5/4/15 An Awesome Week

This week has been simply amazing. It has also been really hard. Unfortunately, the two usually seem to go together.

Without going into a ton of details this week we:

• met and surpassed all of our goals
• had 2 investigating families and 2 less active families that we were teaching at church
• had 6 investigators total at church (us and the elders), a record
• gave out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon
• put 2 people on baptismal date
• got the cops called on us
• met President Grumpy of the HOA and got kicked out of the neighborhood (for now. We're going back Saturday anyway)
• had a record number of people drop us
• never had more than 2 hours a day go as planned
• all of our investigators are going through family trials: divorce, getting kicked out of the house with the kids, custody battles for grandkids because mother does drugs, spouses cheating on them, etc

The good and the bad come at the same time. Satan never works harder than when we have great blessings in store for us. So what I'm trying to learn is that I should never get down, because the greater the trial at the moments, the greater the blessings and joy in the immediate future. It is always darkest before dawn and with the greater sorrow comes the greater joy. Joseph Smith experienced the power of the adversary before he experienced the glory of God. Christ had to suffer before He could enter into his Father's presence and open the gates for us to join them. And on a much smaller scale, we had to face weeks of little success, dropped appointments, cops and President Grumpy-face before the Lord showed His hand. And one way He did so was through the members.

If you are looking for ways to do missionary work or to be a miracle for someone else, the first and most important thing you can do is love. Love everyone. Show that charity to those around you, even if they are mean, rude, or attacking you and your faith. Love can soften the hardest heart. Serve and offer service. Invite friends to church where they can feel God's love just by walking in the door. Invite the missionaries to bring investigators or less actives when you invite them over for dinner. Look out for and befriend those the missionaries do bring to church. Get their numbers and invite them over. Smile. At everyone. You'll be surprised how much you shock people. Carry a Book of Mormon in your backpack or a mini one in your purse. Don't Bible-bash, no matter how fun it is or how wrong they are. Strengthen your family. People notice. 

I love you all. The best is yet to come. May the Lord bless you.

Sister Garver