Week 41

Deeeeear everyone :)

9 months WHAT?! Has not even come CLOSE to sinking in! To celebrate, Sis. Judd and I went to a Pho restaurant (Vietnamese noodle soup - these restaurants are everywhere here!) and then DQ, haha. It was a fun adventure! She's just the best. I know I've said this before, but I just can't get over how well we work together and how we build off of each other. It's FANTASTIC! 

It was really good that we had each other yesterday as well, because not one investigator came to church or is progressing, and that was a blow. However, we both know that we did EVERY SINGLE THING IN OUR POWER to help them come to church, and they chose to let other things keep them from coming. I would say the hardest part of my mission (and a mission in general) is seeing others reject the truth. I don't care if they reject me, but I care if they reject happiness. It kills me! Seeing them so close, knowing what will help them - then seeing them not take that step, not do what I KNOW is best for them. I imagine Heavenly Father constantly feels like this. I'm so grateful He never gives up on us. Ever. So I won't give up on these people. Even if they keep rejecting, I will keep trying! They're worth it.  

TANYA IS A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS!!! THAT was the best part of yesterday and of the weekend, by far!! Oh my goodness, her baptism was so wonderful. Sis. Judd and I had the opportunity to share the message of the Restoration for about 5 minutes while Tanya got ready, and the Spirit definitely led us! We hadn't gotten to practice it all the way through beforehand, but it made sense, thanks to the Spirit.  Wow. I am SO HAPPY she decided to act on her faith and testimony, and I know she'll be great (even though she's moving out of the ward this week, to the neighboring ward). 

I love my Savior and His gospel!

 Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Hehl

Week 40

Oh my goodness gracious, I don't even know where to start! LIFE IS SO GOOD! I LOVE being in Clark Lake (it now feels like home, and I've definitely made so many relationships with the members and the people here), I LOVE being Sis. Judd's companion, I LOVE being a sister training leader, I LOVE being a missionary, and I LOVE this gospel. 

Miracles:

I really feel a difference in the atmosphere of the ward since we've been doing short lessons with members. They know us and trust us better, they're able to see how the gospel has blessed their lives by discussing the doctrine of Christ, they're a lot more motivated to share the gospel, and each has resulted in them giving us names of less-active members to visit. By teaching the doctrine of Christ, the members are more impelled, not compelled, to share the gospel. It's coming from the inside-out, not the other way around. I'm also learning that we can do NOTHING without the members. Nothing sticks, nothing lasts, nothing keeps going without their help. Getting members to lessons and to meet people has been so key in spiritual progression - especially Amy and Ken. 

I don't exactly know what we did, if anything, for the Lord to POUR out blessings, but He is! It's truly amazing.

On exchanges (when one missionary switches another for 24 hours), Sis. Judd and Sis. Carlin (I went to Sis. Carlin's area with her companion, Sis. Keele. So great!) drove past a lady by our apartments who was pushing a stroller, had 2 kids roller-blading around her, and who looked absolutely exhausted. They felt prompted to talk to her, so they drove in a circle to come back and put up the front that they were getting something out of the trunk ;) She invited them over the next day, when I was back, and we had an AMAZING lesson with this lady, Kayla, and her 10 year old daughter Annie. Kayla initially said she just wanted to learn more, but as we taught them about the Restoration you could just see in their eyes that they believed it. Lisa said she's tried all sorts of churches and has studied with Jehovah's Witnesses, but things have never quite "sat well" with her - UNTIL NOW. Everything made sense in her mind and in her heart, and she seemed so relieved to find that what she has always believed, especially about living prophets, is true. She and Annie both committed to be baptized at the end of this month!!

Tanya is moving out of the ward :( but she's getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!! AH she's so great - she bore her testimony yesterday! She shared 2 Ne. 32:3 (I will always remember this scripture as Tanya's favorite) and said that scripture helped her feel that the Book of Mormon and this church is true. The Book of Mormon is SO POWERFUL. I'm learning to teach from it more, to help them understand that it's the keystone to everything - to let the prophets and the Spirit teach them, not me. She also said in her testimony that she's doing this for her. I love those words. Near the beginning of her testimony, she said "Hail Sister Hehl!" hahaha.

