"When you give a testimonial, you are declaring your
satisfaction/recommendation of a certain product ( gained from
personal experience) to your customer", Ms Reed told my
high school advanced marketing class.
Two years later, I'm starting to apply it.
In his early days as a missionary, President Brigham Young
was reminded of the power of testimony. He perceived: "I had only traveled
a short time to testify to the people, before I learned this one fact, that you
might prove doctrine from the Bible till doomsday, and it would merely convince
a people, but would not convert them. You might read the Bible from Genesis to
Revelations, and prove every iota that you advance, and that alone would have
no converting influence upon the people. Nothing short of a testimony by the
power of the Holy Ghost would bring light and knowledge to them- bring them in
their hearts to repentance. Nothing short of that would ever do."
We met an inactive man this week; he was actually really
cool. He had a terrible experience growing up, and so he doesn't want to come
to church, even though he knows the doctrine is true. As we stood at his
doorstep, I wondered what on earth we could say to someone who had such a
different concept of religion and of the church that would make a difference.
He didn't seem to want to listen to anything we had to say, so instead I
testified of the power of the sacrament in my life, and the reasons that I
attend church. It was then that his heart completely softened and he pointed
directly at me and said that I should never ever lose that. He then said that
he actually liked us, we were "real", and we did stuff for the
"right reasons". He invited us to come back, and even to take his
daughter to church if we wanted!
Brigham Young was right, we can teach all
we want, but when we testify, that is when the spirit can come in and make
miracles. The Lord has said "Therefore verily I say unto you, lift
up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your
hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men... I give unto you this
promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in
bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say." (D&C 100:5,8)
Sister Cotton (my companion) and I were asked to teach the young women for
mutual on Wednesday evening. Our topic was "Christ-like attributes".
This ward has got a HUGE Young Women's program, and so trying to keep control
over the class can be tricky! We knew we needed to invite the spirit and get
the girls to be reverent, so my wonderful companion shared the most heartfelt
testimony of Christ, and the happiness this gospel brings to her life. As I
looked into the crowd of girls, I watched as they settled into soft reverence
and I noticed the smiles on their faces. They were quiet and attentive. It was
such a beautiful learning experience for me, especially. I so admire Sister
Cotton's pure testimony of the things that she teaches. It is my prayer that as
I am faithfully studying the word of God, praying, and obeying the
commandments, that my own testimony will become strong enough to calm crowds
and counter contentions.
We had an amazing opportunity this week to go do service at
the nursing home that one of our investigators works at. She is over the
Alzheimer's unit, so we got to meet with quite the crowd of elderly people!
When we arrived they were all sitting in one large room, waiting for us to come
speak to them. We took out our restoration lesson and began to teach. The
miracle in this is not the retired, but the hired! So many of our investigator's
employees were present, and they got to ask questions and give comments
and be apart of the lesson! At the end, we again bore our sincere
testimonies that what we had taught was true, and left them all with their own
copies of the Book of Mormon! I can't imagine that anywhere back home would we
be allowed to enter a private retirement home and teach the gospel... they
don't even let you take pictures there! It was truly a miracle, and I can't wait
to see what comes of it as we go back and teach the lessons every week!
We are preparing for Sarah's baptism this Sunday. It was
soooo nice to get to finalize all the details and print out announcements and
just make it official!
Speaking of official, our ward mission leader has been sort
of secretly dating this girl who is the complete opposite of him. He is
Hispanic, so in his broken English he tells us: "Elders and Sisters, I
propose to [the girl]...". We were all shocked. They hadn't even
been together that long! Was he sure? Why was he telling us? What should
we say? Then he finished, " ...to be a ward missionary". He had
made us all think that he was saying he was going to propose to her, not
propose she get a new calling in the church ! hahaha. I was laughing so hard!
