Thursday, May 2, 2013

APRIL 29, 2013: BEST LESSON EVERRRR!!

Happy Monday! Its rainy and cold today so I am happy its P-day and I can be inside! I am not loving having my entire outfit drenched in moments! This week was wonderful, despite the wild weather! We were able to reach people that I have been trying to contact since I got to State College in January! Last week was the last week of class for Penn State so we had our last Institute and Institute Fiesta and ESL class. For ESL we went to the Penn State Creamery and had them order ice cream and we celebrated the end of semester! It was really fun to watch them order, their English has improved greatly. "I wood lick a coookie ant criem en urr bowel" haha :) Proud of them! We also got to go to the Institute Fiesta. OLE! I totally ate it tying to win musical chairs, whatever. I sang the Mexican Hat dance and wore a mini sombrero the whole time. People sure got a kick out of that. :) Miss me yet?! Haha. Saturday was the state wide "Saturday in the Park: Mormon Helping Hands Day." We went to Black Moshannon National Park and helped do some clean up. It was really fun to get to work alongside the members in our area and help! The National Park people were shocked how fast the "Mormon's in yellow" were able to complete our assigned projects. GO MORMONS! When we got back later that afternoon I had one of the coolest expierences on my mission. Background info, this area is really hard with less-active members. A lot of students come to school here and decide they would rather party or whatever than go to church and its really hard to ever make contact with them. So since I arrived in State College there was one person who I've wanted to meet with, Wylie. Last week we were having a branch missionary fast and selected a few people to specifically fast for and I felt impressed to fast for Wylie. During our weekly planning we texted less-active members of our branch (like we do every week and no one has responded to date) and sent Wylie the text. After getting back from Mormon Helping Hands we got a text from Wylie that said he was on campus and wanted to meet up with us! I was just getting out of the shower so Sister Ferrin yelled through the door "SISTER ANDRESEN, GET OUT! WYLIE NEEDS US!" haha! I got dressed at the speed of light. As we were getting our stuff ready, I went into the other room and said a prayer. I had been waiting for 4 months to meet with him and really needed the Spirit to tell me what to say! I felt like we should talk about the Book of Mormon and watch a Mormon Message so we made our lesson plan and caught a bus to downtown. IT WAS THE COOLEST LESSON EVER! We had Justin, our ward mission leader, come and sit in on the lesson and Justin said after the lesson that quote "I've never felt the Spirit that strong in a lesson during my 2 years as a ward mission leader. I was choking back tears the whole time!" At the beginning of the lesson Wylie said he hadn't felt the Spirit in over a year and really missed it. He mentioned that when he feels the Spirit really strong he gets chills. At the end of the lesson we played a Mormon Message with Elder Holland bearing his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit just like smacked us all in the face! I looked at Wylie and he had totally had chills! We were all emotional. Then when Wylie said the closing prayer he like literally went speechless. He thanked Heavenly Father for allowing him to feel the Spirit again and then he started crying and he couldn't speak. It makes me emotional right now thinking about it! Heavenly Father answered my prayers and fasting and answered the prayers that Wylie didn't even know were being done for him. I was so grateful for the Spirit in helping reach Wylie. I know that Heavenly Father had a plan in having me here for 4 months praying for him so that the Spirit could be that strong and so I would learn not to give up. Because I seriously was about to. 4 months of praying and fasting is a long time for someone you've never met, but I really felt like I needed to do that for him and I can see why. I have gained such a stronger testimony in fasting and prayer and I can see how much Heavenly Father loves his children. I know that the experience I had with Wylie will be something I will remember for the rest of my life. Missions are the best thing ever! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve my Heavenly Father and to love and teach his children. I can feel myself changing everyday into the person Heavenly Father needs me to be. I am so grateful that I can repent and try harder every day. I know that we are part of Christ's restored church. I have seen miracles this week and the hand of God and its strengthen my knowledge of that truth. I love you all so much. I am praying hard for Mom. Stop being ill!! I can't eat the delish cafeteria food with you if your their right now. Wait till I get home, gheez! :) Have a wonderful week.
Sister Andresen
Side note: I am not positive, but I am probably being transfered to a new area next week. So for safety reasons, send mail early in the week because if I leave I wont get the letters that get sent here for a way long time. So mail things early!! I'll let you know once I know. AKA next week haha. Love you!

No comments:

Post a Comment