Amy and Ken came to church!!!! And they LOVED it! It was a spectacular fast and testimony meeting, and the Spirit was so strong. They had to leave afterwards because of their daughter, but they're reading and praying together daily (!) and they're excited for us to come back this week :)

Hurrah for Israel! 

Sister Hehl

If you would like to send an email to Sister Hehl, her email address is:

alyssa.hehl@myldsmail.net

Week 39 - Feb. 25, 2014

Hello Everyone,

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEK! Sis. Judd and I repeatedly turned to each other, jaws dropped, saying, "What is happening?!" in a good way. SO MANY MIRACLES!! I feel we're both really striving to be exactly obedient, and that's helping the work. We're best friends already, we work fantastically together, we have so much fun, we work our hardest, we're on the same page, and I love this transfer already! I love Sister Judd, I love Clark Lake, I love this work! 

We've also really been trying to implement new training we've gotten recently - especially shorter, more focused, more interactive lessons with the pamphlets. It's worked wonders! We went back to Christine after not seeing her for a while (an older, spunky lady the elders tracted into), she actually listened, and we taught the Restoration the new way. We asked her to pray to know if this is God's church at the end of the lesson - we meant out loud, but she did it silently. We just waited...for a couple minutes...then she looks at us and says, "So where's your church at?" !!!! WHAT?! She said she felt good and she wants to keep studying and praying about it. She committed to baptism on March 15 but she wasn't feeling well enough to come to church yesterday, so we'll change her date when we see her on Tuesday. But still, that experience was AMAZING! 

We received 2 referrals who are GOLDEN! Alison and Nancy. We reviewed the Restoration with Nancy and she already knows most of it - she received the first 3 lessons in another state already and WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED! She knows it's true already!! We have another lesson with her tonight and we're trying to help her feel the urgency of baptism - she wants to wait until June so she can be baptized with her family there. (some of her family is Mormon - MAN is she prepared!)

I've seen miracles from talking with EVERYONE we see. Sister Judd is really good at that. Even if it's just giving them a mormon.org card - we're still inviting them to come unto Christ. So much of missionary work is simply INVITING, whether or not they accept. 

Another instance of a miracle from talking with everyone: we went to check that Nancy was coming to church, but she wasn't home. As we were walking back to our car, Sister Judd spotted a family walking out to their car and went to go talk to them. Turns out the mother is a less-active member that recently moved in who wants to come back to church with her family. We have an appointment for Wednesday. WHAT? The Lord just keeps teaching me, over and over and over, that I can NEVER judge. I can NEVER tell who's ready and who isn't. My job is to invite EVERYONE. 

We had a wonderful lesson with Jessica and Martha T (member), mostly about the Restoration and living prophets. We invited Jessica to say the closing prayer and ask God if this is true, and if Thomas S. Monson is His living prophet today. She's prayed out loud before, but this time was different - there was a point where it got intense and real. Even though it was in Marshallese, I could tell she was really asking, and really feeling the Spirit. She started crying! The Spirit was so strong. She wants so badly to have an eternal family, to live God's commandments and be clean in His eyes, and to be baptized. After that lesson, I have no doubt that she will be baptized. And that is the best feeling :)

Sarah came to church for the first time in about a YEAR! Even before Sacrament meeting started, she had tears in her eyes. She was in a lot of pain (fibromyalgia) but she wanted to come, and she said it felt so good. :D

We've also been trying to work out how to really facilitate member and missionary work - how to work better together to hasten the Lord's work. Any ideas??

I know this is God's church. He lets me know through the scriptures, through prayer, through how it blesses the lives of others, and mostly importantly through the Spirit EVERY DAY. He has given us His power so we can be clean and be guided back to live with Him. He loves us and understands us more than we can comprehend. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Hehl

Sister Hehl with Sister Kartchner- they changed this tire together in December all by themselves!

Sister Hehl with her last companion, Sister Swapp.