I AM A DIFFERENCE MAKER!

Hello my friends!

Obviously it was an exciting week because that's just what happens when you live in Carrollton.

To start off with, we got an EXTREMELY interesting phone call from a man in Columbus, GA. For reasons unbeknownst to us, this man had our phone number and decided he wanted to call and "thank us for what we do for humanity." Really sweet right? Then he kind of turned into a freak and told us he was Pagan and that his "God" was the same as our God, but not, and his God was "male and female at the same time"...I dunno. But he said that of all the Christian denominations, we were the most "on point". Then his next words were: "now, if you can just get on point with the Pagans and the Hindus, then you'd have the WHOLE truth." *face palm*. people are weird.

I tried the Southern "delicacy" of boiled peanuts this week and almost barfed.

Brenda is still doing great. Jasen and Angel want to be baptized this Saturday....exciting, but not going to happen because they are still far from ready hahaha. While we were over there this week having a cute lesson about baptism and butterflies (don't ask), Brenda's neighbor walked in the house, saw us sitting there, got ready to say something nasty, and then Brenda was all "Bubbah! Don't talk to them. We're Mormons now." HAHA! nice.

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The bulk of my email will focus on 2 events that had a huge impact on me this week:

#1

Tuesday: We had scheduled to go finding for a solid hour in a giant apartment complex we recently ran into that looked pretty untouched. We prayed to find a new investigator while we were there and went out to follow the Spirit. For whatever reason, I was feeling extremely pumped about finding that day (which is shocking because I hate door-knocking with every fiber of my being). As we knocked on door after door, something miraculous happened: every door opened. Something very sucky also simultaneously happened: every person who answered was a JERK. Every single one of them. It's never been that bad for me before. We met one man in particular who took one look at us, said incredibly rudely "I'm not interested, ladies. I'm baptist." and tried to slam the door. Before the door shut, I blurted out "How do you know the Baptist church is the true church??! Did God tell you that??" He didn't have much of a response. "Ladies...I'm done with you today. Goodbye." *SLAM!* HE COULDN'T EVEN TELL US HE KNEW IT WAS TRUE!!!! 

I was so frustrated. We walked from complex to complex and all of a sudden I just called out "THERE'S GOTTA BE SOMEONE IN HERE!" It was like a movie scene haha. We decided to knock on 4 more doors and be as bold as we possibly could because we had major faith that someone was in there waiting to hear about the gospel. The next 4 doors were TRASH. As we walked back to the car defeated, tears rolled down my cheeks and I thought to myself "After all of that, we didn't make a single difference for one person." I had so much faith that day to find someone--something that I hadn't really felt that strongly while finding before. That was one of the lower points I've had on a mission. 

#2

Exchanges-Friday: While chillin' with my friend Sister Nau for the day up in Douglasville, we pulled up to a small little Southern subdivision and went at it. We knocked on only 4 doors that whole night.

Door #1: nothing

Door #2: nothing

Door #3: *woman looks at us, scoffs SUPER rudely, slams door*.

Door #4: nothing

After door #4, I had memories of earlier in the week of being rejected and I was super not down for that. I said to Sister Nau, "Hey, I think we should go back and see that lady who just slammed on us and tell her that God loves her." (cheesy). Sister Nau laughed at me but then said "Hmm..I actually feel like we should too." It just felt so right!

So we did!

*knock knock knock*

Woman: "You've got a lot of nerve! Why are you back at my door?"

As we proceeded to talk to her, she was SO SHOCKED that we came back especially after her initial reaction. We came to learn that she was just having a really really bad day, had never heard of our church before, and was now incredibly intrigued because no one had ever had the guts to do that to her before. After she shut the door on us, she said that she had gone back to sit on her couch to watch the terrible things happening on the news again and really just felt so much guilt for shutting the door. I know that Heavenly Father had really humbled her in that moment and prepared her for what was coming next.

 

After talking on the porch for a while, she allowed us into her house and said "This is so bizarre, I cannot believe I'm letting you in right now." We then had the most INCREDIBLE lesson I've ever had with someone sitting there in her living room. Sister Nau and I were so bold with her as we testified of the Book of Mormon and this being the true church. I have only cried in 3 total lessons on my mission, and that one took the cake. I literally watched the darkness inside this woman be replaced with light as we sat and taught her about how much God REALLY loved her. She said "I feel like this is the answer I didn't know I was searching for."

It was literally like something out of an Ensign or a movie. 

I've been reflecting back on these 2 experiences a lot.

In one moment, I felt lower than I've ever felt and as if I hadn't made a difference for anyone in the world at all.

In the next, I helped make all the difference for one woman who, if I hadn't followed a prompting, wouldn't have been introduced to the light of joy of the gospel.

It's quite the contrast, really.

Even though it's hard to see it sometimes, I AM A DIFFERENCE MAKER!

Gah. Life is so good.

Annnnnnd I'm out!

Sister Lawson

Song of the week: (how fitting!)
Difference Maker- NeedToBreathe