Keeping Our Eyes Open

Hey everyone!

Wow, can I just say that I LOVE being a Missionary?! Everyday is always filled with so many miracles. & I am so grateful that God is still a God of Miracles! This past week I was reading in Mormon chapter 9 & that seriously has to be one of the most powerful chapters EVER. But there were a few verses that really stood out to me this week and I KNOW they are true because I put them to the test and truly saw miracles.

9 For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
 10 And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.
19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.
 20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
 21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.
 22 For behold, thus said Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unto his disciples who should tarry, yea, and also to all his disciples, in the hearing of the multitude: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;

As recently I have been learning a lot about how to "ask, seek, & knock", these verses just solidified everything that I had been pondering about! Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He will ALWAYS answer our prayers according to His will. But the reason why I loved verse 22 is because they related that aspect of prayer & miracles to MISSIONARY WORK. We are commanded to go and preach the word, and if we ASK Heavenly Father in the name of Christ for those specific missionary opportunities, with nothing doubting, then Heavenly Father will truly bless us with those opportunities as we SEEK out His Children and invite them to come unto Christ.

So during our weekly planning session on Thursday where we set goals and make plans for our upcoming week, Sis Saedan and I really made some more specific goals and plans to meet our Mission's Standard of Excellence of adding 3 new investigators a week. After our planning session, in every single one of our prayers, we asked Heavenly Father to help us reach that Standard. As we did that and would go out opening our mouths to everyone, Heavenly Father blessed us with so many opportunities to share the Gospel.

The first happened on Friday. We got up and started exercising at 6:30 AM. Sis Saedan wasn't feeling too good so we just decided to walk in a giant loop around our neighborhood. As we were walking down the street still half asleep & with our eyes struggling to stay open, we saw a lady unloading some stuff out of her car. As we get closer we can see that she is unloading some empty boxes. (Side note: Since my companion is Asian I always joke around with her that she needs to 'open her eyes' more & on Monday she even got a fortune cookie that told her she needed to open her eyes) As we walk by Sis. Saedan's eyes "opened" and she was able to see an opportunity for us to do some service! So she asked the lady "Do you need any help?" & the lady turned to us & was like, "Oh my goodness, that would help SO much!" She then looked at us and saw our name tags and was like, "Wow, you are seriously an answer to a prayer!" So we helped her & she just kept thanking us and told us that she had JUST been praying to God and asking Him for help because she was super stressed out and was running late to work. It was cool to see how we were an immediate answer to her prayer! But since we were only in our workout clothes and didn't have anything to give to her we just offered our help if she saw us around & then watched her drive away to work. After studies that day I felt really prompted to go back to her house and leave her a note w/ our number and thanking her for letting us help her.



Keeping our "eyes open" for opportunities to share the Gospel! ;)

Then on Sunday we decided to fast for 3 new investigators and continued to pray for our goals. Saturday night one of our members texted us telling us that one of her friends was going to come to church and that we should come say Hi to her afterwards! So on Sunday we were sitting there during Sacrament meeting and a lady and her 2 daughters walk in right before the Sacrament and sat down in the closest seats, which just so happened to be right next to us :) Turns out, that they were our members friend! We talked with her afterwards and her 2 daughters are 11 & 9 and they are just the sweetest girls! We explained what we do as Missionaries and set up an appointment to go and teach her at our member's house on Wednesday! They stayed for all 3 hrs and it was seriously the PERFECT Sunday for them to come. All of our Members were just bearing the strongest testimonies about how the Gospel has blessed their families during all aspects of life. In Relief Society the Member who invited her friend to Church even bore a very powerful testimony and by the end, both her AND her friend (and quite a few of us....) were in tears. It was SO amazing to see how Heavenly Father truly answered our prayer almost immediately to help us add 3 new investigators!

IT GETS BETTER. Then RIGHT after church our phone goes crazy and we have 8 messages from a number we don't know. We read them and guess who it was from.....the lady we helped with on Friday! She was still SO grateful and truly recognizes us as Representatives of Christ! She asked us to come back and helped her pack her stuff to move and said that she would be willing to do ANYTHING to repay us for our kindness. So hopefully we will be able to teach her the Restoration and then invite her to meet with Missionaries in San Francisco once she moves :)

I love this work so much and I truly know that GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. I hope that all of you will never forget that. Heavenly Father is always there for us and always wants to hear from us, even when we feel like we aren't worthy to talk to Him. Don't let Satan blind you! Heavenly Father will always be merciful and loving and forgiving as long as we turn to Him.

I love you all!

xoxo Sister Morgan