Good morning dear family!
How are you?
I hope you're enjoying some beautiful spring weather. We enjoyed our spring for a few days.. more like a few hours... and now the humidity is coming... yay...
The good thing is that I don't have to use any lotion and really I haven't had to put any on since I've been here. I think I used my lotion once. The great thing too is that people really like to give lotion as gifts so I have a ton a lotion I've stocked up on for when I'm back in Utah shriveling up. It's gonna be fun.
This week has been one of those great roller coaster weeks. It started out kind of tough. The beginning of the week was a little slow, we were going door after door with not a soul in sight. We had a lesson with Lawanda set up and we were actually able to meet with her but at the end of the lesson she said that she wanted to stop the lessons for a while. Not because she is against it, she just doesn't have the time. So Lawanda dropped us. It's funny how much missionary work is sort of like dating. Sometimes it works out with an ordinance at the end, and sometimes you get dumped :) haha that's seriously how I felt. Lawanda broke up with us and we're the clingy ones that are having attachment issues. :)
Anyways the good news is that at the end of the lesson when she told us it wasn't going to work out - her reason being that she is just too busy- she said "but call me every once in a while and maybe I'll have time." So there's some hope!
Then the next day we had a lesson scheduled with Velma. Well we called to make sure it was going to work out and she cancelled because she had a doctors appointment. She has had to cancel our appointments for the last 4 weeks and she's been feeling really bad about it just like Lawanda so she also dropped us and said that she hated to keep putting us off so for now we are stopping the lessons with her too. We got dumped twice within 24 hours of each other. I was pretty bummed out so all that chocolate that you sent me for my Birthday came in handy :)
But with her there is still hope. She said when things die down she wants to continue the lessons. Her Granddaughter still comes to activity days and Velma and Sister Snideman still keep in contact and are really good friends.
Then to add another loop in I found out this week that Beverly passed away. Now I haven't really written to you much about Beverly because she is active in the church. She is an older woman in the ward that was bed ridden and we would visit her quite often and share messages of hope and strength with her. I grew to love this woman so much. She was so strong. She had just lost her husband and her health was failing but her testimony was stronger than ever. She reminds me so much of Beth Brand. How is Beth by the way? I knew it was Beverly's time to go and it wasn't surprising that she passed but it surprised me how sad it made me. Going through that brings all those memories of losing Dad back and all those weird days leading up after his death that just feel like a bad dream. I felt that heartache again not only for myself but for Beverly's family.
I'm so grateful for the chance I got to meet Beverly though. Looking back now I think I knew that the last time we visited her would be the last time we saw her. We shared a message with her from President Thomas S. Monson's talk "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee" and she just broke down into tears. I knew that it was one of those moments where we got to stand in Christ's place and comfort this woman with so much on her plate. The spirit was strong and as I said the closing prayer I felt very impressed to pray that angels would come and bear her up and strengthen her. I'd never prayed for that in my prayers ever so I knew it was directed by the spirit. I knew that one of those angels was her husband. I remember grabbing Bev's hand and telling her I loved her as I watched the tears run down her face. I could feel the love the Lord had for her in that moment. Now she is free from the body that crippled her and I know she's doing wonderful work on the other side. And she gets to be with her husband.
This is what I love about being a representative of Christ. He cannot be here to physically hold the hands of those who are suffering and express his love for them, but we have been called to be in his place and do it for him.
We also had exchanges this week and at one point at the end of the day we were out tracting. We met a lot of people that were really friendly and things were going well, we even had a return appointment. Then at one of the last doors we tracted a woman answered the door and to put it simply she wasn't very Christ like. We knew from the statues outside of her house that she was Catholic so we thought a family history approach would be great! Well as we started sharing with her the resources our church has for family history she said almost accusingly "so this must be a way you try to get people to join your church" We mentioned why family history was so important to our church and that it was for everybody and that people of all faiths come to our family history centers. Then again in that unkind accusing tone "Well if I were to do family history work I would want to do it through the Catholics or a Christian church." We explained to her we were Christian but she wouldn't have it. I won't tell you what she said but basically she told us that what we believed about Christ was wrong and that we were not Christian. Did I want to correct her? You bet I did! But I knew that that's what she was looking for. She wanted to fight and Bible bash. So with that we encouraged her to do her family history work, we thanked her for her time, and we walked away. I could feel her disgust towards us as we talked with her. It was crazy to me that she disliked us so much she would refuse to even step in our research centers.
