June 29, 2015
Dear Family & Friends,
Good to hear you all are so pumped
for missionary work! That's cool about the Remington's! For sure I will! I have
covenanted to be an EPIC member-missionary (not to mention give rides to the
poor car-less missionaries... yay empathy)! For it is the members that are the GLUE of missionary
work and the role-play sounds great! To be honest, Mother, after 18 months I
STILL I have no idea how to approach people without getting tongue-tied and
awkward. But we missionaries are weird anyway; people EXPECT you to talk to
them..., which makes it all the more daunting.
We are pretty booked for Saturday,
there is a ward breakfast and then a baptism for one of the Spanish Elder's
investigators, where we want to bring Lun Cheng to...even though it will be in
Spanish--awkward--but at least he can see the ordinance being done. And we are
meeting with a recent convert, so I think all will be pretty filled and we
won't be yelled at for disturbing anybody's 4th. One of my companions had
someone yell at her as they tracted last year on the 4th and said "GO HOME
TO YOUR FAMILY!!" And she's like "I CAN'T!" Sad day.
I was just telling Uncle Brad that
the day dawn is fast approaching and the work still needs to press forward :) I
never want to leave this harvest of souls, but alas there is a time and a
season and the sun is soon setting upon the time allotted to me. "Yea, for
this cause I have sent you hither, and have selected my servant [Ashley
Weaver], and have appointed unto [her] [her] mission in this
land...Behold [her] mission is given unto [her], and it shall not be given
again" (D&C 58: 14,16). I read this today, and don't mean to
change the scriptures, but the Spirit did for me :)
Yes. Tim our eternigator brought the
gay marriage thing to our attention on Saturday. He has a daughter who
struggles with same-sex attraction, but I can tell that he agrees with the
church's status. He is very wise and mature when it comes to faith in our
sustained leaders...which makes it all the more frustrating he won't get in the
water! Anywho :) There are, I don't doubt, many in our ward, or
the church for that matter who disagree with the stance, but we as
Mormons just have such a problem with looking at the eternal perspective. I'm
sorry, but it's true :) We discussed this with Lun Cheng when he brought up his
concerns: God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
man. He wants to give us all He has. Our role in helping Him accomplish this is
by providing bodies for His children and the way that happens is through a man
and a woman. Not only that, but marriage in the world is SOOO different from
marriage to God. It is a relationship that extends far greater than a physical
attraction...it is a bond with GOD that enables us with the power to bring to
pass HIS eternal purposes...not our own. Sadly the world has lost sight of that
or cannot comprehend it for that matter, thus confusion arises.
I truly feel for those who do
struggle with same-sex attraction. It is their trial in life. No doubt it
is a struggle for those who do have that attraction--who KNOW
and ACCEPT the gospel--to see their role in God's plan. Like
some do who can't have children, or those infants who die without
having kids. God blesses them for their faithfulness on earth, which tries
their best to live as God has commanded, until further light and knowledge is
added unto them. As Alma said: "Behold these mysteries are not fully made
known unto me, therefore I shall forbear."
So we must walk by the faith we have
with the knowledge given unto us, until all that we have done in righteousness'
name will be compensated unto us in the eternities because of the
matchless gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
"Behold, the laws which ye have
received from my hand are the laws of the church, and in this light ye shall hold
them forth. Behold, here is wisdom" (D&C 58:23). (There just was a lot
of good stuff in D&C 58 today!)
But I digress...Lun Cheng came to all
three hours! The Delorey's were so great in helping to answer his questions in
our lesson afterward. We discussed baptism and he said he couldn’t be baptized
until he understands the reasoning behind all the commandments...Word of Wisdom
and marriage between a man and a woman specifically. The core doctrine that is
helping his testimony to grow the most is our Father's eternal purposes for his
children...His goal for HIM individually. The Delorey's invited him over to
their home for our next lesson :) He likes them a lot.
Debra, a recent
convert likes us again! (After chewing us out a week a go because our
phone got shut off via text: "I'm being done with you young high-school
kids who are immature and don't know how to teach" or something like that.
Now, as you know I am not one to have attitude when it comes to business,
but I replied with a "We are sorry Deb, know that we still love
you and want to meet...P.S. and we are out of college, not high school...)
I think she probably may be bipolar? But face-to-face she wanted to
set up a meeting with US this time. I hope she knows that we do love her and want
to help her succeed. She came for all three hours with Jaden and Jada and
participated in the lessons. The Delorey's have been so great in fellowshipping
her as well.
Exchanges went great and we finally
found an investigator! YAY! Her name is Gigi who graciously accepted a Book of
Mormon and wants us to come back next week to learn more.
Julia is back in town briefly, but
will be meeting with her tomorrow to re-set her baptismal date. We are
continuing to encourage Tim and Nicole (Coley) to do missionary work for their
families to help their hearts soften to their joining the church. Tim is
studying PMG more and we are hoping to get Coley excited about her own
testimony and be true to it, putting her own fears to rest about baptism.
Love you all and continue in the
faith, my dear family, for all will be well eventually...Through the ups and
the downs and the stress and the ridiculousness there is Christ...we just have
to trust He is there and reach out for Him.
Giving you a hug across time and
space (or just the country)!
-Sister Weaver-
P.S. Did you discuss in ward council the new set-up for
sacrament meeting? Cool, huh?
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