Something that's a lot of fun is that we only drive because of how much area we have to cover and, because Sister Foulke doesn't have a driver’s license, I get to drive all the time... Oh yeah B)
Tuesday was really cool! We went that morning to talk to Reggie and we set up an appointment! It was fun talking to him. However he hadn't read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. :( Then we went to visit Alice who is one of our investigators with a baptismal date who also lives in the Villas apartments that Reggie lives in. She was incredibly sweet. She is a single mom who is taking care of her ten year old daughter and her father who is a drunkard. So she is working two jobs to try and support all of them. She also has two dogs, one is a pit bull named Lexi (the sweetest thing!), and the other is a teeny dog (not a Chihuahua but something that actually looks like a dog) who is completely black and is named Egypt! I LOVE that name for a dog!!!! *squeals with the enthusiasm of an ancient Egypt nerd* Alice was so tired and I felt so bad for her because it's obvious that she's going through a lot right now. But we assigned her a scripture to read and set up an actual appointment to come teach her.
Afterwards it was lunch time and for daaaaaaays I had been craving a chocolate frosty from Wendy's! So we quickly scooped one up and a fry (because how can you eat a frosty without some fries? You can't.) And then we went home for me to bask in the glory that is a Frosty.
After lunch we went over to Ephraim's family's house to do service for his family (Ephraim is the YSA Ward Missionary Leader). The Barlow family is HUGE! The Barlow's have 15 kids! And 12 still live with their parents! So they need help with a lot of stuff. This week we were put to work doing folding laundry. Holy cow. When there are 14 people doing laundry, there are a LOT of socks! But it was super cool. As I was folding socks, I was talking to Ellen (near my age) and Daniel (return missionary) and Peter (12?) about Star Wars and how Star Wars can be a parable for the gospel! These are my kind of people! B) After discussing that at length we began to sing hymns. So we were singing and folding socks and I loved every second of it! It is incredible that when we serve we are filled with such love from God for the people we are serving. If I have learned anything so far it is that God loves each and every one of us!
Later in the day we had a pass-off lesson which means that another set of missionaries found this investigator but they weren't in that missionary’s area, so we are all meeting together so we (the missionaries who belong to the area that the investigator does) can begin teaching the investigator from then on. The investigator's name is Tiana, she's Hawaiian and in her early twenties. Her best friend Sierra has been a member for eight months and both of them are super cool! We were teaching about the Atonement and we got to the part where we talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we really discussed it and her questions and comments were so sweet and so spiritual. The room was filled the presence of the Holy Ghost! We were nearing the end of the time that we had with her and I invited her to be baptized on the 20th and she looked at me a little nervously and she said she wasn't sure. We got to the bottom of why, and it was because she didn't feel prepared enough. When we explained that we would meet with her several times a week to help her become prepared and that we would be with her every step of the face her face lit up! She then quietly told us that she had been thinking about getting baptized before this lesson and she had been feeling like the 20th would be the day she needed to get baptized. Sister Foulke and I just looked at each other in astonishment. We know that it was through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that both we and Tiana knew that the 20th was when she needed to be baptized. So cool!!!
Friends and certain family members will be proud to know that for dinner that day I finally went to "Five Guys" for the first time in my life. :P It was pretty good.
That evening we had a lesson with Cynthia and she had a lot of questions for us regarding her kids. She was really worried because her three oldest are 14 and up. She was worried for them and ashamed of herself that she hadn't been able to raise them in the gospel. And all her worries made me count my many blessing and the wonderful opportunity I had to be raised in the gospel by two parents who love and cherish us and the gospel. As she asked us about some of her specific worries in regards to teaching her children about the gospel, several memories of my own sweet mama came to my mind and all of the wonderful examples she has given me throughout my life. I shared a few of these memories with Cynthia and I could see some of her anxiety melt away as she listened to examples of principles that my mama had shown me. I am so grateful for my wonderful parents and I am most thankful for our Perfect Father in Heaven! It is His love and His Son and His example that makes returning to live with both Father and Christ possible.
The lesson with Cynthia went a little late so we rushed to our appointment with Khrystal but when we knocked no one answered. I was worried that it was because we were late, but we were only five or so minutes late. I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to meeting with her again.
