Elder Ballard

Okie dokie, crazy experience, and kinda sad... so we were out pass the dam, no one answering but finally one of our referrals answered the door, she invited us in. We started talking and found out she has had the missionary lessons before. Well, she was nice to us until we brought up the gospel, its kinda funny how people invite us in and then think were not gonna talk religion. Idk haha this is what we do! Any who, back to the story, she started to get confritational and even though she wasn't interested, we shared our testimonies. The spirit came and it came strong. She stopped fighting with us and seemed to get emotional... then after a moment of silence she bursted out, "I AM NEVER GOING TO CHANGE!" And kicked us out.... after she kicked us out Sister Kennedy and I were just... hurt. It hurt. We bore sincere testimony and she wanted nothing to do with it and we KNOW she felt the spirit testify to her that what we were saying is true... I mean, it really stung. We said a prayer to ask why that happened. We did all we could and we know she felt something. 

Well our prayer was answered when we read 3 Nephi 7:15-18.

 And it came to pass that Nephi—having been visited by angels and also the voice of the Lord, therefore having seen angels, and being eye-witness, and having had power given unto him that he might know concerning the ministry of Christ, and also being eye-witness to their quick return from righteousness unto their wickedness and abominations; Therefore, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds—went forth among them in that same year, and began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.And he did minister many things unto them; and all of themcannot be written, and a part of them would not suffice, therefore they are not written in this book. And Nephi did minister with power and with great authority. And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily.

What we got from that is like Nephi, we testified boldly and there is no way she could have disbelived what we were testifying to her, but still... she became angry with us and used her agency to choose to not want more.... It was just mind blowing. Why wouldn't you want to choose that good feeling? The Spirit? The gospel? Choose to come closer to Christ? Especially when you can feel it is good! I don't know.... I hope her heart may be softened...

I don't like negative... so back to positive!! :D

Elder Ballard came to our mission!!! We got to shake his hand. I was so nervous to meet him.... you could feel when he enter the room. He definitely is an apostle of the Lord. The reason why I was so stoked to meet him was because he is an APOSTLE! But I was also nervous because he probably can see right through my soul. When we were in line to shake his hand, I thought, "REPENT NOW! Do I have something to repent for? YOU BETTER REPENT NOW or you're gonna get struck down!" Haha I couldn't think of anything so I walked up, smiled, tried to play it cool, like ya know, no biggie he is only an apostle of the Lord. Hahaha when he shook my hand and said my name, it was pretty dang awesome, I felt the spirit, instant love, and I know he is called of God, then WOO HOO I wasn't nervous anymore. :) Anyway, Elder Ballard was so awesome to listen to. He said some things that really hit home. I loved when he said, "Christ is as close as we'll allow him to be." Love that! Its so true! We choose to either move closer to him or push him away. Another thing that hit me was how he kept repeating to "be IN missionary work." I want to be more consecrated to the work and another thing I think he helped with is, he helped sister Kennedy be more motivated to work. She has been struggling with time... as in, she is counting down the days. I know my prayers are being heard and she will start to forget the days and when she does, that's when the magic of missionary work comes! I also have been trying to be extra positive with her, always pointing out something she did good and letting her know not only do I believe in her, but the Lord believes in her. She has improved so much. She has been leading more lessons and talking to more people, she is so awesome! Just need to get her to know that! :)

This week was better, Sister Kennedy talked a lot more and we are building as a companionship.  We've been using preach my gospel every night in our planning session and its made the next day so much easier. We've realized that even though it says weekly planning session, its definitely the perfect guide for daily & nightly planning, and because we planned every night following PMG, we were able to make small changes that had huge effects. We also were able to receive revelation on who should invite Kaitlyn to church. Kaitlyn works on Sunday and said she will never be able to come but our prayers were answered. One of her friends who is the Laurel president invited her to church and she came! :)

So many stories I want to share but I gotta go again! Bye!

Sister Coats

PS: After hearing Elder Ballard, we made a commitment to get members more involved in our work. We decided to do the 21 day promise with members and set a follow up date for when we'd come back and see how the challenge turned out, yesterday we gave it to 3 families and I think our follow date has made the commitment more real. They seem more excited to help. 

PSPS: Picture  - Exchanges with Sister Bly! She is bomb! :D

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