Sister Alivia Jordan: Turn Your Doubts Into Faith

I cannot believe it is P-day again. This whole week has been a great blur. As always, great things are on the horizon.

You may have noticed I stopped talking about a few of the families we were teaching and that is because they are all stuck in limbo and are ''too busy'' to meet with us. The polish family I envision in my prayer and Lisa and her family included. They may be genuinely busy or dodging us. That's missionary life for yah though!

I think the greatest miracle of the week would have to be David. Sister Klemm and I met David a few weeks ago. I think he was the first person we talked to that day. We followed up with him a few days after meeting him and he was willing to have us over. We had a wonderful lesson when one of the members in the ward came teaching with us and then David suggested that he come to the church for a tour to ''see if he was cut out for all of this.'' Sister Klemm and I have a pretty big teaching pool to work with and we discussed one day that we ought to pass most of the males off to the Elders because it would be easier for them to be taught and we know the Elders need new people to teach. We had the Elders come to the church tour so we could pass him off then and there. Elder Oakey and Elder Young connected well with him. David came to church on Sunday and seemed to fit right in. We are so excited to see what lies in store for David. He says it is because he could tell how sincere Sister Klemm and I were that got him to give this all a try. He is a very humble man himself. I am grateful Heavenly Father has given me so many opportunities to grown in humility by helping me find the prepared and hand them off to other missionaries to be taught.

We taught Garry several times this past week. The first one was great, as usual. And then the next lesson we had with him, Garry raised a few of his concerns.. We teach Garry during his 1-2 hour lunch breaks at the library in town. There was a priest that eavesdropped on the really good lesson we had with Garry and he came up to Garry afterwards and asked what church he was going to. This priest had the nerve to tell him that we weren't Christians because we don't have a cross on our church. Garry was shaken up a bit from the whole experience and we spent the next two lessons trying to help him resolve his own concerns. I know that his is nothing but the adversary being an annoyance in the spiritual progression of Garry. In the end, we explained to Garry that he needs to be praying to know if what we are teaching him is true and that we were not there to force him to be baptized. This is all his choice and we are just here to help him. He feels like the date he has now for baptism is too soon so his date is currently on hold. He also didn't show up to church yesterday which is very unusual because he said the day before he would be there.

On a happier note, Anu and her family are back from India! We should be seeing their family tonight.

There is a Portuguese invasion currently going on in our teaching pool. It is so great! We have just started teaching this lady named Samilda that we met this past four hour finding day. She is Catholic and told us how they are warned not to change churches but she has invited us back twice now to teach her. She has the cutest family! A six year old daughter and a month old new born baby. We had a quick 10 minute lesson with her the other day and introduced the Book of Mormon. In personal study that day, we highlighted a few scripture masteries in the Portuguese Book of Mormon we gave her. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and asked when we could come again.
We then went to visit the family of Mario, a man from Portugal I met on the bus a few weeks back. His wife and 2 children were home this time, miracle! The wife, Ruth, was 38 weeks pregnant and they haven't been able to make it to church because of the pain she is in. She told us that she has had this really strong feeling that she needs to go to church and she did not know why (it's the Spirit, that's why!) but they were going to try again to come to church this Sunday. They did not show but it was for a good reason-- they went to the hospital and she was to deliver the baby that day! It may be awhile before we teach them now that they have a new born but they have such great potential and I know their family will become progression investigators soon.

After all the many referrals we have given these last few weeks, we finally got one for our own area! Her name is Sue. She is the sister of a member in the Chester ward. Our plans for Sunday evening fell through so it gave us plenty of time to walk to where she lived 40-45 minutes away (buses don't really run on Sundays here). Sue is an elderly lady but so adventurous. She is planning on going to Africa in November. She was born in South Africa herself but has lived here in the UK for over 64 years. It was a miracle we went to contact her when she did because she does not like to stay in the house alone and is usually out all day but had returned home early yesterday. She has lost a lot of her loved ones, her husband passing away only 4 years ago. She has had a lot of hardship but has been so positive in it all. She had a few Plan of Salvation related questions that we were able to answer. She does not see herself ever becoming a Mormon but I know her heart will change when she learns and lives the Gospel.

We ordered a braille Book of Mormon for the blind man we met on our four hour finding day and it came in the form of 6 huge binders (picture of them below). Some members drove us to deliver them to the blind man at the nursing home he lives at. He was so grateful to have them after searching and asking for them for such a long time.

I had a few moments of spiritual epiphanies this past week but the whole explanation is too long to fit in this email. If you want to discuss some deep doctrine, email me for more info haha.
The moral of the story though is that my mission has opened up the way for me to know the gospel more deeply because of the questions of the people we meet and because of the questions I think of during our lessons with people. I have learned things that I would have never thought about if I had not come on a mission.

If our beliefs were never tested or questioned, we would never have the chance to study it more thoroughly and to discover the truth more fully.

In times where we feel like questions causing us to doubt what we feel is right, we should remember that our Loving Heavenly Father is willing to teach us by His Spirit if we but ask and study. As we study and seek answers to our questions those doubts will turn into faith and lead us to a deeper conversion to the gospel. I have studied these things for myself and I know them to be true. I know God is our Heavenly Father and He has prepared a plan for us to return back to Him. The center of that plan is our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His atonement. Joseph Smith was called to restore this truth in these latter days. I know it and I cannot deny it.

Love you all!

Sister Jordan

pictures

Sometimes, the only person you stop all morning and will talk to you is a drunk man who picks you and your companion a rose from a bush.