Luckily, he didn't understand why his comment to us was so funny. Otherwise I'm
sure he would've been a little embarrassed that we all were very aware of his
relationship. XD
Another funny thing was when we met a lady named Maude
Prophet. She is 94 years old and just awesome. She doesn't take any medication
and she drives and does her own errands and funeral arrangements and
everything. She called us earlier this week and asked us to stop by. When we
did, she told us how everyone was out to hurt her so that they can take all of
her possessions when she dies. She then proceeded to give us a bunch of her
belongings because she wants us to pay tithing with them for her. She gave us a
used, dirty commode (one of those old folks toilet seats), some old jeans,
an ancient sewing machine, a giant bathrobe, an old vaccum, and some keds.
Yup.... and then she told us about how this random lady gave her a bacon
cheeseburger and she knew she had poisoned it so she didn't eat it. Oh
man.
So my exchange this week was with Hermana Hoferitza! I
just adore her! We had a lot of fun and we learned a lot from each other. I
really respect the Spanish speaking missionaries- they have to learn a new
language where they aren't immersed in it, and then they have to spend
their whole day just looking for someone to use it on! She and I got to
meet the grandma of one of the investigators they had found for us English
speaking sisters. We talked to the grandma about what we are teaching her
granddaughter, and were able to share with her our testimonies of the Book of
Mormon. The spirit was strong in that room, and afterwards the grandma told us
how much she admired us and said she was so happy we were teaching her
granddaughter. It was wonderful!
In Revelations 12:11 an angel announced that in the
pre-mortal world, Christ's followers conquered Satan and his followers "by
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony". I think it's
so cool that because we are all here on earth, we know that during this
pre-earth life we had a testimony of Jesus Christ and His atonement and we used
that to overcome Satan. I know that in this earth life, we still must
conquer the devil with Jesus Christ and our testimonies of Him.
We ran into a man named James very recently. James was
sitting in a wheel chair, and couldn't quite shake our hands. His maid answered
the door and invited us in. We saw little kids sitting on the couch quietly,
and it all just looked like a perfect teaching opportunity. Then, James began
to talk to us about our religion. He tried to tell us things that we knew
weren't true. He tried to sway us in our faith. He told us HE had established 5
churches, HE had caused people to fall out of their chairs, HE had healed the sick,
HE had the power of God on his side.... it was very frightening. Sister Cotton
knew we had to get out of this house. He wouldn't let us speak! She tried to
tell him that we had to go, and we wouldn't come back. He got offended that we
wouldn't return, he had much more to say to us. Quietly, I explained to James
that we would not come back because our purpose was to share a message
that meant the world to us. I had left my family and my loved ones back home
for a year and a half to devote my life to this cause. Because he wouldn't
accept the message, there was no point in returning. James became quiet, and he
smiled and said he understood. He thanked us, and with a complete attitude
change sent us on our way.
"And this is not all. Do ye suppose that I know of
these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these
things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of
their surety? Behold I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy
Spirit of God..." (Alma 5:45-46)
To top off the week, we went and saw Deidra and got to sing
hymns about Christ and testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as
another testament. She just kept smiling and said she loved it when we
talked and testified because we glowed. Then we went to try someone in our area
book we had never met, and instead we met Andy. Andy found Christ just 6 months
ago and is on top of the world! He texted us last night and said he can't wait
to learn more about Him with us! We are so excited to go teach him tonight, I
have learned a lot this week about the importance of testimony, so I will
definitely be applying it. Elder Thomas S Monson said,
I testify that that is so true! The more that we bare our
testimonies, the more the spirit can bare witness to us that what we say is
true. I know Christ lives, I know families are forever, and I know the gospel
has been restored! :)
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Sincerely,
Sister Hochstrasser
By the way, anybody need an extra commode for their grandma? We'll give it to ya for free!
Write to me!!
Sister Jennifer Hochstrasser
Tennessee Nashville Mission
105 WESTPARK DR STE #190
BRENTWOOD, TN 37027
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