We had a much better week here in good ol' Paonia!!! The beginning was a little rough, but we have had a fantastic weekend.
We've done a LOT of finding this week, because we pretty much have nothing else to do. There were like 3 people in our teaching pool....that's rough guys. Really rough.
But the problem is that Sister Nielsen has been here for 8 months, and everyone in the towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss knows her. So when we go finding, we have to really really rely on the Spirit, and we mostly work out in the boonies! It's great.
Our goal this week was to stay positive and be happy, and have more faith. We didn't really know how to do that, but decided that truly the only way we could increase our faith was to keep working. And the best way to be happy is to work hard and follow the Spirit. I made a goal of acting on every spiritual prompting I received, no matter how crazy or obscure they were. On Wednesday night we were planning what to do the next day and I decided to pray in the middle of our planning to ask Heavenly Father where we needed to be. I got the impression of the name of a street that I had never heard of, Davis Rd. I didn't even know if there was a Davis Rd, but sure enough we looked at the map and found it! So we went there the next day. This is Davis Rd:
Yup, that's where the Spirit sent us haha. Everyone was either not home, or not interested. And by "everyone," I mean all 4 houses on the road lol. Then we had another prompting to go to Yeoman Rd. I don't even know how to say that. But it was the same situation. It sounds awfully depressing, right? However, it was actually so great! We knew that we were following the Spirit and trusting in the Lord, even if He was sending us to the most ridiculous places.
I learned a really important lesson this week. Sometimes the Lord wants you to learn to trust in Him. Other times He wants to see if He can trust YOU. I feel like this week we were given the opportunity to prove ourselves to the Lord. He is looking for servants like Nephi, who said, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7) He wants people who will do whatever He asks of them. This week we were tested, and we proved ourselves to Him.
Last night we again were following a prompting to go try a family in Crawford. It was snowing pretty hard, and they lived out in the boonies on a dirt road. Not the safest situation, I'll admit. But we went out there, and found two houses on the road. We didn't know which was the house that the family lived in, so we tried both. In the first house we found the most incredible family I've met my entire mission. There's a mom and dad and 3 adorable children. They let us in, and took our survey, and we shared the Restoration with them. They had never even heard of Joseph Smith (which is a good thing). We asked them if they felt that God hears and answers their prayers and they said "OH YEAH. He's done some pretty amazing things for us." They told us their story, and it was seriously the most incredible story I've ever heard. She had a medical problem a few years ago, and she doesn’t have any memories at all from before that point. When we were teaching them, the Spirit was so strong and they just loved everything we were saying. The wife at one point turned to her husband and said "Have we heard this before?" (because she doesn't remember anything before she got sick) and he said "No" and she said "Because it sounds SO familiar." It was really cool.
Snow and Deer - There are so many of them here!
I know that God is preparing His children - both those who need to receive the gospel, and those who need to share it. Although this transfer has been hard, and I've been stretched in ways I didn't even think possible, I have grown immensely. I can feel the Spirit working so strongly in my life, and I can feel God's loving guidance more than ever.
I love you all and I'm so grateful for the love and support and prayers you give me. Stay amazing :)
Love,
Sister Koenig
Oh ps, it snowed a ton last night. I had to drive on dirt roads like this all day. It was great.
Good thing I have 4-wheel drive!
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