Hello Dear Family!
I hope you all had an amazing Valentine's Day and President's Day
weekend. Happy Anniversary to Michelle and Jeff!!! I am so grateful you
two found each other and have blessed my life with your examples and with
sweetie sweet nieces that I love so much! Thank you for the packages of
love Mom and Aurora! You are the sweetest! Thanks for making me beam!
Lots of good things are happening here in San Diego and with the R2
(r-squared) La Jolla Companionship! = ) We had an amazing week! We had
our MTE training....teaching from our assistants and our mission
president. We focused on being able to simplify and intensify our
message and being able to teach lessons in 1 minute. We did "Minute to
Win It!" We have been practicing doing that since, and we are getting
better at it. It's much harder than it sounds to teach the Restoration
or Plan of Salvation in just 60 seconds! We focused on Elder Ballard's
challenge he gave us, which was, "Do they know that you know?" Do the
people that we teach know we understand and believe in what we are
teaching? It was all so great and I just love missionary training
meetings. They always pump you up! It's so great to be a missionary!
There is nothing greater I could be doing with my life right now!
We had some miracles in our area too...remember the Gahna's? Well,
we went and tried to get them all to the Battalion to watch "The
Testaments" to help them see visually the power of The Book of Mormon
and The Bible. They wouldn't come because they hadn't planned on
it...but they were all home...and we ended up teaching them for an
hour...but the circumstances were kind of funny. We had a ward member
there, April, who was talking to Basil, one of the preachers, had a
great conversation and she just answered his curiosities and by the end,
he said he would maybe come to church with her sometime. I was trying
to handle the other preacher, William...I did not have so much luck. I
shared with him my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I promised him if he
read it he would not find discrepancies. I even opened up the Bible and
showed how The Book of Mormon supports and clarifies what the Bible
teaches so we can understand more clearly. I read with him from Ezekiel
37 and Isaiah 29....but pretty much it's like what he is looking for
is for the Bible to flat out say, "The Book of Mormon will be brought
forth and translated by Joseph Smith." He would not accept anything I
had to say. I was feeling so crushed and as Jacob says in Jacob my
anxiety over my desire for this man to accept the Book of Mormon was
making me feel useless.....BUT, while I kept him occupied, my
companions were able to talk to 3 of the men who are actually open
to hearing about the gospel. They discovered what was holding them back,
and they said they would read the introduction and we set up a for sure
time for them to come to the Battalion to see "The Testaments." I was
thankful for Sister Miller picking me up off the ground because as I
left I was so overwhelmed and exhausted from my conversation with the
preacher, that I began to cry and I felt like such a useless missionary
and like my testimony had no power. Sister Miller said, "Sister
Riggs, had you not talked to him and distracted him, we wouldn't have
been able to have the amazing lesson that we had with the others because
he would have been there interjecting, and Heavenly Father knew you
were strong enough to do it. That was you taking one for the team, and
now Pizaro, Andrew and Bright are going to read The Book of Mormon
because of it and we know better what they are feeling." I had to remind
myself that he had his agency. His heart is closed and I wanted it so
badly to be open...I guess I was just wishing I could've been a Nephi or
an Alma and that they'd all believe my words. = ) THEN, on Sunday night
we went over with a ride ready for them and to our surprise they were
ready and waiting to go! Sister Rasmussen and I were squealing with
excitement in the car! Pizaro and Andrew were the only one's who came,
but they loved the movie and hearts were softened. After the movie was
over, Andrew said, "It may be possible....it makes sense." YESSSSS!!!!
OH MY GOOFY GUMMIES!!! MIRACLE! I am excited to keep teaching them and
to see how their lives will change as the spirit changes their hearts!
Cool!!!! It's like I'm a missionary in Africa! = )
We had some neat experiences yesterday too as we tried to talk to
everyone who passed us and applied our "Minute to Win It" training to
try and find people to teach and we added 2 new investigators!!!
