Transfer 13 Week 6

Well, this is weird... Week 6 of my last official transfer. I don't know if I will be able to email next week (due to craziness of transfers and General Conference) but there is no way possible that I can write everything that I want to on this short time I have to email. Be expecting a post-mission email of everything that I want to put in this one... So, I am going to treat majority of this email as if I'm not going home, and when I do get home I'll send/post the email/blog post that I wish I currently had time to send now. 

This week has been crazy but filled with miracles! On the Square, for our investigators! It's just been really amazing to witness. 

Saturday our investigator from Hawaii asked us to call him, because he wanted to share an experience with us. He was on the north shore of the island and wanted to see his friend as it was her birthday and had a feeling that he should go to the temple, he wanted to and then doubt started entering his mind as to if she would actually be there and if it would just be weird if he went because he isn't a member, etc. but he followed the prompting and just went anyway! He got there, and there she was! She told him that is was so crazy that he was here as she had just put his name in the temple! and it was perfect because they actually needed someone to take photos for them as well! After all that he went back to his car and opened the Book of Mormon, he has his finger on a scripture and it said; 

"And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever. And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them." - Moroni 10:7-8

And felt like it was a massive pa'i (slap/hit) across the face! God telling him exactly what he needed to do next, we had asked him to pray about baptism and he didn't feel like he was receiving his answer until all of this happened, we asked him what he feels like he has to do next and he said he called the missionaries and they will meet this week and talk more about baptism. He is now praying to know that he should be baptized on October 10th! Such a huge miracle, it was so amazing. He was so excited to share it with us and it was just so precious. We are really excited for him and for everything he is doing in coming closer to the Savior. 

We have been able to get in contact with a lot of our investigators this week, which is a miracle in itself, all thanks to the promptings of the Spirit! They are doing well, coming closer and closer to receiving the restored gospel for themselves each and every day! 

Yesterday we had an amazing tour, it was the flag pole at 6pm and we have 3 guests from Germany... we were trying to get a German Sister to take it (who had walked past) because it would have been better for them to understand the gospel in German, but the German Sisters were having a meeting, and the guest spoke English so we took them! It was a couple and a single man, both traveling around and seeing the sights. The single man was very open and full of awe at what we do as missionaries. Saying that in Germany young people like us would not give up so much to go out and serve God, he was just in love with the whole concept. We then got talking about tithing and he just loved everything we had to say! We offered him to meet with missionaries in Germany and that we could get the German Sister that he met to call/email him to teach him more and he was so excited! On the referral card he wrote "I love your religion". This might not seem like a miracle to you, but if you know Germans. THIS IS A HUGE MIRACLE! He is so excited to learn more, he really just loves everything we had to tell him. We were so excited that we went into their meeting to give the Sister the referral and I will never forget the look of joy/surprise/shock/relief everything! on her face. This Sister takes so many German tours and has had a hard time because they just aren't willing to learn more, so this just meant the world to her. We could have easily taught him ourselves because his English is great! But it's not for us, and we knew that this sister needed to teach him. 

This is the Lords work, not ours, and something we (Sister Bulaoat and I) have been talking a lot about lately, is that if the Savior himself came to Temple Square and introduced us to his brother or sister, and asked us to take them around and teach them the gospel, how would that change the way we took that tour or handled a referral given by Him?... We would make sure the very best was given to not only His brothers and sisters, but they are our brothers and sisters too! 

In the end, it has got absolutely nothing to do with us, we are just the tools in the hands of the Lord. No one at the end of a piano concert says "Great Job Piano!" but rather they applaud the pianist for the skill of using such an instrument. 

This truly is His work and I get that more than ever because of my mission and it can and must be applied to everything we do in the church. Missionary work, Visiting and Home teaching, teaching lessons in church, giving a talk in sacrament, everything! Just because we can't see the Savior, doesn't mean He doesn't know! Because He is always here with us and I know that He is the one that sends people to Temple Square, the one that places missionaries in their path. He is in the details! 

At the beginning of this transfer I set a goal to have in my heart the children's primary song "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" to remind me of my love for the Savior and His love for me and it give me an added measure of diligence and care tot he word of the Lord as the song goes. 

"If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do? Would I think of His commandments, and try harder to be true? Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?
If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say? Would my words be true and kind if He was never far away? Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more reverently if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?
He is always near me, though I do not see Him there, And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care. So I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be if I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me."

I am so grateful especially for the 3rd verse, to know that He is always near me, even if I can't see him. We're all trying to become like the Savior and all though we slip and make mistakes, it's okay because He has got our backs! a friend emailed me this week with a quote sent to him saying "If God’s gotten you this far, don’t expect him to drop you now.” This has given me a lot of comfort as well with the quote my Mum sent me saying "It is impossible to fail when you do  your best when you are on the Lords errand" - President. Russell M. Nelson. 