We then went to our appointment with Marcus. And he hadn't done what we had asked him to do because of basketball. Sister Foulke and I were so disappointed. But we helped him to understand that in order to gain true and lasting happiness he needs to put God first, before anything else. We helped him understand that one way we can do so is by setting and keeping schedules and goals. So we invited him to write a schedule for each day the night before (and include scripture reading and prayer and then whatever else that was good) and then to stick to it. He promised that he would and we were really hopeful.
Wednesday we saw many miracles! :D It was awesome!
That morning during my personal study I studied a talk given by Elder Maxwell title, "Willing to Submit". Holy bananas! It is SO cool! It talks about how, in order to truly change and follow God, we need to FULLY submit our will to His. One of my favorite lines from that talk is, "Yielding one’s heart to God signals the last stage in our spiritual development. Only then are we beginning to be fully useful to God! How can we sincerely pray to be an instrument in His hands if the instrument seeks to do the instructing?" Doesn't that make your mind blow up into a gazillion pieces??? How can we honestly say that we want to serve God when we are trying to tell Him what WE want or what WE think is best?? Goodness gracious. I read that talk and realized that I have some rethinking to do about the way I try to be an instrument of God.
That day we were on our way to our teaching appointment with Amanda (<3) and we were a little bummed because we really needed some new people to teach and that's what we had been praying for. As we were on our way, there was a gentleman putting some things into his car and we asked if we could help. We started chatting with him and then he told us that his name was Adrian Lopez. He then asked us what we do we told him we are missionaries. His eyes lit up and he pointed to his apartment and began to tell us about how his son (Chris, early twenties) was really lost and needed guidance in his life. We were stunned but then Adrian proceeded to give us his number and also his son's email and then told us that he was a limo driver and that if we ever needed a ride that we could contact him. He had to leave to go to work and we said goodbye before starting off to Amanda's. Sister Foulke and I just looked at each other in astonishment. It was such a cool experience!
We then had a lesson with Amanda. I LOVE her! Okay, now that's out of the way I can talk about the lesson. :D We talked about the Restoration and it was incredible! Amanda really connected to Joseph Smith because she has been asking questions all her life and no one answers them or they are angry with her for asking. We were able to honestly tell her that we love questions and that we wanted her to write down the questions that she had and if we couldn't answer them that we knew how to help her find answers for herself. And that really impacted Amanda. I'm really excited to meet with her again!
Later that day we had an appointment with a recent convert named Tefanie. It was a lot of fun because she is a huge nerd too! We took a little time to talk about nerdy things but then she tried to talk about politics and Sister Foulke and I told her that as missionaries we are not allowed to discuss our political opinions. She chuckled and said she could see why that was a rule (contention and all) and the rest of the time we discussed God's love and how we have been commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Then we had an appointment with another recent convert named Rachel who is a really sweet person. We talked about Mosiah 4 which talks a lot about how Salvation comes because of and through Christ. I love talking about the gospel! Which is good considering. :P
We then went to the appointment that we had set up with Reggie... And he wasn't home. I was SO disappointed! I was really looking forward to meeting with him and helping him to learn that he could be with his mom again! I was bummed out to say the least. But as we were walking away we ran into a man and we talked with him and he was super cool And really polite! His name is Malcolm and he said that he was really interested in what we had to say! We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and then set up an appointment with him!
Mini miracle time! :D Both Sister Folke and I had to use the restroom badly but we couldn't go anywhere because we had an appointment with Cynthia in fifteen minutes. We couldn't hold it for that long. But then out of one of the apartment building came a member! Her name is Mariah Jex and she's in our family Ward. She invited us in, let us use her restroom, gave us cold water and snacks before we had to go on our way to Cynthia's! It was SUCH a blessing. I know that no matter how small or insignificant our needs are that the Lord is always watching out for us and He sends us little miracles, or tender mercies, when we need them and are on the lookout for miracles in our path.
We then went to Cynthia's for our appointment. Her husband's grandmother (who raised him) had just passed away and he was grief stricken. They are really poor and so they didn't have money for a plane ticket to where the funeral will be. The only money they have has to go to the electric bill... But she hadn't paid tithing on the money yet. We talked to her about the law of tithing and that no matter what our circumstances we need to pay tithing before we use money for anything else, we have to put God before anything else. And that if she would, the Lord would provide a way for every other needful thing to happen. I have a firm testimony in the law of tithing. Even when I couldn't afford to buy a 75 cent donut my first year in college I have always paid my tithing before anything else. And I KNOW that blessings come from paying tithing, from putting God before any other concern.
