Arbeid av alle krefter...skal dere kunne glede dere
Kjære familie og venner,
I am memorizing Jacob 5:71-75 (excluding verse 73 and part of 74). I love the promise that Heavenly Father gives: if you labor with all your might together with me, I will experience joy in the fruit of our labors. I felt that joy on Sunday. After planning and preparing and working so hard to pull off an open house after church, there were 10 members in church plus a man we were teaching, plus us six missionaries (the Castles, the Tews, and us!). We were 17 altogether! I felt very blessed. We ended up having a Primary even! We taught a lesson about the love of God and Jesus Christ to a young boy. I felt like the windows of heaven opened. We'd never had had a person we were teaching in church the whole transfer when all of a sudden, there was one we taught (Kore) plus 10 members! Holy smokes! During the open house afterwards, a former person taught came and a woman we met on the street the night before, Naomie. She brought her husband! They're from the Congo and speak French as their first language. On the street as I was trying to invite her to the open house, I could remember and speak some French! The gift of tongues is real. That helped to quickly create a friendship. We started teaching them!
On splits, our sister training leaders from Stavanger came to visit, both from my MTC group and both had served previously in Ålesund. It was a really fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day and get the inside scoop on where people are and tips about the area in general. Søster Pond and I delivered Valentine's cookies Søster Castle made and we decorated at family home evening to members and miraculously, met two of them I had never met before. One of the members told us that the sisters had previously taught a man in her neighborhood, so we tried him as well. He wasn't home, but his wife was, and she said we could come back!
My other highlight this week was teaching M. She is a returning member and her two children are not members, 13 and 8 years old. M. told us that her daughter would not come out of her room when the missionaries came over a long time ago, but that her son liked to pray. She invited us to teach her with her son. So on Friday we went over and started teaching them the Plan of Salvation. All of a sudden, her daughter came in and joined us! She said after we taught the whole plan, she was surprised to learn there were 3 kingdoms of glory (in her mind there was just heaven and hell). God is so merciful isn't he? Plus, she was excited to get her own copy of the Book of Mormon. Her son was cute as he answered questions too. He also liked getting his own copy of the Book of Mormon! We're going back to teach their family again!
Good things are happening! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We can reach our full potential, the measure of our creation, through His enabling power. We do His work, in His way and in His timing. With Him, we are enough.
Love always,
Søster Jessica Brimhall
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