Tuesday 18 March 2014

Are you ready for all of this exciting news? Brace yourself!

What an amazing week for our zone, district, and companionship! President Anderson has a famous quote that us FFLM missionaries are known for. We are resolute missionaries. He always says, "The Resolute missionary possess determination with a purpose. You have memorized your purpose, learned it, recited, experienced and internalized it. It is who you have become. It is who you have been called to be. The resolute missionary combines purpose and determination with obedience, faith, love, and testimony to achieve any and every worthy and righteous desire for God. She does what has never been done before. There is no stopping the resolute missionary. There is no preventing her success." I love this call from President to be resolute. It is something that Sister Stegelmeier and I strived to achieve and now Sister Price and I have heeded the same call. We are determined to be resolute forevermore. This week our zone did something that has never been done before... we had 10 baptisms in one weekend! Truly a miracle! 10 of our precious brothers and sisters now have entered the gate and are on the path to the celestial kingdom! So amazing. 9 of these came from our district alone! I am so grateful that God blessed us with these precious, prepared, elect people. With the Temple coming God is hastening his work here in South Florida. We had a specialized training on Thursday and President told us all about the Temple and how we will be involved! Are you ready for all of this exciting news? Brace yourself!

-we get to go to the open house as long as we have investigators with us
-we get to sing at the cultural celebration...front row... and President Monson and Uchtdorf are coming!
-the Sisters are helping out in the "tents" we will be there before the tour to introduce what is going to happen and watch a movie etc. and then we will most likely be in the receiving tents. Elder Walker is giving us a training on March 25 to let us know exactly what we will be doing! President said that we Sisters will be there all day 1 to 2 times a week!

To say that we are excited is undoubtedly an understatement!  I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity! It is such a tender mercy.
Natacha's beautiful family: Phetia (10), Stephan (8), Jean (12), Sabrina (11) and Britania (14)

Natacha's  beautiful family was baptized yesterday. There is so much joy in seeing families enter the waters of baptism together. To witness heaven getting a little bit bigger. They truly are an OYM miracle. One of the things that I loved most about this experience was seeing the ward unite together and catch the fire. We had asked several different ward members to be involved that previously hadn't been through giving talks, prayers, and even baptizing the children etc. It was amazing to see the excitement that each of the ward members had. The spirit truly touched them in a way that hadn't before as they saw the hastening the work in action. They instantly caught the spark. We had multiple people express interest in coming out with us and even offering there homes for us to teach in! The support that they gave to the baptism was wonderful. The ward truly united together and it was rewarding to see. The Delray Beach ward has much growing and strengthening to do, but with everyone on board we are rescuing those who have forgotten and finding those who are searching.

This past week we picked an area for harvesting but not a particular street. As we arrived to the area we began to drive around searching for the one that felt right. We asked each other questions and gave each other prompts like "left here" or "down one street" etc. We didn't feel any major prompting but did what felt good. Sister Price parked the car, and we headed out.  The first door found a comfortable lady with no interest whatsoever as she quickly shooed us away. The next door we knocked on a man answered. Once he saw our name tags and we approached him our excitement seemed to match his. He let us in immediately. Once in he went back to grab his girlfriend to join us, but not before laughing and saying, "O, and by the way I am Mormon!" haha we just laughed with him. He was just wanting to see what we would say to him. Turns out he is a less active who has just moved here from Orlando with his girlfriend. The spirit was so strong as we blessed them. When asking if the girlfriend had had the lessons they both responded that they love the missionaries and have had them over often but never had the lessons before because of past experiences with missionaries. However, they quickly agreed that now it felt right and that they would love for us to teach them the lessons! Miracle! The man also said that whenever he moves he seeks confirmation from God that he is in the right place and that he undoubtedly knew that this was God confirming that to him. This was an incredible testimony builder to me of heeding the spirit. It was no major prompting that led us to them. But we were doing what was right. We were doing all we could to have faith infused exact obedience. As a result, we are led by the spirit constantly even when we don't realize it. This is a special privilege that we as missionaries, if we are worthy of it, can enjoy. We need the spirit in this work constantly and consistently. I am more determined than ever before to always be worthy of the spirit's companionship.

Sister Anderson directed us to more fully internalize the atonement. I dedicated a personal study to it this past week and my love for the Savior and his gospel deepened. I focus to much on the cleansing power and not so much the enabling and strengthening power. I studied examples from the Book of Mormon paying particular attention to Alma the Younger in Alma 36. Not only did he experience unmatchable joy through being cleansed, but he then was strengthened and enabled to go and do what he could not have otherwise done on his own. So it is with me and each of us. We can be forgiven of our sins and mistakes and then do far more than we ever could by ourselves. I have learned that this takes faith. Incredible trust in our Savior and his promises. As Elder Bednar put it to go from bad to good an then from good to better. Through talking to individuals and teaching investigators, I have learned that this is a restored truth that the world has lost. Most people all seem to know and understand that through Christ they can be forgiven or to go from bad to good. Very few however realize the other part of mortality, to become better. In other words, to be strengthened and become something through Christ that we couldn't otherwise. How grateful I am to be able to be Gods messenger to his children that through Christ not only can they be forgiven, but they can also achieve a higher level of being through him.
Keith, our newest member of the church, always makes dinner for us.
 

I love being a missionary. I am so grateful to be here. Exciting things are happening. This is God's work. He is the master, the director. It is definitely true what it says in D&C 4 "For behold the field is white already to harvest and lo he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layth up in store that he perish not but bringeth salvation to his soul." We are helping others to come to Christ, but we in the process are becoming sanctified and are hearts are becoming pure. What a treasured time this is. It goes by to fast. I need to cherish every moment of it.

Hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Sister Hartley

Too bad our rule book says no pets!
We found some lost kittens.




Sabrina and Me

My stomach is learning to love Haitian food

Natacha's house for a lesson

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