The Refiner's Fire

Heavenly Father is definitely putting us through the refiners fire
this week. But during relief society we talked about how in Jerusalem
the shepards will break their baby lambs leg so they could carry them
and in turn they would be able to recognize their shepards voice,
smell, and whistle and not get lost. And we talked about how Heavenly
Father does that with us sometimes. Even if we break our own leg or he
gives us a trial. If we stay nearby then we come to know our savior
and our father in heaven and never stray away from them. It was a
really awesome lesson.

We found some new investigators in the past few weeks but they all
have dropped us but one, Nikita. She is wanting to get baptized in
December! She has some things to work through (don't we all) but we
keep seeing her and help her to read and get her own testimony. That's
the most important part. Read and ask. We can get all sorts of
answers, Heavenly Father is just waiting for us to ask.

We are looking for tender mercies everyday as we do our work and
sometimes it's the person who said no, did it nicely. Unlike Friday
evening. It was 745 and we were going to knock just like two more
doors before our lesson. So we walk up to a persons house and this guy
from down the street comes out and says we aren't interested and so we
say okay and walk away, then he said something about it being dark
outside but we get that a lot so we just move on. And then without any
luck we start to go back to the car and the same man is waiting for us
at our car! He is yelling and saying are you about ready to move on
and how he is going to call the police on us. And we just tell him who
we are and how we have the right and documentation to be out here. He
just yells more so we get in the car and leave. And this was at the
end of a super long and stressful day. We kind of dropped Shannon
because she wants the church to help her put up a new fence but
requires complete reconstruction of her backyard. Which is just a
little too much for missionaries. So we told her that in the morning,
and the whole day we were just miserable. So then we took a few
minutes, maybe shed a few tears, said a prayer and went into a lesson
with a less active. But fortunately we have elders in our district and
we were able to receive a priesthood blessing for comfort. And that
helped a lot.

On Saturday we had some service moving a member and then we just did
the same ol, knocking doors and trying to find people to teach. It's
been a little rough but it's a new week and we just have to keep
looking forward. Plus we had dinner with elder and sister Burgoyne who
work in the mission office. And sister Burgoyne took us thrift
shopping this morning and we had lunch with them. They have been a big
light in our week. And we have a pretty awesome week ahead of us.
Mostly just meetings with the mission but hey it's better than
nothing. We find out what happens with transfers on Thursday and our
Ward doesn't want us to be split up but it's almost a guarantee that
we won't be together at transfers. Just too many leadership and
trainer spots to be filled. So I guess we will see.

We had the primary program this week at church and it was so great. I
just love those kids. They sang all about Christ and how they know he
loves them. Loved it. Also a less active family that we are teaching
are starting to come back to church. It was awesome. anyway I'm glad to
hear that things at home are going well. I love you all and hope you
have a great week.

Sister Stephens