Sister Ashlyn Biggs: called to serve the Lord in the Canada Vancouver mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Monday, July 29, 2013

July 29, 2013

What a blessed week in the greatest mission on earth! Great challenges and great faith building experiences, but mostly great miracles that I pray I will be deserving of at all times. This email won't be too long, because it is pretty painful to type...I am allergic to Canadian mosquitoes and my hand right now is the size of a softball :) So I mostly just copy and pasted what I sent to President this week! But I thank you all for your support and love :)

So this last week as I prayed about what to share in District Meeting, my thoughts were immediately turned to finding new investigators. So I studied and prayed, and decided that I wanted to set a goal as a district for the new investigators we would find between Wednesday and Sunday. I left it open to the sisters for us to discuss as a district. Our highest as a district has been 6 for a week - unacceptable! So I challenged them to push their faith and set a high goal. Finally, we decided on 21, thanks to Sister Frederickson's faith. That would be a new investigator everyday for each companionship - but since it was already Wednesday, a little more for each companionship. I was willing to go as high as the district was. So we submitted the goal to the Lord on our knees, and we felt confident. With most of us in tears, we sung "I Believe in Christ" to close the meeting, and got to work. Brothers and Sisters, what followed was miraculous. Like I said before, 6 has been our highest thus far. Immediately as we parted ways, we began getting texts the next few hours "New Investigator!". Before we knew it, we were at 5. Then 10. Then 12. And finally, come Sunday night, we had reached our highest yet - 17! Sister Hobbs and I more than doubled what our highest was yet with 8. No, we didn't meet our goal of 21. But I firmly believe that each companionship tried their absolute hardest to find those investigators. The Lord certainly opened up the windows of Heaven to us this week. 17 compared to 6 - what an improvement. This is what happens when Faith plays a role! I feel humbled and inadequate to be the district leader of such a faithful district. They will never know the impact they had on me this week. I could literally feel their faith working in our area as well as in theirs. What a miracle that took place this week in our district. Why do these numbers matter? Not because we care about who has the highest numbers. But because each of these numbers represents somebody who is one step closer to a saving ordinance in the Gospel. What a blessing!!

Sister Hobbs and I are out of kilometers for the month on our car, so we are on foot until Thursday (I know, we are so spoiled!). But yesterday we walked over to pick up Sister Lopez at her house to see if we could walk with her to church. She gladly accepted, and I had to turn on the Spanish! Long story short, I spoke Spanish for the next 4 hours. We walked her to church for about an hour, then she sat with us in Sacrament meeting, then I taught her during Sunday School the Plan of Salvation, and finally we walked her back to the bus stop outside of the church because she was headed downtown. My head was hurting pretty bad after, I must admit :) People tried talking to me when I walked back in the church building, and I was forgetting how to say everything in English! It was pretty embarrassing, I am sure the members thought I was a little strange. But it was so wonderful to be able to speak with her about things that I have never learned in University before. What a blessing it is to be able to speak another language completely through the Spirit!

We have had some incredible miracles this past week working with members and less active members. Lindsay Nelson, a less active of about 4 years, is wonderful. Sister Bailey in the ward invited us over for a BBQ that she would be at, and we got to meet her. She is so great, and she invited us over for dinner next week. I hope to be able to help her on her journey back to being and active member in the church!!

I wish I could describe everything that has happened this week. But, most of them will just be wonderful miracles that I have in my head and in my journal, hopefully for eternity :) This week's challenge is to reach out to a less active in the ward that you know or don't know. If you don't know any, then ask the Relief Society president in your ward to get you a list and go visit one! You have no idea how precious those wonderful brothers and sisters are! Please let me know if you have a chance to visit any of them!!

I love you all so much, and thank you all for your great support. A shout out to Alyssa Fathead Hundley this week - headed off to the MTC! What a fantastic missionary you will be. The Lord certainly has great things in store for you. Never forget how much I love you!!

Love,

Sister Biggs

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