What a blessing it is to serve the Lord!! And an extra
special blessing to be able to serve Him on my birthday. I cannot think of a
better way to spend my mission. I hope to make this day His. I hope to show Him
how grateful I am for all He has done for me. How blessed my life has been for
the past 21 years. I forgot it was my birthday until this morning when my
mission president's wife called and wished me a happy birthday. I have the
greatest mission mom in the world :) Then I forgot again until I got on my
email! I have great famiyl and friends :) Hopefully I will forget again as I get
back to work after emailing.
I wanted to start off by talking a little bit about
today. Since it is my 21st birthday, my companion and I were thinking of things
I could do to celebrate. This is what we came up with, and I hope to accomplish
them all!
21 people talked to on the
street
21 doors knocked on
21 cards handed out
2 new investigators, 1 new baptismal
date
21 prayers throughout the day
I hope to be able to have the Lord's help as I strive to
have one of the greatest days of my mission.
How great it was to talk to some of you on Sunday for
Mother's Day. I want to apologize for being so emotional. I definitely did not
see that coming! My companion was looking at me pretty weird. She didn't cry
while talking to her family, so I must have looked a little awkward haha. But
she doesn't know my family. I have the greatest family in the entire world and
it was an extrememly emotional roller coaster while talking to them. How great
each of you are. Derek told me when I was crying on the phone to "stop crying.
Tomorrow you are going to get right back to work." I told him I wouldn't wait
until tomorrow, the Lord needs me tonight. And I was glad he told me that.
Because as soon as I was off the phone, we did get right back to work. It was
wonderful. We ended up going over to somebody's house who desperately needed us
there. It was wonderful!! More details will be in the rest of the
email.
Well, tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day. We have a
zone conference in West Bank (about 2 hours away), and President Tilleman and
his son will be there. His son just got back from his mission last weekend so he
is taking him around the mission as we are working on changing our planning and
how we use our time. I am very excited to meet him, he sounds fantastic. Anyway,
after the zone conference, President Tilleman and his son will be driving to
Oliver to have 3 lessons with us. Now, this may not sound that exciting to you
back home. But this is huge. A mission president has not visited Oliver or
Osoyoos in over 30 years, because work has never been progressing in this tiny
area. They try to focus on teaching lessons to investigators who could really
benefit from it. Well, after that long of a drought, the Lord is harvesting His
work here. And we are so honored to be able to have President meet some of our
investigators!! To have him and his son here will be such a miracle. I cannot
wait to write all about it next week. And to start the day with a zone
conference, I cannot think of a better day! My 4th zone conference in 4 months!!
Heavenly Father is trying to say something about this work...it is
HASTENING!!
We saw Fawn again on Mother's Day. I think I mentioned
her in last week's email. Anyway, she was the new investigator who invited her
less-active mom to the lesson and it was a mriacle. Well, this time she invited
her again. Apparently this is going to be like a regular thing. I cannot
describe my excitement about the whole situation. Her mom, Sister LaFleur has
not been to church in about 20 years. But this past lesson, she bore fervent
testimony about this church. She said that through all of her trials in her
life, the church has been the ONLY thing to never leave her. I thought that was
incredible to hear from somebody who has not been in a long time! She also
looked at us, with tears in her eyes, and said I have prayed for 40 years that
my daughter Fawn would become Mormon. And I feel like it is happening. She told
us what a miracle it was that she was even sitting at the table with us. I know
that Fawn felt of her mother's love for her, and for the Gospel. We shared the
story of the first vision with her, and all about Joseph Smith and the Savior
Jesus Christ. It was the first time she had ever heard anything about Joseph
Smith. Well, we asked her what she thought. She said "Oh, it has to be true. I
know he saw what he said he saw". Wow! It is so incredible to me how the Spirit
can just testify to somebody of the truth of something they have NEVER heard
before in their life!! She said she knew the Spirit was telling her it was true.
We invited her to be baptized, and she said yes. We have not set a date yet, but
I feel so good about her. What a blessing she is in MY life, and I hope to be
the same in hers. I will keep you updated on her progress towards Salvation from
Jesus Christ! I just cannot express to you how important it is to help our
brothers and sisters who are STARVING for the truth! We, as Latter-Day Saints,
have the meat that can suffice their hunger! We must feed it to them! Just
think, if you run into to one of your friends after this life and they have then
accepted the Gospel. I can only imagine them saying, "Sister Biggs, you had this
your entire life, and you never shared it with me?" Or, "Hey, I remember you,
you passed me on the street. Why did you not help me find this happiness?".
