Anyways, this week was pretty awesome! Lots and lots of good things happened!
On Tuesday a miracle happened! We had a lesson with Mark and...he actually read the chapter of the book of Mormon that we told him to read! That whole lesson was more of a discussion and not us trying to prove why the church is true and him not believing. It was super nice! He also said to us that he doesn't know why he's being more ok with the Book of Mormon but he is. (We know why he is too, lots of prayers, fasting, and the fact that he actually read it!) Man, God gives wonderful miracles! By the end of the discussion, we invited him to read the Sermon on the mount from Matthew 5 and 3 Nephi 12 and to compare them side by side. Sister Waite and I had done this earlier and it's super cool! I recommend doing it! The two chapters are basically word for word the same except for a few instances. When you look at the differences you can understand why they are there. Jesus is talking to two completely different groups of people. Also, in 3 Nephi, Jesus has been resurrected, hence why he says in the last verse "be ye therefore perfect even as I or your Father in Heaven is perfect." In Matthew, he only says,"even as your Father is perfect". Relating to the fact that He had not yet been made ALL the way perfect...in being resurrected! Super super cool!
Anyways, Mark agreed to read it! So we will see what he thinks!
Also on Tuesday we went to visit someone but they weren't home. No worries though! My companion is super outgoing and saw a guy across the street and wanted to go talk to him. So we did...and this guy was like, "I'm not jehovas witness and I don't want to be" and we were like "cool! Neither are we!" Then he turned around and said "...then what are you? Mormons? I don't mess with them either. Yall don't read the Bible." To which we reassured him that we do indeed read the Bible haha! He also kept going on about what we believe...which isn't what we actually believe it's just what he's heard. Ah yes, good times! Definitely had to hold my tongue a few times and just did my best to agree with what he got right. In the end though he challenged us to read some chapters in the new testament. We told him that we would and that we could come back and tell him about what we learned and then we could all do a Bible study! Hopefully we will he able to clear up up of his misconceptions by just being kind :)
Alright! On Thursday we had ZONE CONFERENCE WOOOO! It was definitely one for the books! This zone conference had 3 zones combined so there was a lot of missionaries there! I learned a lot! President Wood is an inspired man for sure! We did a little group personal study about repentance. He compared sin to cancer. Like, spiritual cancer that we all have. Just as cancer needs treatment, sin also needs treatment and that treatment is given to us by our Savior Jesus Christ. We discussed mercy too! So, repentance is our willingness to get treatment; mercy is the power and cure to that spiritual cancer that we receive from repenting. Just as you have to walk into the doctors office to get treatment, you also have to repent to receive mercy. Our treatment protocol is found in D&C 58:43, repent confess forsake. We also talked a ton about the different between forgiveness and remission of sins. Very interesting to think about because forgiveness is immediate (see Alma 34:31) but we still need to do certain things to stay "spiritually heathy" like serve, pray, study, church, sacrament to retain remission (the reduction or elimination of symptoms) of our sins. I'm going to study this more for sure!
We also talked about Zion and building zion! In the FJM we are given 5 things to do to build a zion like community which are: be Christ centered, spirit directed, hard working, self governing, and fearless. We all have a role to play! What can you work on?
Also, always remember Yoda! You Observe Discern Act!
By the end of zone conference, we all sang the hymn "hope of Israel" and wow! It was so powerful! We are Zions army! The spirit and power that missionaries have is incredible!
I know this email is long but...there's more so bear with me :)
After Zone conference we ate at Stake n' shake and we talked to a guy named Preacher there for an hour. He was super cool and very intelligent with scriptures!
Towards the end of the week, we began to bike more! Our miles were cut so we have to be sparing with how far we drive...so might as well bike! Not to fear though, Florida is FLAT! so it's not too bad haha, it is hot though.
But anyways, we went to the market on Saturday again and there we saw our friend Rita who we met the first time we went to the market! She was so happy to see us and immediately called us over. We talked for a while and she kept saying how much she just loves that we glow with happiness. I had the prompting to bear testimony of why we are so happy! It is because we know God loves us and we love Him and follow Him. Then I looked into her eyes and told her without a shadow of a doubt that God loves her too! What a powerful moment! The spirit always is the strongest when simple truths are said! Her eyes got tears in them and she was so thankful. Then another propting came to give her a book of Mormon! So, I pulled one out as Sister Waite explained it. When I handed her the book, the immediately held it close to her and said she was excited to know more of God's love! Ah this woman is awesome!
And last but not least, Sunday! On Sunday we had a surprise baptism! Ok ok, so we found out that a friend of ours, Charity, had to get baptized again because her records in the church had been deleted. Charity's story is actually really cool! She was baptized when she was 10 but went inactive when she was in high-school along with her family. As a result of that, her mom had their records taken from the church without Charity knowing. Later on, when she starts coming back to church, she finds out that her records don't exist and she'd need to be rebaptized and confirmed! She's such a wonderful girl and definitely a lifelong friend!
Also it was my birthday! 20 years woo woo! It's definitely weird but...ya haha! Today we went mini golfing for my birthday so that was fun!
It's been super awesome! I hope yall are doing well too! Know I love you very very much!
Sister Huff :)
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