“…His word was in mine heart as a burning fire.”

Gardening & the Gospel

 

October 24, 2021 

 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Thank you for your faith and prayers!  I got to teach the gospel Saturday!  It was a fine day! 

On Saturday my companion and I visited a few inactive persons.  One lady invited us in to teach her.  She said she grew up in the church, but stopped attending when she was young.  She says she didn’t understand much about the church when she was young, but now she wants to learn.  And she wants her young grandson to learn too.  My companion and I taught her about the restoration of the gospel and gave her a Book of Mormon.  When she read Moroni 10:4 she teared up.  She wants us to come back.  I hope we can get her non-member husband interested in the lessons also. 

We visited another inactive lady who spoke only Spanish.  I chatted with her I shared a brief gospel message.  I made an appointment to come back to teach another lesson. 

After visiting inactive members, we went to the park and contacted a few more people: an inactive lady who wants to come back to church, a Spanish speaking man who accepted a Book of Mormon, and another couple who accepted a Book of Mormon.  I did what Elder Holland suggested in a recent worldwide message to missionaries.  He said to go straight to 3 Nephi 11.  So I did and woman said, “I can hardly wait to start reading this!” 

Livingroom

Kitchen

Bedroom

Other highlights of the week:   

I discovered another way of sharing the gospel to Spanish-speaking people.  I was standing next to a lady in the check-out line at Walmart and we were discussing our efforts to learn a new language: hers to learn English and mine to learn Spanish.  Then I remembered something a lady in the Spanish Ward told me, so I told it to my new Walmart friend:  If you study the scriptures in the language you are trying to learn, God will bless you to be able to learn the language.  She said she didn’t have a Bible in English, so I gave her a pass-along card with information about how to get a free Bible.  I also gave her two pamphlets on the Restoration of the Gospel--one in Spanish & one in English. 

I also told our ESL students this method of learning English and several of them want Bibles! 

Two other good things happened in ESL.  A young man who has been in the ESL class for several months, whom the hermanas have been teaching, is on date to be baptized!  

And the two women I spoke to in the church parking lot prior to ESL last week returned to ESL again this week.  (They are the ones who arrived early last week and asked about the church and I taught them about the restoration and another testament of Jesus Christ and gave them un Libro de Mormon.)  After class they asked if they could attend church!  Yay!   

I love sharing the gospel!  It makes me feel energized!  On the other hand, not sharing the gospel makes me tired.  I totally understand Jeremiah who said, “…his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing….” 

I love you all, 

Sister Manwaring 

PS. Susan says to send photos of my apartment so you can picture where I am.  I’ll also send a picture of one of my new contacting places:  The garden department of Home Depot where I get to talk to people about flowers AND the gospel! Nothing could be finer!