So, Jessica was visiting mormon.org
2 years ago and was interested in learning more, so she submitted her
information to request that missionaries come by. Two years went by and
no missionaries ever received the referral until, finally, in December,
Sister Blosch and I received her information with a request to contact
her. We tried by a couple times over the next several weeks but were
never able to catch her at home, and a couple times no one answered the
door. One night, we were planning for the next day and we weren't even
going to be in Jessica's area, but we felt prompted that we needed to go
by and see her. So, the next day in the afternoon we dropped by her
house, and she was home! We found out that, although she had submitted the
referral two years ago, she had moved away from that address shortly
after and hadn't come back again until late 2015! Whoa! There is only
one person who could've known that who is in charge of referrals: God!
She had also gone through a ton in those two years and was being prepared to receive the gospel. We started teaching her that day.
Another awesome miracle with Jessica:
A
couple days after our second meeting with Jessica, she texted us saying
that she had been doing some research and didn't think that it was the
religion for her. We were devastated, but we told her we'd love to
come by and see if we could answer any questions she had. That day she
let us know a couple of her concerns and said she needed some time to
pray and think about it. After a day of silence, she texted us saying
that she wanted to cancel our appointment for that day. We tried to
reschedule but she didn't respond. We felt so strongly that this is the
right time for Jessica to be taught, so we called our leaders and asked
them to pray for her, and we also prayed for her with "all the energy of
heart" as the Book of Mormon describes it. We decided to give her a
couple days and try by over the weekend (which would have been about five days later).
That night we were planning and she kept coming to my mind, but I
shrugged the impression off because we were going to visit an area in
our boundaries that we don't get to visit often and is pretty far away.
The next day we made a stop about halfway to the area to try by a woman
we had met a couple weeks later. We ended up knocking doors in that
neighborhood, and a woman there let us in...and ended up talking to us
for two hours! And I mean she was talking for two hours. She only
took really short breaths, and we could only talk if we literally
interrupted her in the middle of her two hour sentence. Haha, I was
enjoying listening to her theories on religion, but Sister Blosch was
getting a little stressed. Anyway, after that we went out to the car, and
by that point it would have been very unfruitful to go to the area we
had originally intended to by working in that day. We decided to head
back toward Kent Island and, when we passed through Centreville, we would
stop by some people there. Again, when we reached Centreville the
impression pressed on me to stop by Jessica's house. I protested,
thinking, "We can't go by Jessica. She just canceled an appointment
yesterday and isn't interested. We also decided we'd give her a few
days. We can't go by!" But, still, the impression persisted. Finally,
the thought came that we could go by her house, and, if she didn't let us
in, we would leave her with the last pamphlet so she could study it and
make sure she was making the right decision. That idea gave me the
confidence to follow the prompting (which I should have done the night
before when I felt impressed to stop by.) I told Sister Blosch and found
out that she was feeling the same impression. For a moment I thought,
"Maybe this will be one of those amazing mission stories when the
missionaries felt impressed to knock on a door and found someone who had
just been praying for someone to show them the truth." Haha, so,
with a bit of anxiety, we went to her door. She let us right in! We sat
down and followed the Spirit! I remember talking about the Book of
Mormon being instrumental in knowing the truth about Joseph Smith and
how I came to know, and I remember Sister Blosch bearing sweet and
powerful testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome
15 minute visit! At the end of the visit, just before we prayed, she
stopped us to say, "You know, I did want to tell you. I don't usually
pray for signs because I know you're not supposed to, but I'm just so
confused about which way to go. I contacted another church like 5 days
ago and they still haven't called. Last night I prayed that God would
send a sign today to know which way to go...and here you are."
WOW!!
Okay,
this email has been so long, but our experience with Jessica has been a
series of miracles! I feel so blessed to be a part of this work. I love
the Lord, and I know that He loves each of us. Because of Him, there is a
way for us to overcome our sorrows and our sins. We can live with God
again in a state of never-ending happiness because of the Lord. How
wonderful!
I love you all and thank you for everything you do for me! Keep praying for me!
Love,
Sister Lewis
PS We find out about transfers on Sunday so if anybody will be sending anything make sure it will get here no later than Monday, March 7th! I love you!
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