Strengthening Faith

May 24, 2010

Hey mom,

Things have been pretty good this week. We have been keeping busy and working a lot. We have found a lot of people, but they aren't too promising. But we will continue to work. We went on exchanges this week and it helped me to really appreciate my companion that I have now. I am so glad I have a good hard working companion who isn't so strict and doesn't tell me what to do.

While I was on exchanges we had a funny thing happen. We went to a member’s home and they have a 17yr old son who just graduated from high school. He pretty much proposed to me. Not literally, but he did say he wants to marry me in the Salt Lake Temple! Hahaha! It's a good thing he isn't in my ward.

We have been teaching a lot of people, but they are not really progressing. We are trying to find more people and go knocking a lot more, but that is not the most motivating thing to do in this area. We did have a lot of success knocking on doors this past week, but they were all about as solid as water.

I had a pretty cool experience this past week where my faith was tried. I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. It's just sometimes I don't recognize, or sometimes I am too nervous to act on the answer I get. Last transfer my previous companion had contacted someone and she told my new companion what housing area she lived in, but didn't give us an address or a phone number. So we were going to just knock on doors throughout the whole neighborhood to try to find her. But there were about 40 houses we had to try. So we knocked on the door of one house and no one was there. I had the idea that we should put our faith into action and pray that we will be able to find where this person lived. But I just ignored that thought and knocked on another door. Then the thought came to me again. So I told my companion and she said that it was a good idea. I asked if she wanted to say the prayer because I am too faithless and she said no, I needed to strengthen my faith. So I offered a very humble prayer pleading for help from the lord. Then a woman walked by and I had the thought to ask if she knew the person we were looking for. But guess what, I didn't ask. I'm telling you, I need to strengthen my faith. So we knocked on a couple more doors and talk to those people and tried to share a message of the restoration with them, but they were not interested. Then we were just standing outside looking at all the houses and wondering what to do next? There were two women outside their homes talking to each other. The thought came to me to ask one of them if they knew the person we were looking for. I had an inner struggle for some reason then after a minute or so, I finally followed the prompting. I asked the women if they knew who we were looking for. They told us they had lived in that house for 15 years and knew all of the neighbors. They definitely knew who we were looking for and where she lived. When I prayed to know which house to go to I was expecting that one house would just stand out, or to have the feeling to go left or right, but I didn't have any of those feelings. However, Heavenly Father did put people in my path who could help me. I never really realized how faithless I was until this month, but man has my faith been strengthened.

I still love my mission. All is going well.

I love you! You're in my thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Sister Garbett