Spirit Tracting

12/1/2014

Life is suuuuuuuuuuuper good in the Webster Lake ward. I've never come across such humble people before on my mission. I know I said that when I was in Arvada, but just north of Denver is even more.

Friday night, Sister Kreissl asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her: 70 degree weather. Little did I know that she'd actually pray and ask Heavenly Father for 70 degree weather. And lo, and behold, Saturday, November 29, we enjoyed 70 degree weather. It was practically spring-time. And it was amazing.

That morning, we began in our car looking at a map of our area. We'd decided to do something called "spirit tracting". We looked at the map and narrowed it down to two areas that we could knock doors in so that we could choose a street. We took a moment to pray together on those two specific areas. Afterwards, we waited for revelation through our thoughts, feelings, impressions, instinct...anything! I waited and waited and waited for something, but I just came to a stupor of thought. I wasn't getting anything from those two areas. After a long minute, we asked each other if we got anything. Neither of us got anything. So we thought, maybe we chose the wrong areas. Then she pointed to one area just west of one of the areas we were looking at. She asked me if I'd ever seen Hey, Arnold! and, obviously, said yes, of course I have; it is only one of the greatest shows of all time. She said, "Well, the houses here kind of look like the houses in Hey, Arnold!. I said, done. Let's go there. I wasn't sure if that was revelation, but we know from Moroni 7:13 that every good thought that invites and entices to do good continually is inspired of God.

We parked our car in the area and chose a street to knock doors on. We shared with everyone the story of Christmas and keeping Christ in Christmas through new pass-along cards we have of a short 2 1/2 minute video of the real gift of Christmas. The video is called "He is the Gift", for He, Jesus Christ, is the Gift that our Father in Heaven has sent to us here on Earth. We got to watch it before we began telling everyone about it and it's suuuuuuuuuuper cool.

Towards the end of the street, we bumped into a woman who was interested in watching the video. She invited us back to follow-up with her on how she enjoyed the video. Then we knocked on her neighbor's door. A woman opened the door. She said she was raised Roman Catholic, but she began to question some things in the church and was chastised for doing so. Now she does not practice but is still an avid Bible reader and she teaches her children about God. She said she was raised thinking that she should shut the door immediately when she sees people with black tags at her door. But she thinks if she gave every other religion a chance, why not the Mormons? She's wondered why there are hundreds of different Christian denominations out there. Well, Joseph Smith wondered the same exact thing. She invited us back to hear the good news.

We knocked on her next door neighbor's door and a man opened the door. A rush of weed blew into my face. He wanted to hear our message and we shared a quick message about God's love and how we celebrate the birth of His Gift this Christmas season. He claims himself as agnostic, but wants to learn about how we know we're talking to God when we pray to Him. He was interested and invited us back.

The next day, we visited a referral from members in our ward. Her name is S. She's 48 and has been blind since she was 24. She attended the ward's lu'au the previous Saturday (before I arrived here) and just felt a different atmosphere, a different spirit about our church. She realized how normal we, "Mormons", are after being raised thinking we are a cult. She went through a difficult separation from her husband because of acts of infidelity on his part. She was also raised thinking that she'd never be able to take the sacrament, the bread and the water, just because she was divorced. We told her that divorce is NOT a sin. Infidelity is the sin, not divorce. Infidelity and other serious sins would prevent you from taking the sacrament, but not divorce. Even with such sins, the Savior performed the Atonement for us to repent and be forgiven of our sins.

She also had questions about our views on abortion. We are pro-life and, as I like to say, also pro-choice (the choice of the baby). Who are we to decide for these babies whether or not they want to live? There are many methods other than abortion that people can turn to. She expressed her sincere desire to learn more about the church. She's fascinated by our community and how we help people all the time. We're all about helping people!

I love being able to teach. Someone asked me what my favorite part of my mission was. I said teaching. I love teaching about the gospel. I love seeing their eyes light up when they hear truths spoken to them. I love seeing people change and progress because of the message they hear. I love it!

Oh, and I love you, too ;D

Sister Wen

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).