October 6, 2014 More of the Adventure!

a beautiful minnesota rainbow!!

African church

my Liberian friend taught me how to do an African head wrap

Talofa!!

This week we got a list of the part-member families in our ward.  we've got ALOT of part member families. 50 to be precise. So this week we've begun that list. Wow, what amazing people they are. Most of the part member families are less active members as well. We found out that one of the part member families doesn't live too far away from us. We stopped by and we met the husband (a non member) a very nice man working on his car, we asked if he was brother Fort, he laughed and asked which brother we were looking for (referring to his member sons), we laughed and said we were looking for him and his wife actually. We talked with them for a while and then their less active son showed up to their house and we all talked for a while. Sister Fort recounted the days she used to be the primary president and we ended up singing primary songs together. Then she recounted stories of boy scouts and her son chimed in on his memories as well. I hope that it has re sparked the flame of testimony that once was in them so strongly! We are going to go back to visit them again soon.

We also visited a young Filipino member who has been less active for years, explaining to us that her husband is catholic and used to come to church with her and used to listen to the missionaries, but was offended when the missionaries became too defensive claiming that his catholic religion was wrong and that he needed to join the true church. So, to not cause contention between her and her husband, she has been attending catholic church with her husband. We hope that with our loving fellowship and sincerity we will hopefully be able to strengthen the bond and trust of this member and her husband to be willing to perhaps listen and attend church again. We know that with time and patience the Lord will soften his heart. 

As for our investigators, Sister Cooper is still as strong as ever. She came to Sunday’s General Conference and we are excited to hear about what she thought about listening to prophets and apostles speak! General Conference is the spiritual bomb. We had one of our long time investigators come to both a Saturday and Sunday Conference. The talk on Grace and mercy and justice was perfect, it really got him thinking because he's expressed to us multiple times that he believes that works do not save you, that grace is the only thing that you need, that God sees you perfectly. We talked about it after conference and we asked him to think about the reason of judgment day and the purpose of repentance. So with the help of that talk I hope that it stirred something inside him and opened his thoughts to how personal agency and accountability plays a part in our salvation.

If anyone missed General Conference, here's the link:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?cid=HPSU100514465&lang=eng

Check it out! It truly was amazing! Our mission President, President Forbes asked us to do something that I've been told to do before but never actually did it until this week. He wrote in his letter to us this:
 "Next week, we have the blessing of listening to the Prophet, the Apostles and other General Authorities in General Conference. General Conference is always more meaningful if we spiritually prepare for conference. As conference approaches, I would prayerfully prepare by identifying places in your life for which you need guidance as well as questions you may have. If we carefully prepare for conference, you will find the Lord may give you impressions regarding these matters."

 I got all the answers to my questions I've had. And a lot of my questions were questions I've had for a long time. 

For those of you who have never watched General Conference before, here are two that I really enjoyed. These talks really spoke to me:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3821264213001&cid=10

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3820970221001&cid=12

I really love the blessing of listening to the Prophet and Apostles of Jesus Christ. There truly is nothing like it.

            keep up the Faith, have hope, and find happiness!

If you want to learn about the life of Thomas S. Monson, watch this.

      I really want to be like him.  I always think of Grandma Ficklin when I watch this too haha, lucky duck, she got to be in his ward when he was the bishop.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-09-01-on-the-lords-errand-the-life-of-thomas-s-monson?lang=eng

And be sure to check this out, too:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/meet-the-mormons-movie

I love you all! And mom, thank you for your faithful weekly letters. I love them a lot. (: <3

Love, Sister Ficklin