I love this work, I love my mission and I know it never ends, and my path of discipleship has just really begun! The next chapters are unknown but exciting! It's time to make my book of life really special, filling it with so many wonderful experiences! 

Love, Sister Ryan. 

photos

Bagel run on a Monday morning

N.K. Whitney & co

 Church History Museum 

 Church History Museum 

Departing Class fun

Departing Class fun

Transfer 13 Week 5

Another gone by way too quickly week of miracles. 

We have been meeting some amazing people, it's just incredible the people who meet here that are so ready to receive the restored gospel. 

This week we [Zone and District Leaders] had a training from the Missionary Department, I love them all so much! I wish I could be one of them some day, they seriously have the coolest job ever. We get these training's a few times a year and this time round we were really focusing on how to can increase in our effectiveness as Visitor Center Sisters. Really focusing on how we can help our investigators progress beyond the Visitor Center and doing something so simple which is to invite them to meet with Local Missionaries before inviting them to learn more with us (online). It's so simple and yet a lot of Sisters are scared to do it because of fear that we will damage the relationship we have with them or whatever it may be, but we have really learned that there is so damage done, and by not inviting we are taking away their agency which is the last thing we want to do. 

Invitations are not just "Will you...?" it goes far beyond that, invitations are empty unless we help them. That is our purpose, to "Invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the Restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end".

I have mentioned before that on my mission I have learned that our purpose continues forever, it never ends, everything we do in the church, everything we do along our path of discipleship, is centered on the missionary purpose and there is so much more to missionary work than teaching the lessons, getting/contacting referrals, going out with the missionaries, etc.Missionary work is anything that helps anyone come closer to Christ. 

Which goes into the next days training when we learned how to work with members, and really helping members do their own missionary work, teaching them how they can do it and opening their eyes to see the greater picture of the work of salvation. I think as missionaries we are too quick to just get the name of the person and do it on our own, but we need the members, it is always so much more successful when the members are involved in the work, especially when they are "not ready to meet with the missionaries". It is our job then to say, "Okay, what is the next step for that person, how can we help you, help the person you love and hold dear to your heart? What are they searching for and how can we help you, help them?"

I don't know if any of this make sense... But for me it all means that Missionary work never ends. My time as a full-time missionary is the MTC for the rest of my life and when I heard that I always thought about going into the real world, school, family, career, being a disciple but it hit me this week that it prepared me to be a missionary for the rest of my life. THAT'S EXCITING! 

I am so grateful for the training's, I was sad because I felt like "I wish I had this training early in my mission, that would have been so amazing, I won't be able to apply these things for long" until I realized that was the biggest lie to ever tell myself because I get to apply these things forever. 

Now that we received 5 hours of training over three days about all of this, it's time to hit the square and apply it all! Yesterday we got called to take 3 English at EF desk, so we got there as fast as we could to take them, it was a Chinese couple and a girl that is staying with them and at first I was really confused because we had met them earlier and they had definite Chinese accents, I for sure thought they were from Mainland China, but they started speaking almost perfect English (with an accent) and wanted to learn everything about what we believed in. We prefaced and introduced the local missionaries in their area and they agreed right there and then to meet with them before we even really got the tour started! We went to the Temple Model, Assembly Hall and ended at the Statue of Christ, we hardly shared any history at all, it was purely doctrine, because that is what they wanted to know! We talked about the temple, church, fasting, Christ, the Book of Mormon and they just loved everything. When we talked about fasting, Simon was very intrigued, we talked about how we sacrifice 2 meals and God gives us blessings for our sacrifice, that we are able to feel the spirit in greater abundance as we show control over our physical bodies and he just loved the concept so much! We then both shared stories and testimonies of it and he just admired the practice of it so much. The spirit was so strong throughout the whole tour, they were just so ready to receive the gospel and I know that the Lord has been preparing them for a long time, they had so many questions and are so excited to read the Book of Mormon, to check out church and to meet with the missionaries when they get home. It was a complete miracle and I know its because we began applying the things we have learned and the Lord was testifying to us that it works! 

I know that the Lord helps us be at the right place at the right time, that as we sacrifice everything we have and give it to the Lord that's when amazing things happen, we had cut our lunch early to go and take a tour that had been waiting for 15 minutes and no one was responding, everyone was just ignoring the fact that it was there not even saying they were unavailable to take it which really saddened our hearts so we packed our things away and ran up. It wasn't a great tour, they weren't very interested in what we had to say, we planned on taking them to see Gods Plan for His Family but we had the prompting to cut the tour short and so we did, after the tour we were asked to cover Assembly Hall quickly and then I got a call saying there was someone from my ward looking for me and so I asked them to send them to the Assembly Hall, I had been expecting a visit and was so sad that I might not meet them but they came and it was so amazing, we then got to take them on a tour and it was just marvelous. They are a recent convert family from my ward that was baptized while I have been on my mission and I got to meet them! Apparently when they were asking for me the Sister before calling me talked to someone for about 10 minutes and then called, if she hadn't of talked to that person we would have missed the call and I might not have met them! The Lord truly has his hand in all the little details we don't even think about and I am so grateful for it!

