Jenessa Mission Letter #4

Letter #4-  HEYA

HEYYYYYY

I'm so glad to hear from all y'all!!!!!! I don't have that picture but I am sure it is a fun one!!! Sounds like the Weber's all dominated sunday that's for sure!!! How do you all like RAchael??? I will try to make myself more available to Google earth to find me but we are just too busy teaching people on their porches that we just can't spend too much time on the street ;)

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that life has continued on to business as usual!!! I love hearing all of the fun things you are doing and the sweet stories the kid's send me.  I wish I had more time for emails and I could answer back to all of your amazing emails!!!! Tell David I really loved that story about the boy who got a blessing from the less active man and was brought back to life.  That is really faith promoting!!! It goes to show that if we have faith in the power of God and we act on it, we can do amazing things!!!!

Man I miss y'all like crazy crazy crazy!!!!!

Dearborn is my favorite place I have ever been!!!! It's absolutely beautiful!!! I love my zone and I love my district and I love my ward and I love my companion!!!!! Everyone here is so sweet.  Our area is over the really poor part of Dearborn. So people here live with almost nothing, but are so giving and generous to one another.  We had dinner with the Williams family last night and they have taken in so many people who have been looking for homes and who are stranded.  It's absolutely astonishing to see the goodness that people have!!! They give everything they have to support one another.  We have so much to be grateful for.  My companion and I were planning the other day and a little black boy was outside talking to His friend and he said that his family didn't have blankets or beds.  It broke my heart, he was living in an apartment right next to us and he didn't even have a blanket.  Needless to say I felt really lucky to have mine.

I am learning that life is all about the little things.  When you have a pencil, a cool breeze, a blanket- they're all blessings!!! Can you believe that there are people in the united states that don't even have food to eat at night?? I have never been so grateful for things like biscuits that are made for us by members because it's all that they have. 

We are teaching a TON of people right now and we are working on finding more.  Our area has the highest concentration of Muslim people in the whole North American Continent.  So we have to kind of steer around those unless we feel prompted otherwise.  We are teaching a boy named Nick he's 19 and is a little bit autistic.  We were worried that he might be doing things for the wrong reasons but last night he called us and told us that he had sat on his bed for 4 hours and has come to decide that this is exactly what he wants.  He said "You guys just make sense.  Before you sister's came along I didn't get it, I didn't understand anything, but you make sense.  This makes me happier than anything else."  He went on like that for about 10 minutes.  I am here to tell you that it is absolutely true what they say about having no greater joy than bringing other souls to Christ.  He is going to be baptized on August 31.  I really didn't have too much to do with teaching him, but it's been great to step on the scene and support what has been done.  He is a really special spirit.

We are teaching a less active family named the Valasquez.  She and her family went inactive after their son was born with a whole bunch of issues and she said she didn't feel like the Book of Mormon spoke to her or made her feel anything.  She also said that she didn't get anything out of the hymns.  It was really neat because I could identify with the way she felt because I didn't always know HOW to study the Book of Mormon in a way that I would get things out of it.  So the next lesson we taught her we had her ask any question.  Hers was how to make her relationship better with her husband.  Then we taught her how to look things up in the index and with the bible dictionary and topical guide so she didn't have to "sort through unrelated scriptures" by having her give synonyms to things she thought would help her problems.  Anyways it was really neat because she started finding the scriptures on her own through her own revelation.  She looked over at us and was like.... I feel it!  Anyways she's got a 13 year old son that doesn't want anything to do with the church and we are going to work with him!!!

There are soo many people that we are teaching and it is amazing to see them for what they can become!!!! Its also amazing to look at yourself with your own weaknesses and see yourself for what you can become!!! Scripture reading has been really cool as well as companionship study.  Sister Taylor and I have been disecting D&C 4 today we studied faith.  It was cool because I brought up that if we have faith we will know that Christ is who He says He is.  If we believe that, then we also must believe that WE are who Christ and God says WE are.  If God has faith in us, why shouldn't we have faith in ourselves. 

This meant a lot to me because at the beginning I was so scared and I had a really hard time like talking to people. It's been getting better.  It's a choice to act in faith and teach with the spirit!!! I really have to focus on the investigator and really feel the spirit when I teach.  But I am learning so much.  The Character of Christ is that whenever He would want to turn in, He always turned out.  He never told experiences of miracles He had done or bragged about His power.  He focused on the doctrines He was teaching and the needs of the people who were searching for truth.  That is the character we need to seek to have!!  We went out contacting for the first time the other day and boy is that better than tracting.  I can talk to anyone when they are buying yogurt hahaha.  Teaching is one of the best experiences I have ever had.  Sister Taylor mentioned though this morning that you can't convert someone past your own conversion though!  So that was interesting to learn.

I love President Gerber and His wife is a doll!!! He mentioned in His interview with me that when I was leaving to Deseret Book He thought He would never see me again (He saw me the day before my last day) He said it was such a treat to see that I would be coming to His mission and He knew that I'd be able to do amazing things.  He really is the best.  What a great teacher.

Honestly every single day is a miracle.  Every moment that I wear this badge, a seed is planted.  And that is all that the Lord asks us to do, is to plant seeds and harvest them!!!! Wow but really!!!!  There are never any failures!!!!

My zone is great, we had zone conference the other day and they were talking about how as missionaries we have the tendency to shoot down people's problems and to just "fix" things.  Our Zone Leader said "You can't take out your sharp shooter and just take care of your investigators problems on sight like that."  Well then I made the comment that

True conversion comes not when we shoot their problems.  True conversion will come for the people we teach when we show them 'this is what the safety is and this is how it works'  and 'this is what the barrell is and this is what it's purpose is and it's this long because....'  True conversion is when we have taught them everything there is to know about that gun which is truly symbolic of Christ's atonement, and they take it in their hands and pull the trigger and are able to shoot down their own problem with the power that comes from the Sacrifice and knowledge that Christ died for us and we will be able to live with God again.

Anyways that is what I am learning.  I have been so changed, in just a week we are learning so much.  We are tracting lots, contacting, and teaching and reactivating.  It is so much fun!!!! There is nothing better than this work.  Can you believe that this is what I get to do for 18 months??? I am so excited to see what there is in store beyond this.  I have never been so happy.  Sure things are hard.  But it makes it easier knowing that Christ walked where we walked and every step is a success.  Even if no one listened to our message all day, which hasn't happened but if it did, our success would be that we talked to ever person we did and we planted every seed we could!!!!

The ward is super sweet, did you ever serve in the dearborn ward dad?? Lot's of people want to know.  I bore my testimony on Sunday and it went along with everything we were talking about that day in church.  Anyways I need to go but I love everything I love you and miss you and hope you are doing well!!!!!!

Sister Weber