Hermana Mary DeWitt: Road Trips, Rejection, and Rita!

Another week has gone, and that's wild! I feel like this transfer has just been flying by!!

On Wednesday, we met Victor, who had been a referral from the Elders in our District, but we hadn't been able to get in contact with him because we only had his address. We set up a Return Appointment (RA), but when we went back, he wasn't home (a common ocurrence in missionary work) hopefully we can get back in contact with him and start teaching him! He seemed really nice and ready to hear the Gospel!

We also got to take a road trip out to Estes to have a member dinner with Hermana Acedo Moore (The RS President in the Estes English Branch) and her family - we had never met before, but she wanted us to meet her non-member friend Evelyn, so she invited us over for dinner! Evelyn was only there for a little bit, but we started talking about prayer and the Book of Mormon and WOW she's so prepared to learn the Gospel! We gave her a copy and invited her to read the Introduction, and she said she would! She loved the idea of having more peace in this life through Christ - she was like "Oh wow...I need that kind of peace in my life!" She's so awesome and we're so excited for her!!

We faced A LOT of rejection on Saturday, and it was really hard. But, then we had 2 really good member lessons that night and were able to help the members of our little Spanish Branch, so I was happy!

I also played the piano in church on Sunday! Isaac (the youth who usually plays the hymns in Sacrament Meeting) was helping to bless the Sacrament, so I played the hymns and it went fairly well! I love being able to serve in different ways, especially when it involves music!!

On Monday, we visited Rita, a 90-something-year-old Spanish-speaking member who lives in an assisted living center in Northern Longmont - she had been asking us to come and visit her, and we had time that day, so off we went! We talked about the Holy Ghost, read some scriptures, she told us some crazy stories about evil spirits, and we were finally able to get out of there an hour later. She's really amazing though - even though she's in her 90's, she still reads her scriptures, come to church every Sunday, and even goes to the temple whenever she gets the chance!

Personal Study Excerpt for this week!

Enos 1:12 - "And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."

--do I really pray with ALL diligence? Or am I tired and sometimes simply going through the motions of praying each morning and night?

--what can I DO to help me make my prayers more meaningful, earnest, and diligent?

Here were some of my ideas:

--kneel instead of sit

--whisper/speak out loud instead of praying in my head (so that my mind doesn't wander!)

--praying for different things (if I'm praying for someone, re-phrase their needs each night so that I don't say the same thing every time!)

But I want to invite each of you to come up with your own ideas on how you can pray more diligently this week! I promise you'll see a huge difference - I know I have!

Love you all and have a fantastic week!

- Hermana DeWitt