15 months in the mission you'd think I'd know a lot, but every day I realize more and more how much I just don't know. But sometimes, the more we don't know, the more the Lord can take over. Let me share just a few experiences. This week I had an exchange with the hermanas in Enumclaw. Enumclaw is just as it sounds.... awesome. It reminds me a lot of Manassa, CO. It has one big street of stores and then lots of lil houses and fields and then the farther out you get theres the cows and horses and goats and maybe 1 hispanic in every couple hundred. It's hard to be an hermana down there, but I know there are hermanas because there are people the Lord needs us to find! So that was a focus on the exchange, but ultimately I felt very helpless because I just didn't know what to do to help them a lot find more success. They are doing everything right, but sometimes God needs us to just not know what to do. It was amazing for me to see how the Lord guided us and blessed us with little miracles in ways we normally wouldnt have recognized as miracles but they definitely were. This week we were led to a couple interesting situations with strong members of other faiths. First, we had a lesson with a girl named Adaly who had met the english elders and said we could come back, but we come back to a meeting with her and her father who is a pastor for an evangelical church who made it very clear we were wasting our time with him. He knows the Bible very well, has been to school, has learned a lot and it was very clear there was a lot that I dont know. We were actually on splits, so it was just me and a member (hermana hoyos - ex misionera and superstar) and I loved how when we were backed into this corner of "who knows more" and him really trying to force his opinion on us, the spirit quietly just whispered to me that it was okay and that all I can really do is tell him what I know by the spirit. Us as missionaries, we don't go to school for 7 years, we don't have a perfect knowledge, but I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that this is the Lord's restored church and that the book of mormon is the word of God, and as I ackowledged how much I dont know, the spirit was able to testify of truth. I'm grateful for how much I don't know, because it allows the Lord to work through me just a little bit more. We also went to la iglesia adventista this week! Okay let us explain. We are teaching an investigator named Gabriela and she's adventista and invited us to her church to see her baby get presented to God so we decided to go and support her. WOW I learned so much. It really helped us feel what other people feel in other churches because I honestly didn't know, and it really just touched me to see how faithful other people of different religions are too. We all are just trying to follow Jesus Christ and there is truth in every religion. We just gotta find what has the whole truth, and we're all just looking. The pastor there was really nice to us and I think could feel a light from us because he started teaching his sermon in half english because he sees these white girls he obviously doesnt think we're understanding and halfway through he screams at us and says "ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING DIS?" hahaha it scared hermana wilson a bit, but it was interesting to see how much they welcomed us there. So the next day at church we talked to our branch council and talked about what we can do to help visitors have a better experience at church too and it really helped us learn a lot. and then, when we had 2 new investigators at church, wow it was like a whole new branch was welcoming them! Hermano Roderiguez came to church with his son for the first time and they were seriously smiling from ear to ear they were so happy and the branch was so good and made them feel so welcome. Not sure if I've talked about Hermano Roderiguez, his name is joseluis and he's from Honduras and is looking to change his life and come unto Christ and we met him taking his trash out. Just another testimony that God is very aware of His children and is putting us in the right place at the right time to help them with their desires to know God. Okay I'm kinda rambling but last story, We had a lesson with Lastenia this week and her bf Hugo came too! It was in the house of a recent convert family, los Castaneda. Los castaneda are seriously amazing. Theyre the cutest couple, he is like super buff and scary looking, like youd look at him and never think he was an avid church goer, and she is super gorgeous and has tattoos and just it would be so easy for the world to judge them but they are SO RIGHTEOUS and loving and have the strongest testimony and the lesson we had with them was exactly what Lastenia and Hugo needed because they needed to know that we can be normal people and still put God first. I know the world teaches a whole lot of things, but as we put God first in our lives and the lives of our family, everything always goes better. I know this is the restored church of Jesus Christ's teachings, and the way that we can return and live with our families and with Heavenly Father for eternity. I love being a missionary!! Thanks for reading this far if youre still here!! Hermana Reed PICS:
1 this is real WA, blackberry bushes EVERYWHERE. FREE SNACKS. 2 describe Enumclaw in a pic 3 found this glove that brings me joy 4 hermana debry and I take on el campo 5 MLC thug pics 6 my mission president crush on pres rasmussen continues 7 las hermanas y presidente de MLC
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Hermana Fallyn ReedMissionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Federal Way, Washington Mission. July 2016 - January 2018. Archives
January 2018
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