Friday, February 28, 2014

Week 19!

Well Hello Everyone!!!!

THis week was sooooo crazy..... one of the hardest and toughest weeks on my mission and we still got 19 lessons!!!! We had doors slammed in our face and a dog peed on me and a puppy peed on Sister Wheelock, adn we had 5 planned lessons out of 25 follow through this week 2 of which ended up becoming contentious because the people where telling us we were wrong and were trying to bible bash!!!!! WOWZERS!!!!! BUT!!!! We pulled through and had 19 lessons!!!! :) 20 is the Standard of excellence and is reeeally great, and WE. WORKED. SO. HARD!! and ended up meeting some really wodnerful people in the process :) One of our members actually had a crazy experience this last week. Our Branch and the Gaffney ward didnt have enough people to create a softball team this year. Different churches in the area play against each other to create fellowship as well as to join in a game with other Christian faiths, so our member, SIster Spencer as well as a youth named Tory decided to join another church's team so that they could play. they had said it would be fine and everything, but when they showed up the preacher of the church sent one of their members to tell the 2 sisters that they were not welcome to play with them because they were part of a cult... It hurt sister Spencer since 5 of the members where her own family. They left with dignity and grace and came back telling the story to our congregation. It is just another confirmation to ME as a missionary that this is Jesus Christ's true church on the earth today. John ch. 15:18-19 Christ said " if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because yea are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." We must always remmeber the persecution that the Primitive and early modern church faced. Jesus Chirst himself was rejected and persecuted. His apostles where then persecuted and killed leading the world into apostacy. The Prophet Joseph Smith faced tar and feathering, imprisonment and martyrdom as well in the name of Christ and the church which he commanded him to restore. We must all srtive to be as the early apostles as the pharisees beat and tried them before a court, commanding them not to preach of Christ who was Crucified any longer and they immediately went straight way, joyful to be worthy enough to be persecuted in Christ's name and continued to preach the gospel. I love you all and I want all of you to know that I know that this church is true. Joseph Smith IS the prophet of the Restoration and we should each be glad to receive persecution and be counted among those noble and great ones who died in the name of Christ. :)
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKblIMfmjI&feature=player_embedded  - this is Testimony of the Book of Mormon Mormon Message by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

Love, Sister Dominique Montoya




Monday, February 17, 2014

Week 18!

Well this was one crazy week, we where inside from Tuesday after 5pm until Friday morning because of the crazy snow... it felt so good to be out teaching again on Friday!!!! The snow was beautiful though :) It reminded me of home :) So there was also an earthquake this last week between 8 and 10:30pm on Friday night! We didn't feel it haha.... it was in Edgefield, Sc and so it was too far away to do anything but some people here felt it :) Valentines day was soooo awesome!!!! I got a package from my mom and my dad! i got chocolate from my dad and i got stamps and a music book and candy and nail polish and stationary from my mommy :) she is the best Valentine ever!!!! :) We also found out that i will be staying here for at least one more transfer!!! So i will most likely be here the whole 1st 6 months of my mission :) also, i sang in church on Sunday and we will again be pushing terry's baptism back, this time to march but that means we will have 2 baptisms in March!!!! I love it here!!!! I am so grateful for this chance to serve God and our Savior!!!! :) Have a wonderful rest of your month!!!! :) Please Pray for the Cowpens area, Terry to get feeling better so that she can get baptized and for Justin to get Baptized!!!! I love you all!!! Thank you for all of your support!!!!! :) 


















Week 17!

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry, when I got this week's email, I realized that I hadn't posted last weeks! So here it is! Sorry!