We get that a lot our here in Texas. It's nothing new to me now. People quite literally think we are evil. They really despise us. Since I've been in Texas I feel I know a little more about being "despised and rejected of men." People hate us when they don't even know us because of what they've heard. I'm used to that kind of response now but it's still hard. It's like a flip of a switch. Once they hear the word "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints their entire countenance changes and you can feel the dislike they have for you.
Now, I can't blame that woman for the way she acted. She has strong faith and I know she was just trying to do what she believes is right. But I just think, in today's world especially, that we could all be a little more respectful to people of different faiths. Weather she meant to or not she made us feel like the scum of the earth, it was as if she took something so precious to us and threw it on the ground and stomped all over it. I think we could all be a little kinder to one another. As children of God trying to be like Christ we should not put each other down because of our different beliefs. There will always be differences in opinions about religion but we should respect God enough to respect His children and their personal beliefs because those beliefs mean a great deal to us.
Because of all these instances at the beginning of my week I dove into the scriptures and prayed hard. I knew I needed some support from God to help me move forward and not lose sight or focus. It was a great help to me.
Well the end of the week was much better. Just like Elder Wirthlin said "Sunday always comes!"
We got another potential investigator named Trisha.
We met with our new investigator Kevin and our first lesson will be today!
We had another lesson with Kaylee and she is incredible as usual! Her comprehension of the scriptures amazes me. I always think she is probably really confused after we finish a chapter or section but her capability to interpret and apply the scriptures truly is a gift.
Also Shelby got baptized this week! And the other incredible miracle is that Aunt Darla went to the baptism and even came to church with Shelby that next day!!
We also got another new investigator named Jim! Finding him was a miracle because we were out tracting at night and at night no one answers the door... usually. So we had no interaction with anybody. Well as we walked back to our car Jim and his wife were outside with their dogs. (two great things about Texas, they can't stay inside their houses forever because they all have to take their dogs out and all the men have to carefully wax and polish their trucks at some point so they can't hide for long :) ). Anyways we found out that Jim believes in God but he doesn't affiliate himself with any particular religion. He said he'd definitely be willing to listen to what we have to say!
My other miracle this week is Millicent Sharpley which is why she is the subject title.
So we get an hour every week to do familysearch.org and I have been determined to find a name to do work for. I thought it was going to be hard because so much of the work has already been done and if it hasn't it's usually been reserved by some distant family member I've never heard of. Well before I started I prayed that I would be led to someone who was ready. It was like the spirit took over after that and my finger just started clicking. Eventually I found a man named Alma Gregson and his work was done but his wife's work was not. All it said about his wife was "Millicent" and "deceased." Well I knew this was my in! Alma is the great-grandson of my third (or maybe it was fourth) great grandfather. So I started searching records and looking for duplicates and I found her! Millicent Sharpley was her name! She was born in Preston, Lancashire, UK and she died at the age of 25. She gave birth to two children before her death! I even found some records of her parents also who aren't even entered into family search! Well I was able to pile enough information together and collect enough sources to print off an ordinance request sheet and the next time we go to the temple I'll be doing her work! Seriously it was like something was guiding each click of the mouse as I got to her name! I am SO excited to do her work at the temple! Now I was able to do this all in under and hour so my message to you today is that all you need is an hour to find someone. So go and find someone! It is so exciting to be doing missionary work not only on this side of the veil, but on the other side too!
Well sorry I've typed your ears off! There was just so much I learned and experienced this week and I feel so truly blessed. I love being a missionary and wouldn't trade these experiences for the world!
Love you all!
Thank you for all the prayers and support!
The Kingdom of God or Nothing!
Love, Sister Gregson
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