2nd Transfer, 2nd Companion

Hi! It was such an awesome and challenging week. I am full of joy. 

My new companion is Sister H. She is from Idaho and this is her very last transfer! She will go home on June 26 and I will get my 3rd companion in my 3rd transfer which is crazy. She is little in stature but such a spiritual giant! She knows her scriptures so well and is an incredible teacher. I am already learning so much from her. And we are good friends - we share a lot of views and opinions and get along super well.

Because Sister V is gone, I am in charge of the area. That means that I drive everywhere which I enjoy and it also means that I have been pushed to know the area and the ward super thoroughly. An Elder in our zone gave us his GPS so that has been really helpful. I am thankful for this challenge that the Lord has blessed me with. 

We met with S. She had requested a Bible and a Book of Mormon from mormon.org and that is how we found her. We delivered her materials and talked about the apostasy/restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She perfectly recognized the apostasy as manifest in the massive number of different churches and interpretations of the Bible. We committed her to read from the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it is the word of God.

We also met A this week. On Saturday, Sister H and I spent a good chunk of the day visiting all those individuals whom we had invited to church on Sunday - to remind them of the meeting and help and encourage them to attend. We stopped in to see a couple who used to take the lessons but weren't really interested. However, they had recently bought a car so we wanted to invite them. Tender mercy - their neighbor was over! As soon as we explained who we were and that our purpose was to help others come unto Christ she asked us to pray for her right then and there. We prayed that she would be strengthened in all her trials and that she would feel God's love for her and know His will. A explained to us that she has been really struggling to have peace in her life and that her kids are really angry and bothered. She feels like everything is falling down around her, and knows that if she can just focus on making Jesus Christ her focus in life that she will be protected and taken care of. We shared with her Heleman 5:12 and a few other scriptures from the Book of Mormon. Ultimately, we spent about 45 minutes with her, talking about Jesus Christ and His perfect Atonement, and how living the gospel of Jesus Christ will bring her and her children happiness and security. We have an appointment with her on Friday and we're so excited!!

Sunday night was super fun - a family in our ward drove us up to Warner Robbins/Centerville Area for dinner at their neighbors Methodist church. They were having a huge dinner with bouncy castles and hot dogs and cotton candy and music and water slides and it was packed. So many people. We got to meet their friends and they are such good people! Then we spent probably an hour talking to the community members there and we met so many interesting people - some who actually live in our area and said they would come to church with us! (We weren't doing this in like a malicious way, of course, but just leaving our pass along cards with the church address on it and saying they were welcome to come anytime and then people accepted.) We also talked to the minister at the church - he is so awesome and his whole drive is about getting new, young energy into what had become an "older" church. He didn't really want to talk to us, particularly, and I don't blame him.

I had super powerful studies this week which has been really exciting. I have been reading at least part of a general conference address each morning. In one color I mark invitations, in another color I mark warnings, in a third color I mark promised blessings, and then in black or blue ink I take notes on the page or underline or whatever else. I was really struck by something Elder Rasband said in his address. Referring to promptings from the Holy Ghost he said, "If we let the Lord know in our morning prayers that we are ready, He will call on us to respond. If we respond, He will call on us time and time again and we will find ourselves on what President Monson calls “the Lord’s errand."" I have started doing this every morning - telling God that I am ready to receive and act upon impressions from the Holy Ghost. I ask for them to come to me throughout the day, that I can know God's will and do only things that are pleasing to Him. As I have prayed this way each morning I have become more aware of the Holy Ghost constant presence and influence. I listen more carefully for His promptings and am getting better and better at recognizing them. It has been such an incredible blessing. I invite you to study the conference addresses. It does not matter what was said, unless we carry it with us outside of the conference. 

CTR!!

-Sister Gore

Sister V on transfer day

Sister H - emmas new companion