The work is gettin to me. 4/18/16

This past week has been hard. Not like mentally or spiritually hard, while it is challenging at times, but physically hard. For some reason my whole body is giving up on me this week. Monday night my right shoulder began to hurt. I thought it was just sore and tired so I didn't pay too much attention to it. Then I woke up on Tuesday and I couldn't lift my arm up high enough to put my hair in a ponytail because it felt like there was a ball under my shoulder blade. Took some ibuprofen and went to work, but the pain only got worse. We had service at the Mississippi food network on Tuesday so that made it worse. I tried to take it easy and not make it worse, but just lifting up quart sized boxes of milk made it so sore that Sister Fa'ulao came over half way through and asked if I was okay. Apparently I was making some weird faces because of the pain.  Wednesday it all hit hard. I woke up to 2 sore shoulders, both hurting and feeling like they were tearing at times. I had been taking pain medicine every 4-5 hours and suffering through once the medicine wore off. As we tracted, I would have to alternate which arm I put behind my back (the only position that it didn't hurt as bad) I bought a massager in hopes that the pain was from tired sore muscles, but it didn't do what I thought it would. It helped a little, but the pain was still there. At District Meeting, I stood up to go and lead the music and my right knee popped and felt like someone was stabbing me through the side of my knee. I limped up and lead the music, then sat down and tried to move it around to make it stop hurting. When I got the back massager, I also bought a knee brace to wear when it hurts the most.

I am praying that this doesn't last. I don't know what I have done this past week that has made my shoulders and knee hurt, but I am taking it a little easier without stopping. My shoulders are slowly getting better... i think. Either that or I am just getting used to the constant pain.  As for my knee, it still hurts at times. Don't quite know about it. 

Okay now for the fun stuff! This week has been amazing missionary work wise! We taught Kadence on Monday. She is still amazing and so excited for baptism. We are working to get her prepared and help her as the adversary works to stop her from making such a sacred decision. 

We have been tracting a lot to find some more investigators to begin teaching since Shontay and Kadence, our investigators with baptismal dates, are the only ones we teach on a consistent basis. We found some interesting people tracting Arlington and Andover street this week. One couple we met, Cory and Shay, are the ones that I got a kick out of. Cory is a Marine recruiter that goes around to the surrounding areas to recruit. When we knocked on the door, he said he had just tried to recruit some of the Elders from our church in Vicksburg and Brandon that week. That was a great conversation starter as we jumped into what we went around doing. The conversation progressed to what we taught, at which point his wife Shay walked out to listen. We had a nice discussion about the differences in our church than the other churches. Shay got really excited to talk and launched into a "testimony" about how she had found "the one truth" and her prophet friends. It was interesting to hear about what she believed and how she referred to us as "you Christians" After she was done telling us about how the Bible was wrong in the translation of the names of Christ and His Apostles, Sister Fa'ulao asked them what religion they were. Shay said "We don't believe in religion. It is a system that the devil has set up to guide us away from Joshua.(Christ) But if you want to put a name on it, we are 'Hebrew Israelites'" We just nodded and told her that it was great that she had faith and trust in The Saviour. Cory gave us his card in exchange for us giving them our card. They were definitely an interesting couple...

This week our testimonies of Bible referrals grew so much! We get referrals from Church HQ about people that have requested free Bibles. We haven't had much luck contacting and visiting them. When we go to take them their Bible, we also take a Book of Mormon and try to teach them about it. Usually the person just takes the Bible, refuses a return appointment and we don't hear from them again, though we try to contact them for a return appointment. That changed this week with Miss Latoya Banks! We have had her information for the past 2 months, but haven't been able to make the times work so we can visit her when she is there. We finally got to go and see her on Saturday. When she opened the door, she got a huge smile on her face and grabbed us into a hug. We went in and sat down and began talking and getting to know her. She is a 35 year old single mother of 4, 3 boys and 1 girl. She has been going through a Joseph Smith like search for religion. She has visited every church in Jackson.. or so she thought.  Throughout the discussion she brought up concerns that she had with all the churches she had visited. ALL of them The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints takes care of. 

-The Priesthood (she feels that the authority spoken of in the Bible isn't present in the churches she has been to) 

-Family (she wants a church that is family oriented and welcoming)

-Leadership (she feels she is meant to teach and share her testimony of the gospel, not just the minister or those that went to school to do so)

The most amazing thing was something Sister Fa'ulao mentioned as we were getting to leave. We were talking about faith and then she said "and also, all of the people in our church are volunteer. No one gets paid for their work." Latoya broke down in tears and just sat there in amazement.

She feels that being paid for your service is ridiculous. She says that you shouldn't have to be paid for what God expects of you. The whole "donation plate" is something she hates. Once Sister Fa'ulao mentioned the unpaid ministry, Latoya said she was coming to church on Sunday and that this was the church for her. We had given her a Bible and when we read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon, she said "I get one of those too right?" We laughed a little and said "of course you do!" Each moment was amazing in that hour and half we spent at her apartment! We left her with a Bible, Book of Mormon, Mormon.org card and the address to our church. We left feeling high on the Spirit and excitement! 

On Sunday during Ward Council we got a call from Latoya asking how to get to the church from Mississippi College. I gave her the directions she needed and she said she was on her way. She arrived 45 minutes early to church and we sat in the chapel talking about what would happen during Sacrament Meeting and warned her about the amount of noise due to the number of children. Latoya said she was excited and that the kids wouldn't be a problem as she was a mother and knew that the kids needed to learn too. It was amazing! She took notes, asked questions and bore her testimony in Gospel Principles. In RS she stood up at the beginning to introduce herself and tell them that she would be back next Sunday with her kids. 

The meetings were exactly what we were praying for. One talk in Sacrament Meeting by Sister Whipple talked about faith and then as a side note Sister Whipple mentioned the unpaid ministry. Latoya looked at us with tears in her eyes and said "how did she know I was worried about that?" We explained it was all The Spirit... and then got a little teary eyed ourselves.

As we were walking to her car to say goodbye, Latoya asked us about baptism. She said "Sisters, I have been baptized before. Is that going to be a problem when I get baptized in this church?" Amazing in itself, but even more so since we hadn't even mentioned baptism! Miracles do happen!! 

God is truly blessing us with amazing people  and experiences! The Church is true! I am loving my mission!!!!

I love y'all so much! I hope all is well! Have a wonderful week!