This
week has been exhausting, but better than last week. I still feel like I
really don't know what I am doing, but at least we are starting to find
people. It's really hard to be a missionary with no one to teach. It is
so easy to get stuck in a mindless rut, and then it is even easier to
get discouraged. Especially if you start to compare yourself to other
missionaries around you who aren't struggling. But each area is
different, and each companionship is sent to where they need to be, when
they need to be there. It's kinda funny though. There is another set
of sisters in Kamloops, who serve in the Kamloops 1st ward. They got
here the same time we did, and they are having a ton of success. But
everyone keeps mixing the two of us up. We got a call from the zone
leaders the other night asking about our baptismal date. We don't have a
baptismal date, and we kinda laughed, because we are so far from a
baptismal date right now. :)
Anyways, We finally found some new investigators this week. Sister
W and Sister D came up to Kamloops for exchanges, and they
really helped us out. Sister W and Sister F found 4 new
investigators, and Sister D and I were able to find one as well.
Only one of them was at their return appointment, and he really wasn't
that interested, and doesn't want to meet anymore. So, we keep moving,
keep looking and keep believing that there is a reason we are in this
area. Maybe it is to learn patience.
One thing that I have really
been thinking about lately is how much God really does love all us, and
how little some people understand about that love. I'll share two
examples to illustrate what has prompted this.
When I was still is Surrey, we
knocked on the door of this woman from England. She and her husband are
ministers, as well as her father and brother. She and her family had
taken the missionary discussions back in England, but have some
doctrinal points that they just can't wrap their minds around or agree
with. But the one thing that she said really stuck with me, and really
bothered me. She told us that until we accept God, He does not love us,
and we are not His children. When she said that, I was absolutely
horrified that someone could not only believe that, but teach that. To
clarify, I asked a few questions, and discovered that, according to her
beliefs, unless you are a Christian, you are not a child of God. This
makes my heart ache for her and everyone else who believes that. The
second experience happened this last week. One of the new investigators
that we found (also the one who doesn't really want to meet with us
anymore) told us that the only reason that the Gentiles got the gospel
was to make the Jews jealous. He also hinted that he believed that if
the Jews had been righteous, the Gentiles would never have gotten the
gospel, because they were not God's "chosen people" and God cared that
much about them, that they were just a means to an end. Beliefs like
that make my heart break.
How grateful I am for the
knowledge that God loves not only me, but all of us, that we are all His
children, and He cares and would do anything for all of us! That is why
we do missionary work! Because God loves all of us and wants us all to
have the fullness of the gospel! "For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" This is a promise to all of us! He
loves us all and He sent His Son for all of us. We are saved through
following Christ, and we are sons and daughters of God, loved regardless
of our choices. We may break His heart when we choose to be
disobedient, but that doesn't mean He loves us any less!
I love you all, and I hope that you have a wonderful week.
Love,
Sister Peterson
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