"A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief"

Hey y'all! It’s been a week that’s for sure. Lots of miracles though. We found some new people to teach and even had a lesson over Facebook video chat!! I also finished reading the Book of Mormon again this morning. I still have the same feelings I had a year ago reading it for the first time. The Book is true. We’ve been trying to serve a lot recently and it’s filled my soul with a lot of joy, peace, and comfort. One thing we’ve done this week to serve was rake leaves. There are a lot of trees in Oxford, let me tell ya. During the week we were doing some door knocking in a neighborhood and saw an older lady standing in her yard with her dog (tons of leaves). So we walked over to her and offered to come back on Saturday to rake her leaves. She said yes so we got her info and scheduled her in for Saturday. Well, we got to her house at about noon and started to rake. It was just Sister Keiser and I for about an hour and then the elders showed up to help as well. I was really loving it because it was my first time raking leaves! Well, a few hours later we finished the ladies yard. She was so grateful and said over and over again, “thank you, thank you, thank you”. We left feeling good about what we did and the spirit lifted our hearts. Well, yesterday we missed two phone calls from a phone number that we didn’t recognize. After church we listened to our voice mail and heard, “This is Karen. You raked my moms leaves the other day and I just wanted to thank you. I would like to talk with you so please call me back”. We called back and were able to talk with her for a few minutes. Karen shared with us that her mother has Alzheimer’s and that she is the only one that cares for her along with having a full time job. She told us that the other day while leaving her moms house she looked out at the front yard and just felt like she really needed to rake the leaves but knew she wouldn’t have time. That day she prayed and asked God for help. She said that when she found out we had raked the leaves it was an answered prayer. She said, “If God cares enough about my mothers leaves, I know that I don’t have to worry about anything else because he’s going to take care of it. This experience definitely affirmed my faith and I thank you so much”. It was such a sweet experience. As I shared last week, Heavenly Father knows all of His children and each and every one of us are precious to Him. He weeps with us when we are in pain and suffering and rejoices when we are happy. I love serving and the joy that it brings. It does more for me than I could ever do for those I serve. I want to share some verses from Matthew 25 and also a few verses of the hymn “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”.

Matthew 25

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

“A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” verses 1 and 5

A poor wayfaring Man of grief

Hath often crossed me on my way,

Who sued so humbly for relief

That I could never answer nay.

I had not pow’r to ask his name,

Whereto he went, or whence he came;

Yet there was something in his eye

That won my love; I knew not why

Stript, wounded, beaten nigh to death,

I found him by the highway side.

I roused his pulse, brought back his breath,

Revived his spirit, and supplied

Wine, oil, refreshment--he was healed.

I had myself a wound concealed,

But from that hour forgot the smart,

And peace bound up my broken heart.

Tender Mercy Cookies

Hey y’all. Sorry this will probably be a short email because we’ve been out and about all day but I wanted to write about some of the details of this past week! So, about a week ago we were trying to make contact with one of our investigators and she wasn’t home. We pulled our car around the corner to park and knock on some doors. Across the street was a house with a pink bike in the front yard. I felt like we should try knocking on the door, especially because it looked like a family lived there. We knocked on the door and a nice girl answered. They had had a busy morning so she asked us to come back another time. Well, this week we were able to teach her! It turns out she’s married, has a daughter and a baby on the way and she’s only about a year older than me. She is so sweet but was really apprehensive about prophets. We taught her about the restoration and just bore testimony over and over again to try to help her feel the spirit. She agreed to read the Book of Mormon. Last night we went to batesville to visit some of the sweet older members in the ward on our visiting teaching list. We visited one lady who is pretty much home bound and brought her some cookies. We shared a message about the #Lighttheworld initiative and afterwards her nephew said, “you know, right before you showed up she was talking about how she wanted cookies but wasn’t going to be able to have any today and then you knocked on the door”. It was a sweet tender mercy. I love when Heavenly Father lets us see just how aware He is of His children and allows you to help Him serve them. Like I said, I don’t have a lot of time but there were many great experiences this week I could talk about. To go along with the story of the delivered cookies I’ll share a few of my favorite verses from the Book of Mormon where a missionary is teaching a man with little knowledge of who God is, just how much He loves and knows him. “And Ammon said unto him: The heavens is a place where God dwells and all his holy angels. And king Lamoni said: Is it above the earth? And Ammon said: Yea, and he looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from the beginning” (Alma 18:30-32). You are a child of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that because I’ve seen Him reach out to help, save, comfort, succor, sustain, bless, protect, heal, and strengthen me over and over again. 

Video and pictures

 Tree decorating!!

Activity at the Arntsen’s!!

#LightTheWorld cards we are passing out 

tonight at the parade!!

Sick as a Dog but the Book of Mormon is Still True

Hey y’all!! So this week was good but I’ve been soooo sick. I’ve got a terrible cold and it’s not letting up!! Being sick on the mission is seriously miserable. Pray for me!! We had a couple of great experiences this week that I want to talk about. Last Monday evening we felt prompted to visit a member that we had never met before. We knocked on the door and the members boyfriend, Johnny answered. They let us in and we were able to get to know them a little bit. After talking with them it was really clear that Johnny was confused about religion and things that he had been taught in the past. I felt like he was just looking for the truth and peace. We were able to be so bold with him, inviting him to learn about the restored gospel and to read the Book of Mormon. At one point I even felt prompted to say, “I exhort you to read the Book of Mormon to know the truth for yourself”. The spirit was SO strong and I know he felt it. Later in the week the zone leaders, District leader, oxford elders and us did a blitz of the area to spread the new #LightTheWorld initiative around Oxford. If you haven’t seen the video yet, go to Mormon.org to watch it! The blitz was so fun and we met a bunch of people. We had a cool experience with one of our investigators that same day as well. We sat down for our lesson and she started to cry as she talked about some of the trials she’s going through. She said, “if there is more that God wants me to know, I’m ready for it”. We handed her a copy of the Book of Mormon and said, “here it is; this is what He wants you to know”. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON AND I KNOW THAT IT IS TRUE. The prophet Joseph smith taught that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. President Ezra Taft Benson said that it is our “keystone” for at least three reasons: It testifies of Jesus Christ and is an additional witness of His divinity, it contains the fullness of the doctrine that Christ taught, and it is the foundation of our testimony of the restoration of the gospel in these latter-days. I’ve come to know that all of the above is true by reading the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart, faith in Christ, a desire to know it’s truthfulness and a willingness to act on the message it teaches. By the power of the Holy Ghost I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I’ll never stop testifying of that. The gospel makes me so happy and that is reason enough for me to live it. I hope that y’all had a great thanksgiving and felt the spirit as you reflected on all that Heavenly Father has blessed you with. He is so good.