lot of work to do to try to
get some more good people that we can start to teach.  But in general
I am just really tired today. I don't know why, but I feel like this may be the most challenging sector that I have been in so far.  There is just a lot of work to do and never enough time or honestly energy sometimes to do it.  So I
spend a bit of time just tired, but I think that's just part of the
mission.

There were two success stories of this past week that I wanted to
share.  First of all, on Saturday night, we were visiting the house of
a member who is not quite fully active.  In general he has his ups and
downs.  And when we got to his house, he just seemed a bit worn out
and didn't feel like he had enough energy to be fully active right
now.  That was influenced by his wife and the fact that she has been
inactive for almost two years.  As a result, sometimes he just gets
pretty discouraged and feels somewhat alone.  As we were teaching the
lesson, I felt inspired to share a scripture with him, one of my
favorites actually in Doctrine and Covenants 84:88.  It says, "And
whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your
face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit
shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you
up."  I could really feel the Spirit as I shared that scripture with
him.  As I finished the scripture, he said, "Elders, I will be at
church tomorrow."  That is one of the powerful things about the
Spirit.  It can truly help us to do what we need to do and continue,
even when things are hard.  If we seek to follow Him, God will always
be there to help strengthen us.

The other experience with with another less active member that we
taught.  Her aunt had told us that she wanted us to pass by and help
her, so we went by one afternoon to see if we could help.  She is
passing through a difficult time right now, dealing with some personal
things, including the separation from her husband.  We talked with her
and tried to motivate her, but it didn't seem to work all that well.
She basically told us, I know what I need to do but I don't want to do
it for now.  I know that I will come back in a few months.  We ended
up leaving her home, giving her an assignment to watch a talk from
conference.  But we didn't really have any strong feeling that
anything had changed from our visit.  The surprise came when we were
sitting in Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning and all of a sudden she
comes in with her little son.  I was so happy to see her there.  That
is the great thing about being a missionary.  I knew that was the one 
thing that would be able to help her more than anything else.  But my
heart broke a little when she left the chapel after the Sacrament.  I
felt that maybe she just really didn't understand.  Then suddenly she
returned with her husband, with whom she has been separated for almost
two months.  I don't know the status of their marriage right now, but
I was just so filled with joy to see them there, sitting next to each
other in sacrament meeting.

Things can sometimes be difficult, but what I have learned this week
is that the Gospel is the best solution to life's problems.  I know
that when we put our trust in God and seek to turn completely to Him,
we will be able to do all that the Lord requires of us, and we will
truly feel that He is going before our face, that He is on our right
and on our left, that His Spirit is in our hearts, and that his angels
are nearby to lift us up.  One thing that I know and of which I can
bear testimony is that God lives and that He is ever mindful of us.
He wants the very best for each one of us.  As we follow Him, we will
be truly happy.

I hope that you have a great week, and I will talk to you all later.

Elder Stollenwerk