Stories from Ruth #36

 

Against all odds I am pulling up a permanent residence here in Chelmsford. My new companion will be Sister Lezano which is kind of cool since she sat with me when the prophet came. Presjdent must have just looked at us and said "oh, those two are going to be companions."

Well I am excited but next transfer is going to be crazy. The only person staying in my district is Elder Schönemeier. The Maldon elders are getting whitewashed by Elder Smith who was the AP when I started my mission.

I am excited to stay. Honestly I love Chelmsford. Also it's one of the nicest areas in the mission which surprises me. To be honest I thought I would mostly serve in small, ghetto towns, but I am not complaining. The members here are amazing and so are the people we are teaching.

Harvey brings me hope that there are people who want to change. He is so sincere in his desire to

learn and to live the commandments. This week we taught him word of wisdom which he struggled to understand when the elders taught him. He used to drink green tea everyday with three tea bags inside. When we taught him this time we focused on why we keep the word of wisdom and how as we keep it we are better able to receive revelation from God. We showed him a video of a testimony from a missionary we knew and their struggle with green tea and he loved it. He committed to start living the word of wisdom and I know as he does it will be easier for him to receive revelation from God, because every commandment we do not keep estranges us from God. 

Every sin is also addictive and when our minds our clouded by sin it is hard to recognize answers from a still small voice. We also met him with Chloe, a recent convert from the other ward, he asked her a lot of questions about how it had helped her in her life. Then she testified of the sabbath day and to our joy he came on Sunday! Sister Strate and I were so happy! It is amazing because we can see how much happier he is already.

 

Ruth loves her little blender because she loves smoothies

On Thursday Sister Strate and I were directed to go to a certain street and there tract this certain area. Most of the houses were empty besides one guy who was atheist and never wanted to know God. Then after about ten or so houses a little Indian woman opens the door. We told her that we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she invited us in. That was the first time I have ever been invited in so I was a bit confused. We went in and sat down and taught her about the whole restoration and read some of the Book of Mormon with her. She loved it and said that she would tell her husband. The whole time while we were teaching her she was smiling. When we taught her about the apostasy and because of it there are so many different ways to baptize although in Ephesians it says one lord, one faith, and one baptism, she got excited because she always wondered why there were. We are going to visit her again on Wednesday. It was a miracle from the Lord.