Hey Mom,
This week was great, absolutely great. First off, we had transfers. I might have said last week
that I am staying with Elder Rojas and I am super excited. We got a lot of
other Elders in our zone that I have worked with before and I am super
happy.
In the Zone we started a purification. Just as the people of
Israel passed through a purification of 40 years we are doing a purification of
6 weeks. We started on Thursday. And since then, my companion and I have just been full of the
spirit. We have had so many experiences that I don't have enough time to write
them all to you today. So I have decided to just share one.
There are lots of details that I have to leave out for a
lack of time but you will have the big details, when I am back I will be able
to tell the whole story.
The purification changes from week to week. As the ZL, we
think of things the missionaries can do to grow closer to Heavenly Father and
leave behind, truly leave behind the world. One of the activities that came to
mind was to do a contacting activity. So we talked with our District Leader and
as a district we set up a contacting activity. Something special we did was
that every activity would have guidelines of what to think about. And through
revelation the Lord promised blessing to those who really were putting their
best effort to become better. The blessing promised to us in this activity was
a spiritual experience. We knew the Lord would deliver on His blessing.
And one thing my companion and I said before we started is that we wanted to
find a family, not just any family but a family that had been prepared to
receive us.
When we got to the area where we were going to contact the
missionary that had organized the activity told us the Jehovah Witnesses were
just getting done contacting the area and that he was thinking about changing
the area. He felt sad because he and his companion had prayed and chosen the
street where each companionship should contact.
They thought it wouldn't be effective to contact because the Jehovah's
witnesses were just getting done. (Side note: I am not saying that the Jehovah
Witnesses are bad it’s just that the people sometimes confuse us with them.)
Anyway he was going to take us to another are, but I told him, "No, if you
received the revelation for us to contact these streets that’s what we are
going to do".
We started to contact and started to see the blessings. In
just one hour we were able to share with lots of people. As we got to the end of
our street we both felt the Spirit but knew that we had not yet received the
promised blessing of a Spiritual Experience. We looked back and knew we had
missed something. We contact for revelation not door to door. But we had missed
something. My companion felt we should contact one of the last houses. As we
contacted the family inside they really weren't paying attention. We kept
talking and sharing our testimony. Just as we were about to go the Mom said,
"let them in". So we went in and started to share more with the
family. Within minutes the daughter was in tears. She explained to us what had
happened to the family in past years. The family has had it tough. A
couple more minutes passed and the mom was in tears. The Spirit was present as
my companion and I conversed with the family. All-in-all that family, my
companion and I felt the Spirit and felt the love of our Heavenly Father. We
left the house full of the Spirit. The Lord delivered on his promise.
We have only been in the purification a few days and my
companion and I are feeling it. I know in the weeks to come the experiences
will be great. I also know I will see difficulties. I won’t give up.
I love you family. There is much that I have to share with
you. Just a little bit more until I am home. We are going to give it all we
got, 100%. Best week yet and they are just getting better. Love, Elder Rucker
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