That evening we went to the YSA Ward correlation which was where Sister Foulke and I had the opportunity to talk to the Ward missionaries and discuss the missionary work that was happening in the ward. That was really helpful.
We then went to institute where another miracle happened, Marcus came! It was wonderful!
Thursday was awesome! :D I finished transferring all of my notes in the Book of Mormon to my iPad. Alleluia!!! It will be SO helpful to have all of them written down and tagged so I can find them more easily. So for the rest of my personal study I moved onward to the Doctrine & Covenants so hopefully I can get through all of my scripture notes by the end of next week!
I LOVE companionship study with Sister Foulke! She always makes me feel like I've said something really deep and inspirational, and even though I'm sure that's true half the time :P it's just nice that she makes me feel so important to her! We talked about Helaman 10:4-5 and how we should all be starving to become a person that is so in tune with the Spirit and is Christlike enough for God to know that we would never ask for something contrary to his will! WOW! We also talked about how God is eternal, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so, if He wrought miracles in the past then, as an eternal being, He will be bringing miracles to pass today and forever! If we believe that God is not a God of miracles than we are not worshipping the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. We are worshipping a God of our own creation and not the one in reality (Mormon 9:7-11). I have seen SO many miracles here on the mission already and I have only been on it for a month! I feel ashamed that I haven't noticed the hand of God more in my life because I know that all my life there have been miracles, but I haven't been faithful enough to recognize them as such. But I will do better and life will be grand! :D
Today was my first District Council. A district is a group of 3 or 4 companionships that are nearest together, district council is where they come together to talk about the area that they, as a district, cover. It was.... interesting. I was mildly frustrated with everyone because they were being Johnny rain clouds and were only talking about how we had to improve. While that is certainly important, we should also focus on the progress we HAVE made, because progress and success inspires us where as the looooong road ahead is discouraging. There needs to be a balance, otherwise one group is optimistic and the other is pessimistic, and we need to be realistic.
Later in the day we had a lesson with Tiana again! Jjdhisdgjsdgkjs! She is SUCH a sweet spirit! She is incredible! We taught her the second half of the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome! I love her and her member friend, Sierra, to pieces!
We taught Marcus again today and it was…Good. He hadn't gone to bed that night, he pulled an all-nighter which wasn't a good idea so we had to remind him of his goals and what he needed to do. I admit that I was a little frustrated. But I didn't let it show! It's just hard because he knows, and we know that he knows, what he's supposed to be doing and he has a testimony that doing those things brings him happiness... He just doesn't remember to do them! This experience brought Helaman 5 to mind where Helaman is pleading with his sons to "remember" and he says "remember" fifty bajillion times in that chapter and before now I had thought that it was kinda excessive. But remembering is the first step in doing. And we need to remember.
We then met with another investigator named Victor Lopez (Which is different from Victor Ranga). I hadn't met him before, but Sister Foulke had been teaching him with her previous companion. We taught him the Gospel of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, & Enduring to the End) and it was wonderful because he really connected with what we were teaching and he had such wonderful insights! We were talking about repentance and how we erroneously associate repentance with something bad. And the thought came to me clear as day and I had never thought of this before.
Sin is like cancer of the soul. The more you don't treat it, the worse it gets and the more it spreads throughout your soul. Repentance is where Christ, the surgeon, tells us that there is 100% guarantee that He can remove all of the cancer tissue if we let Him operate. We should be OVERJOYED at the prospect of being completely healed and free of the cancer through this surgery! Yes, Christ will have to open us up and dig deep to remove all of the cancerous growth and yes, the recovery may take a while, but it is guaranteed that we will survive and overcome our cancer with this surgery! So many times people view repentance as something to be dreaded, and that's such a mistaken view! Christ's surgery is the only thing keeping our souls from dying! And yet so often we refuse to let Him operate! How ridiculously insane are we???
