You Never Know
Aloha Family a me Friends,
As the chill Jamaican said on the subway on late afternoon in NYC, beating his drum and singing Bob Marley songs and adding in his own lyrics: "It's a blessing to be tired. That means you are working. Not everyone gets to be tired everyday". Amen, my brother, amen.
Being tired is good. Being beat to the core is good. Being a busy bee is wonderful. And to think I opened up my mission call just about a year ago is even more wonderful.
We had Zone Conference all the way in Queens this past Thursday and it pretty much lasted the whole day but all was well and all was swell! President Teuscher presented his vision for the NYC Mission and that is to have EVERY missionary have a baptism EVERY month. Pretty lofty goal right? Even he admitted to himself that we probably thought he was crazy. But I truly know that he has been called of God to hasten the work here in NYC. The same impression I continued to get throughout the conference was just simply: "you never know". You never know what kind of impact you can have on another person's life when you choose to follow Christ's example.
So with this vision and a ton of other takeaways, Sister Lowe and I hit the ground running and set two bapt dates in the next two days! As we were setting the second girl's bapt date, my heart was literally racing. When I first met her on the bus she originally told me "I don't want to be converted" and I just told her "oh no no we just want to help you get closer to Jesus Christ!". But after zone conference, Sister Lowe and I both had the impression to put her on date. And lo and behold, in the midst of tears between all three of us, she did accept our invitation and actually asked if she could be baptized the next week! Haha. Wow. The spirit is so amazing and she's on date for the end of the month :)
(Side note: She always talks about how "dope" the Book of Mormon is and she literally met all the missionaries in the Harlem area and then asked us "is it a requirement to be attractive to be a missionary" hahaha love her)
Anyways. We truly never know. We never know what kind of impact a smile, a wave, a text, or a call can make in another person's life. It can make all the difference. I never knew that by talking to this girl that I would help her feel as she texted us: "closer to God than I have ever been in my life". It is amazing what miracles God can perform in other people's life as we are just willing to be that instrument in His hands and get to work.
Moreso, you never know what God is willing to reveal to you as you open your heart to His voice and "not idle away thy time" (D&C 60:13), "for he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round" (1 Nephi 10:19). This General Conference session, prepare a question. You never know what revelation God is willing and ready to give to you at this moment. You'll be amazed.
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| It was Anne's (our Kenyan Mother) Birthday! Our district came over and celebrated with her! She said: "My heart is so full because all my children are here. And when you are here I am happy!". :') |
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| Helped a family move back into the ward. They've been gone for the past 1.5 years traveling in a mini school bus with their children to every single national park in the country and visited 49 out of the 50 states. Sooo cool. They had so much cool Patagonia gear. |
Randoms:
1) The Manhattan Zone and Chinese Zones were combined for Zone Conference. One of the senior missionaries came up to me and asked me if I was in the Chinese Zone. He was legit pretty confused when I said I don't even know any Chinese lol.
2) Our mission is working with SLC on this new program to do Facebook Finding. Finding by day and by night. Pretty cool. Some Elders did it out in Long Island and would wake up with two or three referrals every morning. Technology nowdays. Isn't it amazing haha.
3) We started again teaching my Jamaican friend who sung in sacrament meeting a couple months ago....I of course leaned over and told her she could go up again if she wanted. She went up and goes: "I am here because Sister H-ellis invited me to". Haha way to throw me under the bus Claw. And in case you were wondering..she did sing another lovely song about how Jesus loves us all haha.
4) Went on splits into a Spanish area. I do not speak any Spanish but as we were tracting and teaching, I could understand about 90% of the conversation and knew what they were talking about! Maybe I actually know more Spanish than I thought. Nonetheless the spirit is amazing and speaks a universal language.
5) Decided to talk to this guy who is training to be a UFC fighter. Turns out he used to meet with missionaries 5 years ago in Portugal but once he moved here he lost contact with the church. Told me he really wanted to get baptized and actually go to the DC temple and used to read the Book of Mormon three times a week with the missionaries. I got his number and address and now he's meeting with the Elders again! When he got off the bus he was like "see you at my baptism!". What a miracle.
6) Sorry this is coming out kind of late. We just found out the other night that we are going to be in a trio so we've been rearranging our entire apartment! Thursday we will go to Queens and pick up our new Sister! She's a temple square missionary and originally from Japan!!
Me ke aloha,
Sister Ellis
Believe Believe Believe