Truth Will Prevail: Joy in His Kingdom

Hiya! Ya'alrigh?

I'm al'righ! I recieved the GREATEST compliment this week from the lovely Mander family.

This is how the conversation went:

Sis Mander: 'Where are you from?'

Me: 'I'm from this reeally exotic place called Utah.'

Sis Mander: 'No. You're joking!'

Me: 'I'm from Utah.'

Sis Mander: 'I lived in Utah for a couple of years and you do not sound like you are from Utah. You have been Anglicised my friend.'

Me: 'YES!'

haha:) Since pointing this out to me, and because my companion is from Utah, I have noticed I am a bit English. I don't have a full blown accent or anything, but my vowels and my 't's and my grammar are just a bit more English then they were. I am quite pleased with that ;).

This week was so great! Sister Phillips is great! She is working so so hard. She is a great missionary :). yup. We worked hard this week :). Lots of ill investigators or dropped us or rescheduled appointments so we did lots of OYMing( opening your mouth ) and a bit of tracting around less actives and such. I feel pleased with our week.

Miracle: Went to contact a man from our area book and he has moved, we told the man that did live there that we were sharing a message about Eternal families and how you can know it through prayer and left him with a pass-a-long card. Well, he texted us that night and says he wants to meet! Please pray he wont have to work a night shift on Saturday so he can come to church on Sunday :)

Cool experience this week:
We realized Saturday night that it was fast sunday, and we wanted to fast as a companionship. We had been out tracting and it was late. We were sitting on a brick fence/wall and we really counseled together on what we should fast for. We said a short prayer sitting there and asked Heavenly Father what we should fast for. We both felt the spirit really warm in our hearts and decided we should fast for the pass-along card/texted us later guy. So we decided to start our fast, but we didn't want to just stand or sit, we really wanted to kneel. There was no good place, but we went behind a bush in someone's driveway and knelt in the gravel to pray and start our fast. I don't know if it really made a difference to Heavenly Father if we knelt or not, but I definitly felt more commited to do what I had prayed for. And felt more humble and ready to do whatever He would have me do. :)

We had a mission wide conference yesterday about Member Missionary Work and it was brilliant. I'm excited to be a missionary at home because of all of the things he taught us. It actually comforts me that this feeling doesn't have to end at 18 months. I wanted to share them with you and invite you to try some of these Ideas of sharing the gospel with our friends:

1. Decouple your friendship from the invitation. Before inviting them to learn about the church you can say, 'I want you to promise me that if you're not interested, you'll say no. Do you promise?' then you can ask 'Would you like to learn about what makes mormons tick?'...etc

2. Invite non-member friends to help you in your calling. Brother Clayton Christensen shared several stories of asking friends to help him teach a class, teach young mens, asked for their point of view on a sacrament talk and then invited them to come hear it, help in hosting a relief society activity or making something for a service project, just asking friends for help in fulfilling your calling. Brilliant. And they feel the spirit while they help. :)

3. Setting a date. Set a date with the Lord of when to find a friend to invite to meet with the missionaries. And then go to work :) Miracles follow fasting and praying about finding someone by that date.

So I don't really want anything for Christmas. Please don't send me clothes or anything because I will have to carry it around. What I would like is this: Would all of you consider these ideas and invite a friend to learn about the church, or invite a friend to help you in your calling, or set a date of when you will invite someone and do it? Will you share the gospel with someone in some way and then tell me about it for Christmas?? What better gift could we give the Lord? Feel free to ask the missionaries near you for help, for ideas. Maybe you could share a Christmas video or message on a friend's wall or invite someone to dinner with your family, or take them a gift about the Saviour. Will you all do that?

I promise as you do this, you will be filled with the joy of missionary work. They don't have to say yes or be baptised, Success in missionary work comes in the inviting. The spirit of missionary work comes in the inviting. and it feels so good. People do not get offended when they know you are sincere in loving them. So I know I'm asking this as a gift for me, but really I'm hoping this will be a gift for you. Because it is the best feeling in the world to have the peace in your heart knowing that the Saviour can count on you to help.

"15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!
17 Behold, you have my gospel before you, and my rock, and my salvation.
18 Ask the Father in my name in faith, believing that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men."
I know you can do it! This is really the only way I can think of to help you understand how wonderful this mission has been.

And I know it can happen in UTAH!

Experience: IN High School, IN UTAH, I became really good friends with a girl in my Wildlife Biology class. We always sat by each other and chatted. Then she was in my seminary class. One day I asked her if she would say the opening prayer and she whispered to me, 'I can't, i'm not a member'. I was SO surprised. I whispered to her that she could still say the prayer if she wanted to, but if she didn't then that was fine too. She told me later that she was meeting with the missionaries because her other friend had introduced her to them. We became really great friends and even did our final project in Biology together. A couple months later, she asked me if I would say the opening prayer at her baptism. I was delighted. I have never, to this day, felt the spirit more strongly than I did that day at her baptism. It was powerful. She was my friend and I was overjoyed to see her join. and in the program I was Chole.

YOU CAN DO IT TOO! :)

I love you all!

Please email me if you have more questions or if you want some more ideas or if you are worried about this idea!

LOOOOVVE,

Sister CHOLE Coleman