I love this gospel, I love my mission and my Savior, Jesus Christ! Have a lovely week! 

Transfer 13 Week 4

I really feel like these weeks are just getting faster and faster and all I want to do is say "SLOW DOWN". P-day has rolled around again and this week has been crazier than usual, I thought by week 4 it would start slowing down and I was sorely mistaken, haha. 

However little Square time we have had looking after other things, I have truly seen how the Lord provides. Which gives me great comfort in knowing it won't be any different when I get home. As long as I remain faithful and live the path that has been lighted by the Lord, His prophets, the scriptures and just keep the commandments, everything is going to work out. The Lord has placed people in our path that have just been constant answers to my prayers. We met a guy who went through a similar thing to what I am going through at the end of his mission and he just testified how everything just worked out so much more perfectly than he ever could have imagined. He said "take some advice from your own country, 'don't worry mate, she'll be right!". Hahaha. 

Sometimes with all the extra little things we have been doing it sometimes appears to be taking away from the work. But now I know that we were exactly where we needed to be, and that is why the Lord has provided so many wonderful miracles! 

On Wednesday we got taken away from our studies to help a Sister who had a lot going on, we went down to the Square, my companion was with her companion and then I was with my companions trainee and it was all just rather confusing! But we made the most of it and just contacted everyone we could at the desk assignment we had in the North Visitor Center. Then I met Lucie and January 2 of the 27,000 people here for the DoTERRA convention. January is a member and she brought Lucie who really has come to know Christ just this past year. We were at the Jerusalem Map and talking about Jesus Christ and everything that he went through while performing the Atonement. I can't even remember how but we started to then talk about the Book of Mormon and I shared with her 3 Nephi 11 (my favourite to share with guest on the Square). By the end of the conversation we were all in tears... she was so overcome with the Spirit and power of the Book of Mormon and was truly touched as she read the verses along with me. I asked her what she would do if she had an experience like the Nephites did and she just said she would just fall to her knees and cry at His feet asking for forgiveness. I told her that through the Book of Mormon she could spiritually do exactly that, to touch the prints of the nails in His hands and feet. I then asked her if she would let me give her a copy of this most powerful and precious book and she felt so privileged saying "I can have one of those?". She asked me to sign it for her and wrote my testimony on how she can know it too be true. I grabbed some pamphlets and shared more about the apostasy and restoration and it just made sense to her. It's amazing the connections you feel with people when you share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is truly just amazing! Those moments when you really feel the immense love that God has for His children and His desire for them to know that the truthfulness of the gospel has been restored on the earth again today. 

We had a hectic day with talking to Sisters and delivering ice-cream (I felt like a visiting teacher, it was so awesome). Meeting with the Assistants to the President, guest services, more talking with Sisters, not having dinner, taking a Flag Pole tour and then we met another miracle at the Statue of Christ! They were listening the whole time we were talking with our tour, the tour we had wasn't too great but we then approached these other people when we were finished up.

Again, thank-you DoTERRA! We met a couple and they had a member friend with them. Her husband wasn't there for the whole thing so we mainly talked to the wife and friend (the friend had Hawaiian connections with Sister Bulaoat). We talked about the gospel casually with them, just conversation about religion and what she believes, her personal experiences, clearing up some things that we believe about the Temple etc. She is more than willing to learn (Gina), she was very open and just really appreciated our kindness and love. It was just amazing to see how at the end of the day, the only time we had on the square together, the Lord provided a way that we could truly fulfill our purpose! 

Those are just two experiences of the many we have had. We had a lady in a group of 6 who came up to me and just said "My daughter passed away over a year ago and I have never been able to cry about it, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't, but now I finally can." as a tear streamed down her cheek, she said "I see God in your eyes" and she just wanted to desperately to learn more about the Temple and how she could be sealed to her family. It was so precious, there are no words to describe how you feel in those moments and how you know that the Spirit is just taking over because Sister Ryan by herself would not know what exactly to say to comfort her heart. 

This work is so amazing and I'm grateful that it never ends, even if my tag comes off, the work is never finished! My testimony is constantly increasing of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel, there is no logical way that any of this could be false, it 100% all comes from on High. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that the fullness of His teachings are on the earth today because God is the same yesterday, today and forever and God calls prophets. That prophet of this last dispensation was Joseph Smith and I know that he saw God and Jesus Christ, that he translated the Book of Mormon and that it contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel, it is the tool of the Gathering of Isreal, it is the greatest tool we have in the work the Lord has called us to do! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Ryan.