Cassandra...who is a new mother and her boyfriend is deployed....she was
so sweet and we talked about her sweet baby girl and what it was like
to hold her for the first time. I asked her if she ever thinks, "Oh my
goodness...what am I going to teach her so that she has a happy life and
is successful and makes the right choices?" Tears welled in her eyes
and she said, "All the time." We promised her that the teachings of
Jesus Christ would help her understand her sacred calling as a mother
and help her to know what to teach her daughter, and that following them
would build their family on a solid foundation. We sang "Families Can
Be Together Forever" and the spirit was so strong. Her eyes were glued
to us. We added another young man, Philip, who is in the Navy. We had
met another guy who was just out with his dog and talked to him and he
gave us his number cause he wanted to come play sports with the
missionaries...he was really nice so we were stopping by again hoping to
get to teach him, he wasn't home, but Philip was...and he was so great!
He actually just stood there at the door with us and asked us all kinds
of questions and we were comparing missionary service to military
service = ). I listened as he told us of his jobs he has done. One he
loved while he was out to sea was being the head of the crew that went
out to rescue those who fell overboard. I clung to that and as I left my
testimony with him, I said, "You mentioned something about your job
that struck me....because it relates so perfectly to the gospel." I
reminded him of what he did...being that rescuing crew, and then I said,
"That is exactly who the Savior is to us. We are on this ship...this
safe ship that is leading us to where we want to be....but sometimes we
get too close to the edge or we fall into temptation or sin and decide
to take our own path and we get thrown overboard....with all of the
crashing waves and the wind tossing us about....we often think we are
lost at sea and there is no hope....but then comes the rescue
crew...then comes the Savior. He is ALWAYS there to save us when we need
the rescuing. It is in His power to bring us back aboard the ship. We
are never out of His reach." I was so thankful for the sweet promptings
of the Holy Ghost that helped make that connection and help Philip see
and know better his personal relationship with the Savior. He said he
wanted to play sports with us too and we also asked if we could teach
him and he said, "Yeah why not? I feel better just having talked to you
tonight!" MIRACLE! The power of the Spirit! We prayed with him before he
left...and I know he's a macho Navy guy, but he was holding back his
emotions....what a cool experience that was. Can't wait to teach him
more!
I have also been blessed to hear about many miracles that are
continuing on in Fuerte (my previous area)...first of all...because of
working so tirelessly and doing all we could, and the amazing amount
of work there is in that amazing city...they have gone from 2 to 5
missionaries!!!! We were PRAYING for that. Sister Hudson and I every
weekly planning session would be so overwhelmed and sad that we weren't
able to get to all who needed us...now...they will! And, the sisters are
teaching a family now that I had a prompting to talk to one day...we
had knocked on the door of a family in an apartment complex and they
weren't home...we were walking back to our car and I looked down a row
of apartments to my left and saw a man and woman cleaning up their front
yard...I said, "Wait, Sister Hudson, let's go talk to these people and
see if they need help." We had a great conversation and testified and
they were kind and open...nothing ever came from it while I was
there...but they took the time to go back to them and added the whole
family!!! Too cool! Also, Ken is getting baptized (I have been teaching
him since I came on my mission and he was one I wondered would ever be
baptized because he has so many interesting views on things and kind of
created his own religion he believed...thanks to The Book of
Mormon....his heart has changed! I can't wait to see that!) AND! I just
found out today that Larry, someone we started teaching back in October,
is getting baptized too! He is one I think I wrote about before...it
was our first meeting and we were teaching the Restoration (that was the
plan) but it moved to the Plan of Salvation and then the spirit just
burned within me to invite him to be baptized. I took a leap of faith
and did it...he accepted, but then fell off the map because of drinking
and smoking...well the Sisters went back and found that the spirit had
been preparing and teaching him and when they asked him to keep the Word
of Wisdom, he said, "I already quit!" He is getting baptized in
March!!!! WHAT?!!! So amazing! Planting seeds and seeing them grow is
the best! I love the miracle of being a missionary!
One more small miracle...I was asked to sing last minute at
sacrament on Sunday...the spirit prompted me to sing a song I had never
sung in public and that I hardly knew but that I knew was perfect for
the theme of the meeting. I didn't have an accompanist and no one
responded. A man in the ward picked up the piece 10 minutes before the
meeting...it was rough the first run through...and the 2nd...by the time
we sang it..it was perfect... I sang everything OK and didn't mess up
and...the last page of the song fell from the piano right at the climax
and the pianist caught it before it hit the ground and finished
beautifully!!! WHAT?! Heavenly Father loves me!
I hope you are all well...I love your guts!!!
Hugs and kisses for all!
Love,
Sister Riggs
