The Beach: Testimony

This week was good. Sister Moesinger and I get along really well and it is nice to have an experienced companion (she goes home the transfer after me). She's from Springville, UT. She's been a member her whole life but has only been active the last 2 years. She's a good missionary so I am excited for this transfer, I think it will be really good. We did a lot of service this week. One of our members lives in a trailer park and they were having a big fall festival this weekend so we got to help out. At the end of the festival the manager got on the loud speaker and was like "We'd like to thank all of the young men and women from the Jehovah witness church who came to help us out." Forever being mistaken for JWs, its kinda ridiculous.

Anthony finally came to church! The young men president finally got over to visit their family and Anthony's older brother Nathan came to mutual and wanted to come to church. So Nathan, Sister Hernandez and Anthony all came. It was so good! And it was the primary program. Gotta love a ton of little kids singing. One of them had a super loud monotone voice. Another little girl when they were "I stand all amazed" would stomp her foot and yell the "OH, it is wonderful" through the whole song. It was pretty funny.

A member took us out to eat at the chicken dinner restaurant at Knotts Berry Farm. Apparently people would come from miles to buy boysenberries so they started feeding people chicken dinners and they have had that restaurant open ever since. It was really good. Another member took us to Farrells and Sister Moesinger and I unintentionally ordered a huge brownie chocolate ice cream sundae. Basically with the way this ward is feeding us I am just going to hope and pray I don't gain a bunch of weight before I come home.

We weren't able to see Rex this week and we probably won't see him this week either because he has a lot of loose ends to tie up at his seminary before he can move back here. Word has gotten around the ward and lots of members have been like "I'd love to come to a lesson with him sometime." Sheesh, I wish people would have the same enthusiasm to help us with our other investigators.

Maria is doing well. She is pretty involved in another Christian church so we will see how the lessons go. We had a good lesson with David. We are trying to help him gain a testimony of the book of mormon. Gaining a testimony definitely takes effort but if he will pray on his own and read, we know he will get an answer. I think that the biggest part of gaining a testimony is having spiritual experiences on your own that allow you to gain a witness from the spirit that a certain principle is true. Then no matter what may happen, you can always fall back on that confirming feeling you felt that was from God, telling your spirit that these things are true. For a lot of our investigators it comes down to that. If they are able to put in the effort to come to know of truth they will progress because they will know that this church is right and that this path will lead them to a better life. I think that is the biggest thing with Rex. Even though he does a lot of research and tries to logically understand and prove things, it was a personal experience he had where the spirit confirmed these things to him that led to his conversion and desire to be baptized. In a recent training we had our mission president read in Peter where the apostle talks about how he has seen the risen Christ. But then he continues on to say that there is a stronger witness than seeing that allows us to know and believe. That is the witness we receive through God's spirit. I know that as we search to feel this spirit in our lives and allow it to give us answers to our questions, we will gain a testimony that is stronger than seeing with our eyes. That is where true conversion comes from. The conviction we have from knowing because we have searched out these things with an open heart and real intent. God will lead us to truth if we diligently seek to know. He will allow us to gain a conviction that can withstand the philosophies of men or what our natural man tells us. He will teach us things and give us guidance and strength beyond our own ability.

I was talking with my companion this week about testimony because she has struggled with her testimony on her mission. I told her that you have to get to a point that you are in this church not because of the people or the social aspect or because you were raised in it or because it seems like a good organization. You are in the church because this is where the fullness of the gospel and Christ's power are. Even if you were the only member of the church in this country, you would stay a member because you know the doctrine is true and because you have a personal witness that it is right. I think that my mission has really allowed my testimony to stink deep. There were a lot of things that I believed were true before my mission but I have now come to know they are true. I am grateful that God is so willing to answer our prayers and to help us gain a better knowledge of his gospel and of his plan for us.

Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Washburn