Dear Family and Friends,
If you have never been a missionary in Sparta Tennessee,
then I really pity you. This is seriously the best thing in the whole world.
Let me tell you why.
1. You get to see amazing members like Sister Youngs who is
on oxygen, has a less active husband, was ex-communicated and then re-joined
the church 2 years ago, and decide of her own free will that she is going to come
out to lessons with the sister missionaries. Whoa. What dedication! And members
like Sister Spears who has a million and one things on her plate still
take the time to drive you around to visit all of her non-member friends
and offer them discussions with the missionaries just completely out of the
blue. How many of you have ever done that with the missionaries?? She's my
hero.
2. You get to have supper at all sorts of different houses.
And a lot of them eventually become another home. You know you're welcome (or
just really oinky) when they eventually designate the candy jar to you.
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4. You get to see MIRACLES happen when part-member families
who haven't been to church in 20 years tell you that they're going to come to
church... and then you see them there on Sunday along with 8 other
investigators and it feels like half of the branch is non-members that you've
been teaching.
5. You can experience the authority that comes from
missionary work as you are brought into homes and sat down so that someone else
can tell you why your religion is incorrect... and then you are able to draw
upon the power of the Holy Ghost and perform exactly how you know Christ
would want.
6. You meet awesome people.... Like a World War II Veteran
and people who have beat cancer 9 times and people who are just married and
people who have been searching for truth and YOU get to tell them where they
can find it.
7. You get to experience the most beautiful family baptism
in the history of ever and then watch them be confirmed on Sunday by a deaf man
who signs a gorgeous blessing and you just know you've somehow become a part of
GENERATIONS. (The Lewis family has already changed so many lives as a result of
their baptism, and I know that between their missionary work, the missions of
their children, and raising future posterity in the gospel- that they have just
done something monumental in the history of the world ^_^)
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| The Lewis Family! |
8. You get to see the fruits of your labors as President
Andersen tells you that they're closing down one mission, just so they can put
MORE missionaries in yours!! YUP!! I can't even believe it. Elder Randall and
Elder Fennwick (from my MTC district) are coming to Sparta (technically
Spencer, a part of the Sparta mission) because the work is just exploding
here and we need help!
9. You can go and teach the Restoration of the gospel to the
Barfield family and watch the father cry for one of the first times in his
life while you commit all of them to be baptized next month. (HELLO AUGUST
16th!).
10. Or you can even end every evening standing on chairs
outside your apartment with 2 shoes in your hands while you and your companion, Sis. Kohler, courageously squash all the giant spiders lurking around your door (because
you'd rather not put your lives in danger of getting eaten or something).
Oh yeah.
That's exactly why you all should be very sad you are not
here in Sparta being a missionary. lol ;)
On a calmer note, I have discovered something this week that
I want to share with all of you.
Every day, we go knock on doors for at least an hour. We
meet very interesting people this way. We meet a lot of people who go to
different churches and have different religions. I always make it a point to ask
these people WHY they worship the way they do. What is it about their church
that makes them go there? And then do you know what they say every single
time?
"I don't know... I was just raised in it."
I'm not even kidding. I could meet the head hauncho of
almost any church and 99% of them would not be able to tell me why they went
there. Isn't that so interesting?!
So last night, after many weeks of asking random people why
they worship the way that they do, I decided to ask someone from my own faith.
They are recent converts and kind of less active. Teaching them lessons is
always kind of a struggle because they don't seem to understand why we
have the doctrine that we do. Anyway, we went to their house and I asked them
the same question I had asked everyone else. "Why do you go where you
go?". I was expecting them to not really have anything to say... a lot
like everyone else that I had spoken to from other churches, so what happened
next really surprised me.
The brother said: "I go to the Mormon church
because it is the only thing that brings me closer to God. The things
that they teach have actual meaning to me, and you are never NOT learning and
growing" ... His wife then said "I am a Mormon because I went to SO
many different churches, and none of them were right. So, after so much
searching I felt that I needed to go back to the church I was baptized in as a youth,
the Mormon church. Now that within this past year I've come back,
I'm here to stay because I know it's where I belong".
Their testimonies astounded me. And I just couldn't deny that
there is most definitely something special about this church.
I know that I go where I go because this is the only
religion that has told me it's okay to ask. In fact, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints was restored to the earth all because a 14 year old boy
decided he had a question he wanted to ask. I go where I go because it
answers ALL of my questions, and has taught me that it's good to question,
because God doesn't want to withhold truth from us and there ARE answers.
I am a Mormon because it has brought me closer to my
Heavenly Father in ways that I didn't even understand were possible. I can
honestly say that I have come to establish a relationship with my God, and that
I have felt His love in many ways.
Lastly, I am a Mormon because it has provided me with a
purpose. I know who I am, why I'm here, and where I'm going. I'm not alone, and
I will never be lost.
I testify to you that this Church is true!
I ask all of you to please help me finish up with this
experiment. It won't take long. All I ask is for a short sentenced reply. But
please, tell me:
Why do YOU go where you go?
From,
Sister Hochstrasser
p.s. to all of the great people out there who have
commented, liked, and added me on facebook, THANK YOU! Keep it up! But as far as
messaging me goes, I will always read it but I'm not allowed to respond to it.
Sorry! That's a "mission area only" privilege! ;)
p.p.s So there's this family here who breeds
Pomeranian and I kind of really want one. Mom, Dad, can we pllleeasssee
get a dog?
Write to me!
Sister Jennifer Hochstrasser
Tennessee Nashville Mission
105 West Park Drive Ste 190
Brentwood, TN 37027
(MOM says, sadly, we can't have a pet due to our current lease in the new house we just moved into this month, but if Sis. Hochstrasser wants to get one, that is up to her!)
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