"Don't stop Believing; hold onto that feeling." ~Journey

Hi!

This week and transfer has been one of the hardest ones on my mission. Satan has kicked up a notch and his throwing everything at us. We keep having alot of 1st lessons but no one progresses past that. We've probably talked to every single rude person here at least once maybe three times. This transfer has been full of rude, nasty people, one right after another. We keep telling ourselves (and we know this is true) that there is something amazing around the corner. Just remember the trial of your faith before the blessing.

We had a way cool miracle of the Spirit trying to tell someone that the gospel is true. We tracted into a couple who told us to come back and that they were opened minded to everyone's beliefs. We came back and taught them a 1st and the spirit was in strong abundance in the room and working through us. We were able to teach with power and clarity. When it came to time for the 1st vision I was ready for the spirit to hit the ball out of the park, which it did. As Sister Hamilton was sharing the vision, the husband all of a sudden quoted a line (...above the brightness of the sun...) from the 1st vision before she ever said it. It shocked us and it surprised him. When we asked him about it he said that he had heard it before and brushed it off like it was nothing but from the questions he had been asking the whole lesson he didn't sound like he had heard it before. It was cool to see how powerfully the Spirit was trying to tell him it was true and that it was the truth he had been looking for but he chose to ignore it. They later called us an hour before our second appointment to say they were no longer interested. They told us that they had read and prayed about the BofM (in one day span) and they didn't get an answer, so they said it wasn't for them.

There was a great idea from a letter I got from a friend who is serving in Australia. He said that we are like metal that God is trying to mold. He sticks us into the fire to heat us up and then right before we get to the melting point he pulls us out, puts us on the anvil and pounds us then sticks us the ice water to cool us off. So if we are still humble enough to be teachable and we trust his will, he sticks us back into the fire. So when we say, help me to become a better person or better missionary, we are just saying to God, "Bring it on, I'm ready." So back into the fire.

But during that "fire", God will still aid us and let us know that he is watching out for us. Let me share a tender mercy I had this week. After this long week of rude, nasty people, then came Sunday to finish it off. Sunday seems to be the hardest day for a missionary probably because of church. It started out with us missing the passing of the sacrament because we were trying to get an investigator to church. She didn't come and it bummed us out and it was extremely hard on us because it seemed like a cherry on top of this nice week. But we still needed to work. We didn't feel like talking to anyone, we didn't feel like working, but we knew we needed to. So I kept saying a constant prayer for help and encouragement. I felt prompted to open the new Gospel principles book and I opened it to one of my favorite quotes. It's by Heber J. Grant and it says, "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased." In high school, I kept this quote on my nightstand and read it all the time. So it was a reasurrance that God is there and that I just need to keep trying. But still bummed out, we went to walking the streets and tracting. As we were tracting, a song came blaring out of someone's car. It's by Journey and it goes "Don't stop believing; just hold on to that feeling..." My attitude changed. That song was directed towards me and God was telling me "Don't give up, continue to have faith and hold onto that 'feeling' from the spirit." I love my Heavenly Father!

During those struggles and trials (or continous trial), I just need to keep my eternal perspective that this is all for my good. We all do.

Love Sister Sumsion