Letter from 9-23-13

Helloooo Everybody! 

Worldy highlight of my week: 

GETTING TO PLAY BASKETBALL!

The REAL highlight of my week: 

So every morning my comps and I run laps around this loop street, and every morning we wave hello to a lady named Joan. We have been waving at her for well over 6 weeks now, and we've talked enough that she knows who we are and what we're doing. She is really cool because she used to coach softball and basketball, and said her girls were the first on their colleges' soccer teams, etc. She is just cool and athletic and I hope I am her when I'm 50ish. A week or so ago, I decided we needed to really talk to her. I stopped running one morning and asked her her name and we ended up talking for 45 minutes.

 Every day after that, we had intentions to go back and give her our phone number because she told us that she is going out of town soon and needed help with her yard. But for some reason, each of those days we didn't get to go back. Finally, on Saturday, we went back and Joan was sitting in her friends' car in the driveway. I thought it was going to be super awkward, but as soon as she saw us she jumped out and gave us big hugs and said it was weird that we showed up that day because she had been talking to her friends and family about us. She said, "God must've sent you to me. He's a funny guy!" She invited us in and she and her friend asked us so many questions. Joan is a devout Catholic and was even a nun in her younger days, but she had looked us up on mormon.org and learned about us because she was interested. 

We taught them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We each basically got to bear testimony over and over again. I cried like... 3 times. Embarrassing. She asked us each why we thought that Mormonism was growing so fast all over the world. All I could think to say was that it's because it's true. This is God's work and Christ is the head of this church and by golly, his work is going to move forward with power, even with goons like me doing his work. I told her it's not because missionaries are perfect teachers, but it's because God uses small and weak things (us!) to accomplish his work. Alma 37:6-7. 

Before we met with Joan, I had been beating myself up that we hadn't talked to her earlier about the gospel, but she told us that if we had jumped at her the very first time we met her, or had knocked on her door, she wouldn't have been receptive. But she noticed over time that we live what we teach, that we are Christ-like and that we radiate with something that makes her want to talk to us.

Moral of the story: LIVE the gospel. The more you live what you believe, the more you try to be like Christ, the more people noticed and want to have what you have. They will ask, "Why are you so happy? What makes you so different." To which we respond, "Come and See." 

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! LOVE YOU ALL :)

-Sister Welling