Madeline's Missionary Blog: no effort is wasted

I love being companions with Sister Hooson!! She is from York, England and has the most beautiful English accent ever! And she has a lovely singing voice! We have a lot of fun serving and singing together :)

Even though we have a cheery companionship, this week was a bit of a rough one in Washington Fields 2... We didn't have a whole lot of lessons. Which was a bit difficult. People haven't been responding to our calls/texts and not many doors have been opened. Even out in the pouring rain. (Yes, it rained in St. George practically all week ...Weird.)

As we had our weekly planning session this past weekend, we tried brainstorming many different finding ideas. We then fasted on Sunday to find new investigators - specifically people that will receive the message of the Restoration. I remember from one of our meetings, Sister Center (our mission presidents wife) trained on fasting and we talked about how fasting has to be paired with action. So we hit the pavement that afternoon for a few hours before our VC shift. We planned to contact some referrals that day, but as we were driving down the street to go to the next neighborhood to contact them, I realized we just passed about a dozen different people outside. Some were washing their cars, sitting outside, and others were moving in. I had a feeling like we should just park the car and go where the people are instead. So we walked up and down the street talking to everyone that we saw outside. We were able to have many great conversations with those on the street However, no one was willing to accept us in their home or even to meet with us again. So, unfortunately, we didn't find any new investigators that day.

For some reason I was getting discouraged easily. There's nothing I would want more at this time than to find, teach, and baptize. Not just knocking doors all day every day. We have been trying so hard to work with leaders, members, etc. it's interesting how when you think you finally got a feel for what missionary work is like, everything starts to go down hill a little. Am I not doing something right? Do I not have enough faith? I was reading over "No Effort Is Wasted" in Preach My Gospel the other morning and this phrase really stuck out to me: "When people do not accept the gospel, do not be discouraged. You have raised a warning voice. You have given them a clear choice. Disciples of Christ feel sorrow when people choose not to repent, but they maintain a vision of who they are and what they are doing. They continue to diligently move forward." I do try asking after each door contact, "Did I raise a warning voice? Did I give them a clear choice?" There is still a lot of room for improvement. But I did notice that in that paragraph was my answer: I need to diligently move forward. I have come to realize the importance of not measuring your success by the choices of others - I simply cannot control whether or not the people in my mission will accept the gospel message. But I know that I can control the type of missionary I want to be. And I strongly believe that success as a missionary can be judged by your willingness to repent and your determination to keep working.

Sister Hooson and I will continue to try our very best and I KNOW the numbers will go up, but most importantly, ordinances will increase.

Speaking of ordinances, Callie was baptized this past weekend!! It was so sweet to see the tears in her eyes during the baptismal service and the smile she had on her face the entire time. It was a ray of sunshine amidst all the rain and lack of teaching we had last week. I'm excited to see her progress towards the temple :)

That's all for now, I love you!!

Love, Sister Martin

Sister Hooson and me!