Well, those are words I never want to hear. So I strive to share this Gospel
with EVERYBODY.
Sister Haight and I spoke on Mother's Day. (Which, by
the way, I hope each of you mothers had a wonderful day!!). It was an emotional
wreck! No, it was good. But very hard. I began my talk just fine. I spoke about
incredible mothers such as Mary, the stripling warriors' mothers, and Eve. Well,
then I began speaking about my mother. I have the greatest mother. The tears
wouldn't stop for the rest of my talk. If there is one thing I have come to be
excited for on my mission, it is to be a mother. There is something mothers have
that nobody can understand until they become one. And how excited I am to have
that opportunity!
Back to the woman who we saw Sunday night. Late Saturday
night we get a text. (Ok, I say late...it was 9:45. But it was late for us! We
were getting ready for bed! My how my mission has changed things...) Anyway, she
says that she REALLY wanted us to come by the next day. We had no idea why. But
we did. We stop by and she is in tears, having a difficult time with her ex. We
did our best to console her. She told us how she had nobody to turn to, and how
a few months ago we made a really good impression on her and she wanted to speak
with us. Well, long story short, she will be one of the 3 people meeting with
President Tilleman tomorrow night. We told her about Priesthood blessings, and
how much one would help her right now. She agreed to have one. So tomorrow,
President Tilleman and his son will be administering to her. What a miracle this
whole situation was!
Well, we went to see Robin yesterday. The doctor would
not let him go to church or even leave his room because he is on so much oxygen
ever since he quit smoking. His lungs are on the verge of collapsing because
they went into shock. How sad it is to watch him go through this. Well, when we
went to visit him yesterday, he was sitting in his scooter crying. He said that
he had messed up and bought cigarettes. He had smoked 4 that day. My heart
literally crushed into a million pieces. I watched him as he struggled for words
and could not express his disappointment in himself. He got into his bed as
tears rolled down his face. We spoke to him about how much his Heavenly father
loves him. He looked up, helplessly, and began crying again. He said He feels
like he had disappointed his Heavenly Father. He said he wanted so desperately
to be baptized, but he didn't think he was worthy. Well, although we may need to
move the date for his baptism, he is still worthy of it!! I love that about this
Gospel. We never deny anybody the blessings of Heaven. They deny themselves of
it. Before we left, we asked him to offer the closing prayer. Wow. I am
surprised I could contain myself for the rest of the day after hearing that
prayers. He began PLEADING with Heavenly Father to help him overcome smoking. He
was literally sobbing, struggling to get words out, asking Heavenly Father to
allow him to get baptized. Tears were surrounding the room as the Spirit of the
Lord softened this man's heart. I have never been so touched by a prayer before.
It made me want to hug Robin and give him a glimpse of how much his Heavenly
Father loves him. He has no idea. We will be seeing him again today, and
tomorrow President Tilleman will be doing his baptismal interview. Oh how I love
that man. I thank my Heavenly Father every single day for bringing Robin into my
life. I have never met somebody more humble, and desirous to submit to the
Father's will.
Well, ever since our mission made some changes according
to how we use our time, and how we plan, the Lord has been opening up the
windows of Heaven to us, and we literally do not have room enough to receive His
blessings!! This past week, our zone found 37 new investigators!! This is the
highest we have ever found. Sister Haight and I found 4 new investigators who
want to know the truth of the Gospel, the most this area has ever found. This is
all because we follow the counsel of the Lord. We follow the revelation our
mission president receives. And He is blessing us abundantly for it!! We know
this is only the beginning!
I am excited about this week's challenge. It kind of
goes for longer than a week, but you will love it, if you but put your trust and
faith in the Lord as you do it. It is a 40 day fast. Just as Jesus Christ fasted
for 40 days, we, too, can do that. Now, this will not be a fast of food. For as
mortals, our bodies need substance and energy to run. However, it will be a fast
nonetheless. I want each of you to pray about something that is keeping you from
completely submitting to the Father's will. Do you spend too much time on
Facebook? Do you not share the Gospel to your friends? Do you have a bad habit
that the Lord would like you to break? Well, then that will be the thing you
fast from. I am doing this myself, and I have already seen miracles after only a
few days. I won't share what I am fasting from, as it is personal. But I promise
that as you take this seriously, the windows of heaven will be opened unto you.
I love each of you so much. I hope you have a wonderful
week, and may the Lord be with you!!
Love,
Sister Biggs
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