I know that analogy was not something I came up with. That was revelation that I needed. In the scriptures in Doctrine & Covenants 84:85, it says that if we simply have the courage to open our mouths that the Spirit will fill it with the words of God. God keeps His promises, I opened my mouth and He filled it through the Holy Ghost.
Today I had my first dinner at a member's house. It was so weird and yet it felt so natural at the same time! I felt so bad because we were late... And it made me think of all the times that I've been cranky at the missionaries being late and I am thoroughly chastened. xD We were late because of the lesson with Victor. I will never be too upset at the missionaries for being late to dinner. Now that I think back on it though, we should've texted saying we would be late. I'm mildly appalled by our lack of manners. *sheepish grin* It was a lot of fun though and the Miller family were so gracious! It was so weird to be the missionary at the dinner table instead of looking across to see them.
After dinner we went to see Cynthia. Poor thing, Satan is working really hard on her right now and she said as much. :/ We told her to read Mosiah 24 because that is one of our favorite chapters to read when we're having trials because it talks about how, if we turn to the Lord, He can make our burdens so light that we won't even feel them. He won't take them away, if you took away a child's chore they would never learn from it, but He does help us with them so we can be happy while doing the "chore". :) Isn't that a powerful blessing??? :D
After we met with Cynthia we met with Shawn and Luis again. Shawn hadn't read his scriptures so in order to help him develop a love for the scriptures we had all of us read the first 24 verses of Mosiah 2 and oh my goodness! I gained new insight into that chapter that I had never thought of before! We are supposed to learn from one another, that is an important reason as to why Christ established an organized church. So we could all benefit from one another's wisdom and insight! #TheChurchIsSOTrue!
Friday morning we went buy to see if Reggie was home, he was and he set up another appointment for Tuesday. So hopefully he will make it to that one. Then we went to our appointment with Alice. Poor thing, her back was in a lot of pain and so we talked to her about priesthood blessings and how the grace of Christ can get us through things as long as we ask for it and use it.
We then went over to see Carli Hildenbrand again, just to make sure she had been able to see her mom, Shanen, and if everything was okay. We knocked on the door and it was actually Shanen (who the missionaries have been trying to reactivate for the last month) who opened the door! We were relieved to see that she was doing well considering and she told us that the Relief Society president had taken Carli to see her mom! We set up an appointment to come over and help her with anything she needed. Carli was gone somewhere so we didn't get to see her that day.
We tried to contact a referral named Conner, but only his dad, Tom, was there. Tom was getting ready to go into a surgery on his back and so he kindly asked if we would remember him in our prayers, and we told him that of course we would.
Since it was Friday that meant that we were able to escape the heat of the day and do Weekly Planning. That was a wonderful blessing because it was really hot that day!
We then met with Cythia and that was awesome. Afterwards we went to find some potential investigators, one of them was named Greg. We had a member with us for this, his name was Matt. We walked to the apartment door and on the window screen, written in chalk, was a quote about kindness towards everyone by our prophet Thomas S. Monson. The three of us looked at each other and wondered if we were at the wrong apartment because who would have a quote by the prophet on their window screen if they weren't members. We knocked and Greg answered the door and he said that one of their neighbors is a "Mormon" and that the neighbor is so rude to them that they decided to put that quote up to show their neighbor that they weren't living their religion. I was so ashamed. And so embarrassed. I know that there are "Mormons" in name only. But it disgusted me that someone had covenanted to take upon themselves the name of Christ and then treat someone so atrociously! I'm still a bit irrate. We apologized for their appalling behavior and tried to remind him that there are butt-faces in every religion, and unfortunately ours wasn't an exception right now. But we also explained that the stupidity of some of our members did not negate the truthfulness of our message (I'm paraphrasing obviously). Greg seemed to relax a little and took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said that we could stop by again.
After we left Greg's place we street contacted a woman named Ty, she is a Jehovah's Witness. But we had a really wonderful discussion with her about the need for having faith in Christ and how He is the only way that we can be saved. It was really cool and she gave us her information so we could contact her again.
Saturday was SUPER COOL!
So in personal study I've been transferring all the markings and notes I have in my paper scriptures to my iPad scriptures and I finished all of the Doctrine and Covenants as well as the Pearl of Great Price and Joseph Smith History! On a role. I'm a little chagrined to admit that I've never had any sort of an appreciation for the Doctrine and Covenants as a whole... But as I was going through it I realized just how beautiful and how inspiring it is! It is especially inspiring for missionaries because it talks about missionary work SO much in it!
