"Give him the apples"

This week has been a week of blessings!  Meeting new investigators, following the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and having an investigator with a baptismal date! Overall, it has been a hard but amazing week. 

Last Monday, Sister Shurtliff and I were caught in a flash flood walking down this street that seemed endless. We ran and found cover in this "old telephone booth sized" doorway to an old factory. While there, I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help us find someone that needs to hear the gospel... we did. After the rain died a bit, we walked down the street and found a man named Keith who was just outside watching the rain under a porch. We talked with him and found out that he is living in a barn in the back yard and that he is just so grateful that his boss lets him stay there since he doesn't have a home.  Keith is from Jamaica and has lived a really hard life. He talked about many of his trials and experiences that he has had throughout his life and also mentioned that he is just grateful to get food every couple of days since he has learned to survive off of water for three to four days.  While talking to him I heard this voice say softly... give him the apples.  I kept talking about the gospel to Keith when I heard the voice, again, louder say... give him the apples. I then turned to Sister Shurtliff thinking that she had told me that but she was bearing her testimony like nothing had happened. The voice then told me for a third time, Sister Robb, give him the apples! Realizing that Sister Shurtliff just finished bearing her testimony I knew what I needed to do. I told Keith that we have apples in our bags if he would like them and he said, "These are apples from Jesus. Thank you so much." He held the apples close and looked like he was going to cry. I almost cried! I had completely forgotten that we had apples in our bags that we had not eaten. Earlier in the day when I was going to eat the apple, I simply was not hungry, and learned many hours later why that was!  There is an answer to everything!  I knew that the Holy Ghost had answered my prayer. We were meant to find Keith, share with him the gospel, and give him some food that we had. Whenever I feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost, I have been following them and have seen countless miracles and blessings in doing so. I will never forget the many experiences that I have had here on my mission with the Holy Ghost.  My testimony the Holy Ghost has grown immensely!  I know that if we are worthy of the Holy Ghost throughout our lives, it will constantly be there to guide, comfort, teach, warn, and direct us in all that we do. 

Exploring hidden tunnels under our church!

We had exchanges this week! Sister Felix is the Sister Training leader in our mission and did a trio with Sister Shurtliff and I for a day! First off, a trio companionship is hard but we had some cool stuff happen!  We met this old man named Dip who is from Fiji. We set up a time for Friday and went to teach him. We taught he and his brother Dale about the Restoration and will be giving him a Hindi Book of Mormon this week!  We'll see how that goes but it went well the first time teaching him. The main thing that threw me off was when he said that they don't pray in their homes and only pray in their churches. We are going to teach them how to pray and pray with them this week! All I can do is pray for them and have faith that this is the time to hear more about the true restored gospel! 

Update on Timothy Richards! We went by on Tuesday to give him a Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants combination book! He was so happy and invited us over for another time to hear a message that we had to share. We were so eager to meet him! Our lesson about the Restoration was very interesting... Not at all how we planned it would go. He went on and on and ON about politics, his military stories, and then taught us some of the Restoration details. We invited him to come to church and he basically said he can’t.  He told us he is helping another church right now with some things and that he doesn't want the congregation to be in harms risk... WHAT?!  We asked him why and he then explained how he used to be a Chaplin and is afraid that people are after him that don't like him.  He told us just to stop by every once in a while to talk but that he can't join the church right now but he would love to in the future! Not what I expected at all! But it's all good…. the seeds have been laid, scriptures have been given, and we will continue to pray that someday he will have a desire and yearning to learn more about the church and join... someday.

Last cool story, Sister Shurtliff and I got a call from a lady named Holly who we had met several days before just at a bus stop. She told us that she thought a lot about what we had told her about families and wanted that for her baby boy in the future. She is five months pregnant and has never really had any religious background. Sister Shurtliff and I were able to teach her last week about the Restoration and loved it! I invited her to baptism and she said YES! We had a baptismal date for August 31st but that has to change now since she didn't attend church yesterday because she felt very sick with her pregnancy and couldn't come. We will set up another baptismal date with her soon! We ran into Holly on the bus later that night after we had taught her and found out that she has a boyfriend! We will be teaching both of them this week (hopefully)! Cannot wait to see what is in store with them!  Let you know more next week!

Overall, it was a great week. I am truly blessed to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I have seen the Lord's hand in everything I do as a missionary the past 6 weeks. It's incredible! Lately during personal studies, I have been re-reading the May 2014 Ensign from our past General Conference talks. This morning I read "The Joyful Burden of Discipleship" by Elder Ronald A. Rasband. It is such an amazing talk! He says, "Jesus Christ continues to extend the call "Come Follow Me." He walked His homeland with His followers in a selfless manner. He continues to walk with us, stand by us, and lead us. To follow His perfect example is to recognize and honor the Savior. Who has borne all of our burdens through His sacred and saving Atonement, the ultimate act of service.  What he asks each one of us is to be able and willing to take up the joyful "burden" of discipleship." I know that when we are focusing on serving our brothers and sisters, He will guide us throughout our lives. We will also come to see through Christ's eyes the love He has for his children... I know that He loves each of his sons and daughters so much... Most of all, I know that He loves each of us immensely. We are his disciples when we serve our fellow men, I promise that we will feel of his spirit and "we will grow in testimony, faith, trust, and love" as we serve daily. 

Well, I must be off, but please know that I KNOW this Gospel is true.  Everything happens for a reason, and we may not know that reason at this time, or even in this mortal life, but there is SO much more than this life!  When you receive a prompting as simple as…. your not hungry, don’t eat that apple…please please please follow through with what it is urging you to do, because He knows it will make you stronger!  No prompting is an accident!  We are on this earth and have this knowledge, so let’s share it with people around us!!  Have the desire to invite more of His children to enter His kingdom, and when you do so, how great will be your joy!  J  HOW GREAT IS OUR CALLING!!!

Loving the candy and package that I received from home!!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  Until next time….

Sister Robb