Transfer 4 Week 4

This week I was thinking... "nothing really happened, what am I going to send home?" and then BAM!... stuff happened! haha.

This week we found 4 new investigators which is so exciting! They were all absolute miracles and it's all very exciting!

The first was Josh, we didn't have a plan of what to do for this short time so we were led by the Spirit to go down to Scriptures and Revelation where we found Josh, we talked with him and he has a lot of questions about different things, he has a lot of friends who are members of the church and wanted to learn a little more. We asked him if this is something he want's, has he never thought about it sincerely. He was traveling around the national parks (like everyone else that comes to Temple Square) and we invited him to pray about if this is the path he should take and look more deeply into and he accepted, we are keeping in contact and calling him next week so we are so excited!

The second was a Guest Services miracle! Skyler called in and told me about how he saw missionaries on a bus when he lived in Hawaii and he just moved and hasn't seen the missionaries but wants to see them and learn more, that he felt really good about what they told him about (Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon) and felt like it was God putting him in the right path and directing him where he needs to go. We told him we could send missionaries and keep in contact with him and we was so excited! Though we tried to call him today and he gave us the wrong number (so sad! my heart was actual broken about it) I know that he will see the missionaries and they will teach him and help him and he will come to know these things are true for himself and that it very exciting :)

The third and forth 2 wonderful and sweet Italians Christian and Valentina, we were meant to have Tabernacle but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are back in the Tabernacle on Thursday nights and so we just have Square, we were walking around and just as we were about the leave the North Visiting Center we asked if we are available and say yes, we took Christian and Valentina down to Scriptures and Revelation and taught the Restoration, now this is all in Italian, though Sister Turro and I have been together for 10 weeks now I still only recognize little bits and pieces, we have never really taught the Restoration together in Italian either! But we got down there and I could actually understand almost all of what was going on! Even to the point that Sister Turro said "The Restoration couldn't have happened in Europe" and she turned to me to translate and I said "Yeah, I know. The Restoration could not have happened in Europe!" she looked at me like "how did you get that?!" and just said "I love when my companion understands!". I truly felt the Spirit tell me what was going on in a way I have never felt before, the gift of tongues is so real! I was about to ask a question and then Sister Turro would ask it in Italian as if she was reading my mind. I didn't speak a lot, but when I did the Spirit was strong (as Sister Turro told me later that night), because I picked up where she left off and connected it to what they said. Christian talked about religion had a time where everything was sinking and he said this is like we are being picked up out of the water. It made me see the Restoration in a different way, because of the Apostasy the world was sinking, and when we where seeking for truth again (like when Peter needed help from the Savior), He againreached out in love and Restored his gospel on the earth again today. With the gospel of Jesus Christ we don't have to worry about sinking, because with it, we can walk on water! It was incredible and we met with them again today and taught them about the Temple and related it to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It was so amazing!

Lately I have really had to rely on the Lord and really felt the power of the Atonement work in my life, I was expressing my thoughts and feeling while on an exhange with my Zone Leader and she said that I had to write it down, because it was so beautiful! I have never been a writer, never saw myself as a writer, but I took the challenge and wrote it all down. It all started with Jacque, when talking to her about the Atonement and how it was like a broken vase that he Lord puts back together, that was in my first transfer and since that time I have been elaborating on it and creating it to be what it is today. I would love to share it with you, it's not perfect by any means but the few I have shared it with thusfar have really enjoyed it and felt the love and Spirit I put into it. It's called:
The Broken Vase by Sister Jennadene Ryan (Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission)     

We have all had experiences where we have been broken, that someone or something came along and shattered our beautiful vases. I am one of them, I have had many things come along and shatter my vase into a million pieces.

As I stand there hurt with tears in my eyes, not knowing what to do, where to turn, not knowing where to even begin to rebuild and put it all back together, scared to hurt myself even more by cutting myself on the shards of glass.

I see a man walk towards me, he is dressed in white, so gracefully he comes towards me, he looks at me and then looks at my broken vase, he smiles sympathetically and starts to pick up the pieces that I was too scared to touch, as he picks them up His hands start bleeding as the glass cuts his beautiful hands I try to stop him, but He wouldn’t let me, He told me “It’s okay” and continues to pick up the pieces and put them together. I stand there, not knowing what to do, standing there weak, lost and confused.
As He picks up the pieces, they cut him and he winces at the pain but little by little He put these tiny shattered pieces together in front of me. Tears fill my eyes and roll down my cheeks, because though I have never seen this man before in my life, I love him and I don’t want him to go through the pain, I don’t want him to suffer the pain for me, with my tear filled eyes I look again, and I see His hands and notice something I didn’t before, I see the prints in His hands and I fall to my knees, realizing who it is, I ask him “Why? Why do you hurt yourself to build me up?” He stops to look at me and He replies so simply and sweetly “Because I love you and I have already paid the price, this is what I am here to do, you could not do this by yourself, you needed me to help you and I was sent by our Father, to rebuild your beautiful vase piece by piece, little by little, to make it stronger and more beautiful than it was before”. Gratitude fills my heart and then I look and he has already put it back together, I see that it is more beautiful than it was before, stronger than it was before and somehow, by some miracle he makes it look anew, I don’t see a single crack, it is strong again, reinforced in a way that I never could have done myself. He warns me “It might happen again, but now it is stronger, next time it will be able to withstand more against it, and if it does shatter again, it won’t be as bad and I will come back and put it back together”.  I look at Him and thank him for everything He has done, I want to just give him the greatest hug in the world and as if he read my mind, he opened his arms, I turn to him and run into His arms and he ever so gently and lovingly put His arms around me, He says “I have to go now, to fix someone else’s vase, but I am always here” as he points to my heart, “you are never alone”.

He lets me go and slowly walks away, I’m sad that He is gone, but I knew that I was never alone, I knew that He would always be by my side. When he is out of my sight, I take a closer look at my vase and realize I no longer feel confused or hurt, I no longer feel shattered and broken, I stand there and ponder all that just happened and realize; the vase is me. Someone broke me and He came along to put me together, He made me stronger and more beautiful than I was before and I knew that He, my Savior, would always be there for me, He knew me better than I knew myself and He knew what I could become with the right reinforcement and the right trails.
Next time I will recognize Him instantly, I knew that He would always be by my side, to pick me up when I fall, to put me together when I feel broken, and as He said, He already paid the price. He felt it all, He felt all the pain, sorrow, and confusion I had ever felt and would ever feel.

He was Jesus Christ, My Savior, Redeemer, my Brother, and Friend.

The Atonement is real in so many more way than we realize and I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer for all He has done and all He continues to do for me. My mission is truly helping me rely on Him and is helping me have a greater relationship with Him as the time goes on. As I wrote this piece I really thought about what words to use, I thought about how He would treat me if I were by His side, I thought about what it would be like to be in His presence and how it would feel to have Him build me up. I thought I knew and I loved Him, but I see it all in a completely different light and my testimony continues to grow the closer I come to Him. I love my Savior so much and I know that all He wants me to do is come to Him in all of my brokenness and let Him heal me and put me back to together. I have done this and I have felt the strength that comes from doing so and it is a different type of strength than what I have been used to.

I love you all and Thankyou for the many wonderful and beautiful surprises I have had this week! 

Love, Sister Ryan xx