Sister Alyssa Crabb: Monday, March 23, 2015

What do I tell you about this week?? It was a little bit harder seeing that Sister Lawless was sick a good portion of the week, so I spent a decent amount of time inside. However, we were really able to hit home on being able to teach N - our baptizee. So, we showed up to her house on Monday, and both of us felt that she was absolutely not ready to be baptized. She had been taught the lessons, but seemed really shy, and unsure of her testimony. We spent a lot of time praying over it, and realized that we need to convert her, and not let her get baptized relying on her mom's testimony! So, we decided that we were going to help her build her own testimony of Joseph Smith. I enjoyed studying last conference's talk about Joseph Smith, and we planned and studied for a really nice lesson for her. We also decided to teach her by herself, so she felt comfortable being open and honest with us. As we taught the Restoration, I was flashed back to Elder Funk's training, and the spirit was directing the lesson, and very powerful. We knelt down with her in her house, and helped her get an answer from God that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We also recorded her voice saying it, so she can always remember her testimony and regain the witness she had that night. We met her 4 times this week, the last one being the baptismal interview. All the lessons were powerful, and her interview was magical. We are so excited to get her baptized this week!

As far as the rest of our area goes, our investigators J and S are doing really well! S came to church for the first time for all three hours. We were going to try and pick him up, but then realized we couldn't. So, with sore legs and feet, he came all the way from Boon Lay to Pasir Panjang for church! It was amazing, and he was so nervous. He ended up being fellowshipped well though.

J really progressed well, and is texting us numerous questions about the gospel. We had such a powerful lesson with him about Joseph Smith and recognizing the spirit. Through inspired questions, we discovered that he had been anti-ed, and we were so grateful we found that out and were able to resolve his concern. He is doing very, very well and is planning on coming to church this Sunday!

H is good! He is really interested in spending lots of time learning when he's free, and he teaches us a little about Muslim culture too, which is actually pretty interesting. He has a question about the Apostasy (which we haven't taught just yet..) and, he doesn't realize it! I'm hoping when we teach the apostasy this week that it will go really well!

As a side story, Elder Liddell got sick right before sacrament, and he was supposed to speak. So, I volunteered to do it. I was so scared, and didn't really get to plan, because our investigator was late to the MRT station! In a nutshell though, we made it right on time (like, we walked in, and Sister Lawless stood up to speak...) and then, I got up within 4 minutes of Sister Lawless! Basically, I had to really use the spirit. It was cool though, because words literally filled my mouth. I scrolled through looking for a specific quote, and came to another instead that I shared. It ended up being a 10 minute talk! What a miracle!!!

For me personally, I learned this week that faith is a principle of applying the gospel. If we love Jesus Christ enough, we are going to act on His commandments, and Atonement all the time - even when it's hard, even when others don't. That's what distinguished some people from others when it comes to faith in the Book of Mormon. If you think of Captain Moroni, or Nephi, you realize that their faith was so big, because they probably acted on the hard rules, the simple rules, - everything!

I think I realized this week that hope is important, and so is enduring. Faith is acting on our hope, and applying the gospel. I think that's where a lot of us struggle. We know we should keep the Sabbath Day holy, but then we just really want to spend Saturday playing with friends so homework ends up being on Sunday instead of scriptures, prayer, and spiritual renewal. It's when we have the faith to act on our hope of Eternal life that we realize how great the gospel really is. It's when we root out what is hard to give up and consecrate ourselves that we find true joy in living the gospel. I've noticed that to be true! When I slip up on my faith, that's when I struggle and don't feel happy. Isn't that interesting?

Also, can you believe it's getting closeish to my year mark? I've been gone 10 months now! Is it going as fast for you as it is for me?

Love you!!!

Love, Sister Crabb