So what made Saturday so cool is that we got a little mini missionary with us today! So a stake here in Las Vegas does a really cool thing where they have what they call a "Preach My Gospel Camp". So all of the youth in the stake 16-18 were each paired with a missionary companionship for the day. They became a third companion essentially. ‘Twas super cool! Her name was Madi and it was really interesting to do missionary work with her. I was 16 only three years ago! And yet I felt so much older.
We had lunch at the Stake Center with the entire Preach My Gospel Camp and the secretary to the mission president spoke to us. He said one thing that really struck me. He said that we "have given up our names in order to serve God." It just hit me like a lightning bolt. I am now Sister Longo a representative of Christ. I gave up my name so that I can help others take upon themselves the name of Christ. That just blew my mind. And I was so awestruck by that understanding. I have given up my very identity to serve my God. And I love every minute of it! :D
That night we had a lesson with Marcus where he told us that he hadn't been doing any of the things that he had promised we would. Sister Foulke and I were really disappointed. But then we taught him about the Plan of Salvation again and said that where we end up is based on whether or not we choose to put God first or our own desires first. And he seemed to understand and he told us that he truly wanted to choose God more than anything. We invited him to stick to the plan that he had made and schedule his days so he could put God first.
Sunday was a looooooong day.
We had Ward council that morning before our family Ward so we had to get up at 6 to get ready to leave at 6:30 in order to make it to Ward council by 7. We were in church from 7 to 4 because of our two wards.
After Sacrament meeting at the YSA Ward we talked to Victor Ranga who did come! He has the girlfriend who is a member, Ashlynn. Then we saw Marcus who had been in Sacrament meeting (the first meeting) and we went to talk to him. He told us that he was leaving and not staying for the rest of church because he wanted to go play basketball. Sister Foulke and I reminded him that he had said that he wanted to put God first, and skipping church in order to play basketball was the opposite of that. He continue to talk about how he wanted to play basketball and that he didn't see the big deal and Sister Foulke and I were devastated. We knew that he knew that it was a big deal. He just didn't want to feel guilty about making the wrong choice. He asked us if we could meet with him that evening after basketball instead of going to class and we were stunned. We told him that we love him but that we had been called to teach those that have a desire to put God first like we do so we couldn't meet with him that night. But we said we would meet with him later this week. He left to go play basketball and Sister Foulke and I were heartbroken. Here is someone who has SO much potential but is choosing to throw it away for basketball instead.
We then had a lesson in Relief Society that really boosted my spirits and it was about our relationship with Christ and there was this amazing story!
"Two men died and went to be interviewed before being judged. The first man went into the room and the interviewer asked him, "Who is Christ?" The man confidently told the interviewer that Christ was the Son of God who was born to Mary in Bethlehem. The interviewer nodded and said, "That is true, but who is Christ." The man was puzzled but he shrugged and then said that Christ had called twelve apostles and that he preached the word of God and healed those who were afflicted. The interviewer nodded but replied, "That is true, but who is Christ?" The man was a little confused now and he continued to talk about how Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross so that mankind might have Eternal life. The interviewer nodded once again but replied, "This is all true, you may leave." The man left and was rather bewildered. The second man had heard this entire exchange and when he went into the room and looked upon the interviewer's face he fell to his knees and exclaimed joyfully, "My God and my King!""
How powerful! Do we truly know Christ? Or do we simply know OF Him? Would we recognize Christ if we met him like the second man? Or would we be blind like the first man? I hope and am striving to be like the second man who is a person that has a strong, unbreakable relationship with my Savior. I hope and pray that all of us are striving to be that kind of person. Only then will we be those who will sit on the right hand of Father in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I love you all, be the best you can be and ask Christ for His grace to help with that!
*hugs!!!!*
Sister Longo
(MOM NOTE: These are pictures Moriah sent of fun things she's seen around her mission)
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| Annie Oakley Drive (Moriah dressed up as Annie Oakley for Halloween when she was five.) |
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| One of our favorite musicals is "Man of La Mancha" |
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| This is a younger picture of her Mission President, President Snow. |
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