“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant [Sister Folkman]: Go ye, go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature that cometh under the sound of your voice. And inasmuch as you desire a companion, I will give unto you my servant [Sister Redd]. Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss. Therefore, declare the things which ye have heard, and verily believe, and know to be true. Behold, this is the will of him who hath called you, your Redeemer, even Jesus Christ. Amen.” -D&C 80

Sometimes we aren’t sure where to go in life and so we freeze. We freak out. We become fearful that we will make a wrong move or fail. The beautiful truth is, ye cannot go amiss when you are in service of the Lord. There are marvelous opportunities and blessings for you on every side! We must trust in the Lord, take a step in the dark and keep going! We must always follow the Savior and His Spirit, but we do not need a spiritual witness or divine sign to give us constant direction in ALL things.

“For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” -D7C 58:26-29

Prior to serving a mission, I often thought that I needed to be commanded in all things. I thought God would just spoon feed me all the answers and tell me exactly where to go and what to do- it is not so. One of my faviorite quotes from President Rogers is, “In the doing comes the spirit.” We must first act in faith from our own free will, then the blessings and miracles reveal themselves! Allow me to share a few examples from this week with you!

Gem#1: 4th of July we were doing exchanges. Sister Thompson and I were talking to people on the street. We were zig zagging back and forth across the road- crossing each time we saw people walking. (A bit stalkerish) no one was very warm to us. The last man on the street knew we were coming for him haha. He turned out to be very interested! He invited us to his backyard and we sat on his porch and taught him the first discussion. Later in the week we taught him another, this Sunday Robert came to all three hours of church and loved it! Initially, I didn’t feel a strong prompting to talk to him- in fact, I was almost hesitant to talk with him, but decided to swallow the pride and just do it! Look at the blessing from it! He has already found much more hope in an ever darkening world!

Gem#2: Another Robert experience, but this mans name is Steve and we knocked on his door! We asked him if we could share a 5 minute message about prophets. He stepped right out and soaked it up like a sponge! He also came to church and loved it! He is looking forward to studying more with us!

Gem#3: This one wasn’t a prompting, it was my stomach haha I really craved Chipotle the other day! So we went! We ended up seeing a member of the ward we were needing to see as well as the Hendrix family from MANCHESTER! It was a tender mercy, (plus he bought us a gift-card. Praise.) The Spirit works in mysterious ways!

Gem#4: Things fell through one day, so we decided to tract this complex. All the doors were locked, but ONE haha so we went into that complex and started knocking! The 3 doors that answered all listened to our message and one couple even took us into their home and offered us icecrem bars (saints). One door closes, and another one opens! (Or in this case, all doors were closed and one was waiting for us!)

Gem#5: We were walking down the street and I randomly decided to knock on this less active families door. Now this is not like me because it was 6-9pm which is proselyting time- we shouldn’t be meeting with less active members, but I instinctively did it! The boy who answered was on the phone and said, “Dad, the sisters just knocked on the door right as I dialed you.. don’t think that is a coincidence.” Turns out his dad had just gone to the hospital and we were able to set up for the elders to give him a priesthood blessing. really neat.

Gem#6: We started chatting with this mother and son, Mary and  Matthew, who had recently been baptized christian, but weren’t sure what church to go to. They hadn’t found a place they felt comfortable yet. We explained what we shared as missionaries and they got WAY skeptical for a minute, (the message of the Restoration sounds too good to be true to most people, so they think wee are bluffin) then the Spirit kicked in and they got way excited about it! Matthew lives in Saratoga, so we got to refer him to our buddies there and he went to church there this Sunday and is meeting with them! Yay! It will be so great for them to find that church family.

Gem#7: Laurie and Aalyiah are just amazing in general. They are growing int heir faith and coming along! Getting to church is a challenge, so we are working on it, but they are preparing for their baptism coming up in a month! Rock solid people that I LOVE!

Gem#8: TOM. Tom is so cool. Sisters taught him a bit in the past, but the past few sets that have tried him said he wasn’t interested, so we gave it a shot and he is SO READY! In fact, he’s been reading the book of Mormon nearly everyday for the past 3 months. We had fabulous lessons with him and a couple different member’s came. He is married to a catholic lady and has 2 young kids (SO CUTE) and he said the other day when he was reading the pamphlet we left with him, it rang true and he felt this overwhelming joy and peace. He thought to himself, “Is this what the sisters were talking about.. could this be the Holy Spirit?” And we said, “YES TOM! You are recognizing the Holy Ghost!” It was a joyful, sacred experience!

Gem#9: It was 8:37 Saturday night and we weren’t sure what to do, as Clifford’s appointment fell through. So we went to try a potential! She wasn’t home, but her parents- Kelly and Nick were! They immediately opened the door and let us in! We sat down and talked to them as they shared with tear filled eyes the struggles of having wild children who were in the ‘party phase’ of life. They just longed for some peace. They found it! The Holy Ghost once again took over and spoke through us! It was a great experience! They want us to talk to all their kids haha. Really cool people!

Gem#10: Altranise. We decided to make a trip plan in our GPS to try all the ‘unknowns’ on the ward list. Altra was one of them. It was a struggle getting there- we got lost a few times, but eventually with some help of a group of nice Muslim folks, we found it! Sadly, we didn’t have the apartment #, just the building. So we rang the first bell we saw… and it was HER! She was so confused because it was the first time in over 15 years the church had contacted her! Pretty wild. She is a cute lady with 2 young kids. She brought us in her home and shared how she was lost and confused and didn’t even know what she believed anymore. She had joined the church when she was in her early 20s and wasn’t active when she moved and lost contact with the church. She met the missionaries through her grandma who was Jehovah’s witness then converted to ‘Mormonism’ in her later years. At her funeral, Altra saw the members that had been so helpful to her grandma and wanted to learn more! She was baptized shorty after! She started crying as she told us her conversion story. Then she went and dug out her book of Mormon- it was an old 70s one- so retro and cool looking! We left her with Alma 32 to read and she was like, “No way. This is one of my favorite chapters! I gave a talk on this once!” It was sweet. Shows that the Lord is so aware of each of us and loves us all so much!

In closing, I invite you to find your gems! Go ADVENTURE. Go out there and find those hidden treasures- to the North, East, South , West, it matterth not. Just put on your hiking shoes and GO! You won’t get to where you need to be if you refuse to take a step. It can be scary, but great adventures are ahead! Christ will guide the way through His Holy Spirit, which will be a compass to you. I know that the Savior loves you so much. You are so precious to Him. He will always be there with you along your trail of life, but it is required you sometimes step in darkness. It is required you ‘use those grey cells’ and act with the knowledge and light you have been given! I say this in the sacred name of Christ the Lord, amen!