Hey y'all!
How's it goin?
To start off my email I have to give a shout out to Grandpa and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you soooo much!
Oh and before I forget I've had a member of my ward drilling me for the past 2 transfers to ask you mom if you know anybody named Leslie Nash. I know we know a Nash family somehow but I'm not sure if it's the same one...
Also I need to mention that at that same members home we had dinner and the wife's mother was visiting. Her name is Bonnie Robinson and she knows Angie from working over the sorority. So anyways that was a funny connection to make! She had only great things to say about Angie.
Last night was transfer calls and I'm staying here in Tomball and Sister Cecil is getting transferred. We won't know where until Tuesday morning at transfer meeting.
This week was pretty great! We saw some great miracles!
We were able to meet with Dorisette this week. Dorisette is so wonderful but it has been so difficult to keep her lessons simple. She is so intelligent and she just wants to know EVERYTHING and so she is always asking us these deep questions that get into the deep doctrine. It's been difficult to teach simply when she has these questions and we don't want to cast her questions aside we want to answer them for her. So that has been our current challenge with her - finding a balance between teaching simply and answering her questions and concerns. The spirit is always there the strongest when the doctrine is kept simple. We talked to her a lot about faith and how there are many things that God has revealed to us but there is also so much more that we will never know or fully comprehend in this life because faith is required. That helped put her mind at ease a little bit but she still wants her questions answered. I have had to do more studying and researching of the Book of Mormon and Bible in these past two transfers than I ever have in my life. It's been a challenge but so rewarding.
We were also able to meet with a former investigator from about 3 years ago. Her name is Cynthia. She is really cool! She loves having the missionaries come over and chat about religion. The only problem is that she doesn't want to actually take the lessons and she has no interest at all in joining our church. It was really nice to talk to her though because she has the utmost respect for our church and thinks the world of our members. She has an incredible life too! She is a rock n' roll photographer so she takes pictures of the famous bands. She is really good friends of the band Kiss, I don't really care much for them but it was still really neat to learn about her life and her different experiences. She is going to let us come back and do service for her so hopefully that will help to soften her heart and maybe we'll get to share more with her. Her biggest hang-up is modern day prophets.
We also got to see Kaylee again this week! She just got home from El Salvador. Unfortunately she did not meet any Hermana Poulter's but my prayer was still answered because she saw some missionaries while she was there and she was pretty excited about that. Our other prayers were answered too because her aunt has come to live with her and her mother so her aunt now takes care of her younger sister and she is able to come to mutual and church! It's so amazing how the Lord answers our prayers.
When we last saw her before her trip we taught her about gratitude from For Strength of Youth and we challenged her while she was in El Salvador to write down everyday 3 things that she was grateful for. I wasn't sure that she would remember to do that while on vacation but she did! I was so amazed by her experience with that. She told us that her experience there made her realize how blessed she is and how much God has given her!
I also saw many miracles when I was on exchanges with the Bridgeland sisters this week. It's Sister Davis (my wonderful old companion) and Sister Heaps (who is also a wonderful missionary) and I was able to go to their area with Sister Heaps. They whitewashed the area and they are doing such a great job! We were so blessed while on exchanges! The first few homes we went to no one was home and as we were leaving that particular neighborhood Sister Heaps felt prompted to visit one more house of a less active that they've been trying to meet for the last 6 weeks. So we flipped the car around and went back to this mans house. Miracle! He answered the door! We had a really great chat with him. We asked him why he no longer came to church and he told us how he hadn't been active for probably about 20 years because he had a falling out with his mother who wanted him to serve a mission when he wanted to join the navy. We then asked him if he had any desire to ever come back. It was so neat because he said "It's funny because I've actually been thinking about that a lot lately." We offered to share the discussions with him and he said "well yeah but I think it would be more for my wife than for me." His wife is not a member of the church but she isn't opposed to it. So the Sisters are going to go back and share the discussions with him and his wife! He also wants his son to get involved in Boy Scouts through the church rather than they school he's doing it through now. It was so wonderful to get to talk to this man. We felt such great love for him as we spoke to him and encouraged him to come back. I told Sister Heaps to keep me updated on him!
That same night we also visited one of their potential investigators and his wife answered the door and let us in and we were able to teach the first lesson to both him and his wife. They are an incredible family. The minute you walk into their home you could feel the spirit. They are Baptist and they have 3 children. They love Christ so much and they are doing all they can to raise their children in a loving home filled with the spirit. They had some concerns about the restoration as most investigators do but we did our best to resolve their concerns and they accepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The husband said the most amazing prayer at the end. We all knelt down together and in his prayer he asked that he would know if this book were true and if this is something he should pursue. It was so sincere and I know that if he and his wife maintain that sincerity and keep their commitments they will receive and answer.
Sister Heaps and Sister Davis are such amazing missionaries. I feel so blessed to be able to be a Sister Training leader. I learn so much from these incredible Sisters. Every exchange I feel as though I am learning so much more from them than they could ever learn from me. They are so good and so pure and I feel the love that Heavenly Father has for them spread through me every time I see them. I feel how proud and grateful He is for their service and diligence. There are some amazing missionaries serving right now and every exchange I go on it's always made very clear to my why the age change happened when it did. These young women are ready and the world needs their goodness.
I am so grateful to be a missionary and to have the chance to share this wonderful gospel with others. This gospel is the greatest hope and happiness we can have in this life.
We have started sharing the first vision with the members of our ward and the spirit is always so strong as we recite Josephs account by heart. We ask the members how knowing the truth about the gospel has changed their life. It is amazing the things that they say and the testimonies they share. When you think about what would be different about your life if you didn't have the gospel it can only be worse. Then you think about all the people who don't have the knowledge we have. Think about how much better their lives would be if we shared it with them. We can't keep this to ourselves, it's much to important to do that. It's more important than any fear we may have about sharing it.
I hope all is well at home! Thanks for your prayers!
The Kindgom of God or Nothing!
Love, Sister Gregson
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