Fastest Week Ever 6/23/2014

hey so yeah I think we just had the fastest week in the history of weeks. I feel like I just emailed you guys, now I'm trying to remember what has happened in this blur of a week.

investigators:

well our most progressing investigator is now a member because of the baptism last week. but! we have two other progressing investigators!

Sao- sao is a lady from Africa! She's from Sierra Leone and has the coolest story. She remembers seeing missionaries when she lives in Africa but said that if they would've talked to her there, she would've turned them away. but she grew up with an amazing faith in Jesus Christ. well after she came to America her friend invited her to the church one sunday, so she came and started meeting with the sisters but swore she would NEVER be baptized because she has already been baptized and it was a super special day for her. She didn't understand the need to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority to do so. but last transfer the sister were never able to meet with her, but she still came to church.. BUT! last week after church the elders called us and they were like "so we went to visit Sao.. and she's getting baptized in July" so basically the Elders set a date with her and we get to teach her! She is so excited to be baptized because she knows the feeling that she gets at church is God telling her that it's true. I love her. she has the best accent.

K: K is a 9 year old girl whose mom was less active but just recently started coming to church since her divorce. K is so awesome. she reminds me of myself. hahah okay that sounded soo conceited but I promise it's not! she loves the gospel. and she's so young. she is going to stay with her dad for a few weeks but she will be baptized shortly after that!

spiritual things:

so my last companion (shout out to sister Leavitt) sent me a SUPER good talk this week. It's called Missionary Work and the Atonement! two of my favorite things!!! in it Elder Holland talks a lot about how we can use the Atonement in missionary work. all of it is a great talk but the last part is my favorite.

Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I testify that the living God is our Eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is His living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree,   was the chief Apostle then and is the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testify that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He does, so will we.

On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did—the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, the tree of life.

I declare Him to be the Savior of the world, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, the Bright and Morning Star. I know that our garments can be washed white only in the blood of that Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. I know that we are lifted up unto life because He was lifted up unto death, that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and with His stripes we are healed. I bear witness that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief because upon Him were laid the transgressions of us all.

I bear witness that He came from God as a God to bind up the brokenhearted, to dry the tears from every eye, to proclaim liberty to the captive and open the prison doors to them that are bound.   I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world.

holy cow. it's so good because it's so true. The Atonement is real. It's for everyone. And I'm so grateful for the promises that is brings. I know that Christ can heal all. I've leaned on him a lot throughout the past 5 months and I know that I will be able to continue to do so through my life. I love it. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. Sometimes I think about the people in other churches who others consider "Jesus freaks" and then I'm like "oh wait. I'm one of those Jesus Freaks" I walk around a city that I've never been to talking to people about Jesus! How awesome is that?! I really can't think of anything better than that, besides the joy of seeing those I love in the Celestial Kingdom one day (which better be all of you).

Well fam bam, I love you & so does Jesus! Remember to work hard an be nice! 

sister oberfield 
 

here are some pictures from my last area! I still haven't taken much this transfer... but I promise I will today when we go to the arch!

1. Kailey- she really does love me.

2. my favorite view.