Farmington North

Well, I just finished my first week in Farmington North. I love it here! 

Our ward is great. It's super tiny, but it's great!

One of the Elders in the ward said it's just bigger than branch size.

It's weird to be in a small ward like this because Ann Arbor was HUGE!

But I love the ward and can't wait to get to know them better.

My new companion is awesome!

I love her! She is so great!

She's from Utah.

She's 22.

She's awesome!
I love her!

She's so sweet and spiritual.

And did I mention I love her!

We get along so great. 

This week has been awesome.

We're lost all of the time.

We make a lot of wrong turns, but we laugh it all off and it's great.

We always want to give out our number, but we don't know it.

We have to ask the Elders a lot of questions.

We even had to ask the Elders to bring us some toilet paper to church because we ran out Saturday night. Awkward.

That's ok. Their nice.

That's something else that's different.

In my last area, Sister Sherrow and I were the only missionaries in the ward, so it's weird to have two sets, but I love it! 

I also love this library I'm at. It's really close and it's fancy.

The computer even has a nifty little timer! 

This week we had a lot of miracles. The spirit led us a lot. Let me tell you what happened. 

-Wednesday:

We went to see a less-active family. It started pouring harder than cats and dogs.

The rain just came out of nowhere like it usually does here in Michigan.

(They say if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. It's so true.)

It was dark, so we couldn't see the house.

We ended up running around for a while trying to find the house we were looking for.

We got to the door looking like drowned rats.

The family let us in.

They were super nice! They gave us towels to dry off and herbal tea to warm us up.

We found out why they don't come to church.

I love that family so much. I want them to come back to church and back to the fold of God. 

-Thursday:

We planned a lot of tracting. Actually we do a lot of tracting every day because we only have 1 person to teach.

Anyway so we went tracting. Of course, it decided to rain.

We got out of the car and Sister Taylor's umbrella got turned inside out because of the rain, so she got drenched.

We knocked a couple houses.

Not interested.

Sister Taylor was super cold and wet and wanted to get in the car and warm up and find a less-active near by.

We felt really good about knocking the street we were on the night before and I still felt really good about it. The spirit told me to keep knocking.

I asked Sister Taylor if she still felt good about the street and let her know that I did.

She said yes, so we kept knocking.

We found a new investigator (we're going back to teach him and his family tonight)

and a promising potential family.

We were so happy that we kept knocking.

And to make it even better, there was a beautiful rainbow when the rain died down.

A tender mercy from the Lord. 

-Friday:

Friday was rough, but good.

People didn't want to listen to us and weren't nice or weren't even home.

One lady talked to us and was super nice. She talked about how we are all working together because we believe in Christ to bring people to Christ.

She talked about the pride cycle and why people turn away from Christ.

She understood we are sent from God and we help bring people out of the pride cycle (I don't know why she didn't want to hear our message).

Then her friend showed up. The friend wasn't so nice.

Let me tell you what happened.

We'll call the lady we were talking to Martha and the friend Geberta (I don't know their names). 

Martha: Hey Geberta! We're just talking about how we're helping to bring people to Christ.

Geberta: What church are you guys from?

Us: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Geberta: Oh, well I just don't agree with most of the things you believe.

*I don't remember what else she said, but she basically told us she hates our church*

Martha looked at her like, why would you say that? Martha even defended us. It was pretty cool. Then we left Martha with a card while Geberta looked at us like we had leprosy or something.

The rest of the day didn't go so well until about 6 pm.

We had a dinner appointment at 6:30 and got there at 6.

We checked up on a less-active the next street over.

Busy.

So what are we going to do now?

Well, we looked at the GPS and saw a park.

Ok, let's contact at the park.  

The park was vacant.

It was very obviously vacant.

So, what do we do?

We go to the park anyway.

As we're walking a lady starts walking behind us.

I feel like I should talk to her.

I think, no. I'll just ignore her.

Then I think, well Sister Heywood, that's rude.

So I talk to her.

(Sister Taylor had the same thoughts to herself too! Haha)

Turns out, this lady is going through a really rough time.

She feels like a lot of things are pointing her to God right now.

She said we were sent to her from God.

You bet we were!

Oh my heck!

We were so excited.

We are going back to teach her on Wednesday. I'm stoked! 

You know, I didn't feel any strong promptings to go the park.

Sister Taylor said she didn't either.

I just saw the park on the GPS and thought, what the heck. Let's just go.

But, looking back I realize that the Spirit was guiding us all along, and when we got to the park and no one was there, we thought, what the heck. Let's go. Maybe someone will show up.

Someone did.

God is amazing.

I always look back on my life and can see how God was playing a role even though I had no huge revelatory moments happened, He was always guiding me. How cool?

When have you been guided by the Lord without even realizing it? 

Ok, one more experience this week.

I have been really sick these last few days.

Like really sick.

Feverish and achy and gross.

I got a blessing from the Elders and it was beautiful.

I love the priesthood! 

God didn't just give me a blessing of healing, but He told me lots of other things that I needed to hear. It was perfect!

I am so grateful that I have a father who is a worthy priesthood holder. 

Alright. 

Jacob 6 and 7. 

Awesome chapters right? 

Jacob 6 is the perfect chapter for calling people to repentance! 

"7 For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good ^aword of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be ^bhewn down and cast into the fire?

8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the ^aprophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and ^bdeny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the ^cgift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a ^dmock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?"

If you were really a follower of Christ would you bring forth evil fruit?

NO!

Jacob is so cool! 

"And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to ^arecover his people"

"And while his ^barm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts."

"and he stretches forth his ^bhands unto them all the day long"

God's hands are always extended towards us. He just wants us to repent and come unto Him and take hold of His hand.

He loves us so much and wants us to live with Him forever! 

Chapter 7 is cool too.

 "9 And I said unto him: Deniest thou the Christ who shall come? And he said: If there should be a Christ, I would not deny him; but I know that there is no Christ, neither has been, nor ever will be.

10 And I said unto him: Believest thou the scriptures? And he said, Yea.

11 And I said unto him: Then ye do not understand them; for they truly testify of Christ. Behold, I say unto you that none of the ^aprophets have written, nor ^bprophesied, save they have spoken concerning this Christ."

Smack down! 100 pints for Jacob! Jacob wins!

Jacob is so cool!

Something I think that is interesting about Sherem is that he speaks with flattery and that's what appeals to the people.

That's like Satan. Satan appeals to people with flattery. He's a very tricky man.

Jacob speaks with simplicity. Jacob speaks by the spirit and with the power of God. 

Sister Taylor told me something really cool.

When Christ was chosen to save the world, He didn't give some lofty speech about how he should be the one to save us all. Satan did that. Christ said, "send me." That's all.

"Send me." 

I love this gospel. I know it's true. I know God and Jesus Christ live and that they are two separate beings.

I love you all.

Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Heywood