Monday, January 26, 2015

January 26, 2015 What Being a Professional Runner has to do with Going to Church


                                                                 P-day bowling! 


LAST WEEK OF JANUARY!?!?
Hola Amigos! We had a great week this week, the sun has been out and proudly shining and its been in the twenties and above, which I am very happy about (: (: Pray that it stays nice the next three weeks!! Well as time is narrowing down for me, the missionary work here is speeding up! It's been wonderful and as we've been working hard, we're seeing miracles, again! woohoo!
Our Doctor investigator quit drinking coffee! altogether! He's succeeded in overcoming an addiction! That takes strength and commitment! way to go!!! He also said that to get more energy, he's going to start exercising more! We had a lesson on the law of chastity this last week and he thought it was great! We all showed pictures of our families and talked about how they have been great examples to us of the blessings that come from living the law of chastity and bore our testimonies on the strength that has given us to remain chaste as well! So many good things from living the law of chastity! Self-respect, love, trust. what wonderful blessings to have in our lives! 

We've had a lot of great lessons on the law of chastity this week actually with people of every age. from 13 to 60! It's so cool to see that the gospel applies to you no matter what age you are at.

This Sunday we actually got a Less active to church which was awesome! and, he brought a non member friend! The gospel is true guys... so this is what happened. we learned that you have to spark their testimony even before they set foot in the church building again.
So this Less active is African and a professional runner. We have been working with him for months to get him back to church and even take the gospel seriously because when we are in the lessons he would just lay slumped on the couch looking bored and casual and ask questions that would go around in circles. really frustrating.
well finally I got sick of it and I got really serious with him and I asked him what you have to do to become a really good runner. he explained that you had to work really hard, eat well and have a good trainer. bingo. so i asked, what would happen if I didn't work hard before a race and I ate really bad. he said that I wouldn't be a good runner. Right. So I told him that he is already a physical runner and now we are going to make him into a spiritual runner. you should have seen him. he finally sat up straight, and was curious, listening intently. we told him that the gospel is the same way. we have to work at it, and we have to listen to our trainer (God) in what he is telling us. and we asked what he thinks he has to do to become a spiritual runner. guess what the first thing he said was? go to church. and we said Yes! exactly!  anyway, we went through all of the things he needed to do to become this spiritual runner to win the race. prayer, scripture study, etc. but it finally clicked in him what he needed to do. and he finally said it, he said "I want to go back to church." yessssssss!!!!
well, he didn't come the next week, or the next, or the next.
but we didn't give up and we slowly and patiently worked him up every time we went and taught him and kept reminding him of being a spiritual runner, until the last lesson we talked about the 10 commandments and focused on the importance of keeping them and the joy it brings in our lives, and he turned to his friend who was there and said, "lets go to church." and they did!!!  woohoo! Now for the next step, helping him gain a firm testimony, and be a strong spiritual runner to where he can run the race until the end- to keep coming to church! stay tuned!
Okay, everyone: please look up and listen to "the missionary next door" I hope that at the next general conference this will be a new commandment added to the list.
It is a girl who talks about how they did missionary work as a family, in very simple, easy ways. she bears a very strong testimony on how we are all missionaries. In fact, the set apart missionaries cannot do their work effectively without the members. As a missionary myself I can attest to that. Members make all the difference! Take time to check it out! 
Love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week! Keep up the missionary work! 
Love Sister Ficklin

(Note from Kaylani’s mom – I don’t think this is “the missionary next door” clip that Kaylani meant – I haven’t found it yet, but this one was still good!)

More photos from our lesson on samuel the lamanite gone wild!










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