Following The Spirit

 This week was so full of joy, miracles, and hard work J  First off, my new companion is Sister Mosquera! Sister Mosquera is from Pasto, Colombia! It's in the north part of Central America. She is just absolutely incredible! She has grown up with the gospel all of her life, and her parents are converts to the church. One of the great things I love about Sister Mosquera is her desire to learn! She has learned English for a little over a year now and was only in the MTC for 12 days! So our days consist of spelling, pronunciation, missionary work, pronunciation, missionary work, etc.  I get to teach her English every day! She is so cute! There is a reason why she came out the day she did, and I am just SO grateful that I get to be her companion and to really help her.

We had an incredible week in Peterborough!  Peterborough is one of the cutest places I have served. There are so many trees and it's just a little city that is out in the middle of nowhere in some ways J  It was a great shock to the members here when they saw two sister missionaries and not elders!! It has been almost two years since sisters served here and there is SO much work that needs to be done!!  I loved getting to hug all of the sisters in Peterborough, it's been a long time since a missionary could hug them. J

Our first night after arriving to Peterborough, we found that we had a dinner 30 minutes later!  So we quickly gathered our stuff, I grabbed the map, and navigated to the cute Fukushima's home.  They are the cutest, older Japanese couple.  After we shared a message with them, Sister Fukushima just hugged us and said she felt the spirit so strong. So that was a great start to our first day after having a dinner and meeting with our amazing bishop that night. 

We were able to do some service this week!  The missionaries were knocking on some doors and came across a less-active member and they told the relief society about her. One of the ladies stopped by to say hello and found her in the worst conditions ever. She had an invasion of ticks. She didn't have her medication and couldn't process what was happening. Her memory was failing and her health was extremely poor. So Sister Partridge called the ambulance and they took her to the hospital.  All in all, her situation wasn't good whatsoever.  BUT, after burning every single bug with a heat treatment, Sister Mosquera and I with some relief society sisters went in and cleaned like crazy!! We were able to see Sister Seymour and talk with her for a short bit and she is excited to go back to this week. We love service!

We are working with some incredible people here in Peterborough!

-Austin [18 years old] He is a recent convert of about one and a half months. We sat down with him and got to talk with him about going to the temple on November 13th with the youth J He is SO excited and we get to see him about three times a week to help him prepare for the Aaronic Priesthood.  His life story and conversion is incredible.  Three months ago... He really had no life.  Bad family, bad everything.  So his grandma took him in and to look where he is at now--baptized, working, and reading his scriptures, etc--is soo incredible.  He is great and we are so excited to work with him!!

-The Sweets [Shelly and Tanya] are sisters and got baptized last year and we are so excited to help them go to the temple and have set a date for November 7th! We are doing all that we can to help them go! They don't really know what they need to do to go there!!  I'll keep you updated on them!! Oh yeah... Tanya's husband is not a member and is learning. 

-Pio family [Todd, Dayton, Elizabeth...] They are a less-active family that we are working with and Dayton got baptized last month! They are going through many difficult things right now in their life.  BUT, We had an AMAZING lesson yesterday!! President and Sister Clayton were passing by and gave us some Spanish materials we needed for Sister Mosquera. We were talking with them and I told them that we had to get going since we have a lesson to go to! President Clayton said, "Well, we have some time. Who are you going to teach and we will come with you!" So... President and Sister Clayton came yesterday to our lesson with the Pio's. What an incredible experience that was!  As we taught the Restoration very clearly and simply, the spirit was able to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel to their hearts. Sigh….It was so good!

A story that has touched my heart was after our lesson with the Pio's. We were going to a dinner appointment and as I got out of the car, I saw two men standing at a corner of the sidewalk talking. I walked over and introduced ourselves.  After talking for a minute, one of the guys had to keep walking since he had Parkinson's disease, so we talked with Kirk a while longer.  After asking him how he was, he said, "Not good at all."  He looked away and said, "Why did you come talk to me?" I told him that I felt we should because the spirit told me in my mind and heart that I needed to.  He began to cry and tell us that it wasn't a coincidence that we met him. He was down on life and thinking life was not worth living anymore and that he had contemplated considering taking his own life.  Can you imagine that?  As we talked with him, I knew that it wasn't coming from us, but from the spirit. I talked with him for a bit and I looked at Sister Mosquera and prayed that the spirit will help her know what to say. She couldn't quite understand our conversation, so I smiled at her and nodded my head to share her testimony. She bore a powerful testimony and couldn't help but cry in doing so. After we talked with him, it was exactly what he needed to hear: That there was a Heavenly Father and He loved him and that there is more to the Atonement of Jesus Christ then covering for our mistakes. We talked for a while on the street and when I knew that he was doing better, we left him with the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We were able to set an appointment and are so excited to see Kirk tonight to help him out. 

After this happened, I wrapped my arm around Sister Mosquera and had a talk with her. "This is what missionary work is all about. As you follow the spirit, you are led to those who need you Sister Mosquera." She began to cry and said, "Sister Robb... I now am understanding my purpose as a missionary..." What an incredible and powerful week it was!!

I am just so truly grateful for the spirit in leading and guiding--not only us--but Heavenly Father's children. The light of Christ is real and others see it.  I am so excited to be with Sister Mosquera here in Peterborough and get to work!  I wouldn't trade anything in the world for the experiences and moments that I will cherish forever. I am so grateful for temples that we have and are able to feel so close to the spirit while there.

Until next time...

Sister Robb