-Jeffrey Rawlins

This week was so good! Very challenging though We have a young 16 year old recent convert who is struggling with testimony and wanting to go to another church. his name is Ryan Moody. Please pray for him to gain his testimony again and come back to church! We had 23 lessons this week! Boo ya!!!! We also have started teaching a yound family the Jackson more seriously. and Terry Wyatt had her interview saturday and was supposed to come to church on Sunday and didnt and now we have to push the baptism back!! Stinker... haha people and their agency sometimes frustrate me in how they use it!!! But I figured out some cool things this week! 1st, I know where super powers came from!!!! I was thinking about this and it only makes sense!!! Christ created flying because he is ALWAYS descending out of the sky or ascending into heaven.... haha and then Nephi said he was "swept away to the mountain" TOTAL teleportation! And Nephi and Lehi BOTH saw into the future! and many people in church history have become invisble for protection!!! Like on Ephraims rescue when the husband cant see his wife and children when he wants to kill them and there was a story I heard in church history of Herbert Klopfer who wrote "Home can be a heaven on earth" when he, his brother and mother where escaping from west germany and the soldiers looked in the car and couldnt see them!!! SEEEEE THE POWER OF GOD CREATES SUPER POWERS!!!!!! :) anyways though.... I also have been really focusing in John chapter 21 this week. this is the chapter when The savior is ressurrected and he calls to his desciples to cast their nets on the other side. when the miracle happens and there is so many fish they will tip the boat, they row back, peter jumps out of theboat and swims there he is so excited! adn after they eat the meal the savior has prepared for them, he asks Peter 3 times "Do you love me more than these" talking about his fish.... Peter fervently answers 3 times "yea Lord! thou knowest I love thee!" and Christ each time says "Then feed my sheep." I think this is a wonderful lesson that Christ teaches us here not just for missionaries... but for each of us. Christ previously asked Peter to leave his old life as a fisherman to serve him and his children, to "feed his sheep" but it is the second time after the saviors ressurrection that it finally sinks in to peter that when he told the savior he would leave his nets and feed his sheep IT WAS FOR LIFE!!! What has Christ asked us to leave behind to serve him? Was it a bad relationship? was it dating before you are 16? is it coffee or smoking? is it sleeping in so you dont come to church? is it working on Sunday? What has The Lord Asked YOU to leave behind to serve him? I can and have definitely thought of a few that he has asked me to leave behind in order to be out here in South Carolina.... and I am trying with all my might to LEAVE THEM and to Feed his sheep! I invite every one of you to leave YOUR nets behind, leave the habit, leave your bed, leave even a class you can put off so that you can take seminary or instutue.... do this so that you can feed his sheep. YOU are his sheep too and he wants you to feed yourself so that then you can lift others. Christ said "When thou art converted, feed my sheep".... I Love you all!!! and I hope that you all can carry this message with you and work o leaving your nets behind and feeding Christs sheep, whether thats you or the people around you this week :)
 
~Love, Sister Dominique Sage Montoya



Thursday, February 6, 2014

Week 16!

4 MONTHS IN THE LORDS SERVICE!!!!

Well Hello everyone!!! This week has been really great and quite amuzing. it snowed and was REALLY cold but the snow was nothing more that flurries.... it barely stuck to the ground and the cancelled school for 3 DAYS because of it!!! ha.... that would NEVER happen in utah... There, there can be 5 feet of snow and as long as the roads are open they expect you to show up ON TIME haha... It was scary though because people here dont know how to drive in the snow and DEFINITELY not on ice. so that was probably the worst part. This week we had interviews and it was great. I recently read in our Orientation Handbook that we should "Lock our hearts" and send the key home!! well I found that I had a necklace that is shaped like an old fashion key and says "heart" on the key with a little attachment that has a letter on it with "i love you" on the letter. ha... so i decided as an outward expression of my inward commitment I would give my mission president my key and get it back at the end of my mission... well of course he didnt take it but he sure thought it was cute and traced the key onto a form haha... I now still have the key to my heart that I wont be handing out anytime soon!! :) We also got to adventure deep into the Elders area this week and got stuck on a road with HUGE divets in it haha... it was so fun! I love mission adventures but we will never go on that road again!!! We also go to make cute little signs for doors with a 4 year old and 9 year old and their mom that we are teaching that say "Did you think to read" on the front and they flip it over and it says "YES"! on the back :) we spent the lesson coloring them and talking about the scriptures :) I also had the opportunity to tell a Very Racist man that we met whil tracting that We are all children of God and that God loves all of us equally... we HAD scheduled and appointment with him and he promtly cancelled it and told us that N***** lovers where not welcome at his house.... we left and I have just been praying for them.... It makes me so sad that people are still stuck in that state of mind.... its really not okay.... But I hope all of you enjoyed the Super bowl!!!! My companion is from Washington and was thrilled over the Sea Hawks dominating victory!!!!! :) WELL I love you all!!!
Happy February and know that you are in my prayers!!! :)

~Sister Dominique Sage Montoya