ONE LEGGED PIGEON

Look Who Aunt Amy Spied!!!

Hailey & Aunt Amy

Hailey with her cousin Leah

Hello all, things are going well in Mesa and I am HAPPY!

We are reaching our goals and having so much fun. I just love the spirit that comes from choosing the right and bringing others unto Christ.

Thanks for all the prayers for us to find 2 new investigators a day. Please keep us in your prayers. We have a lot of work to do and would love your support.

So here is the truth about our goals...

We are putting in so much effort to reach this goal by doubling our efforts to find and doubling the amount of people we talk with and doubling the amount of people we teach. By doing that we are also doubling the rejection, doubling the disappointment, and doubling the discouragement that comes when people drop us.  But he not dismayed...The best part of the increased effort...despite the bad things that naturally come is that we are also doubling the MIRACLES and doubling our JOY and any sorrows that we feel are swallowed up in the Joy of Christ as we invite people to come unto Him.

To prove that to you, I am going to tell you about a woman named WANDA. She invited us to come and share the first lesson with her and her ex husband who is inactive. We came with some members and shared the message of the restoration and I had the opportunity to share the first vision which is an amazing way to invite the spirit. We invited her to be baptized (on the first lesson which is pretty normal) and she said "when I come to know it is true I might.. But not right now." So we left her with the challenge to read from The Book of Mormon, just open it to a random page even, and then pray about it and promised her that God will answer her prayers. I love giving people that promise because it is not a promise from Sister Zimmerman and Sister Childs, it is a promise from God. And God cannot lie, and will not leave you comfortless if you sincerely seek him. So we walked away from that lesson with some hope that she would find an answer.   Usually people don't read and pray and then God can't give them an answer .  If they do not receive an answer it is because they, the investigator didn't keep up his or her end of the bargain.

So, the next morning we get a call at 7:00 am. IT WAS WANDA ...! She says with a quake in her voice and tears in her eyes "Sisters, this morning I woke up and planned to read the Book of Mormon. I accidentally spilled a glass of water all over my table with the Book of Mormon on it. So I wiped it off and the book fell open to a certain chapter. I put my glasses on that page and finished getting ready for the day. When I came back I put on my glasses and picked up the book and read the page that was opened... The first thing I read was about baptism...And sisters, I want to be baptized! Can you come over so We can read together and you can help me figure out what I need to do to be baptized?"

What a miracle... We went over that night and she is on date for October 24th.  She came to church with her ex husband and she is going to be baptized. Miracles never cease and they will happen to you if you ask in righteousness having faith that you will receive. That is a promise from God!

So here are some other recent events and highlights from this week:

We had our Zone training meeting (ZTM) in which I was asked to give a training on "Soberness in Accepting the Will of God". I had prepared a training without really knowing what a training should be... No one really told me. My first training in our District meeting went well but I got lucky and did things right on accident. So when I went up to do this training I was a little unprepared. But, a few minutes before the spirit prompted me to share something completely different... Which was the scariest thing. So I followed the spirit and it went well. Maybe I will include the notes in a later email... Or if someone really needs help accepting the will of God just shoot me an email and I will send my notes to you.

So this week President Jenkins chose 4 companionship's from the whole mission to meet with some representatives from the missionary department in Salt Lake. They were going to spend half a day with us and give us help with online and social media use. The representative we met with was Brother Webb. He is amazing and gave us some great counsel and told us his conversion story. I may have to include that later because it was great but I am short on time this week because we just got back from doing service.... filling and tying sand bags in case it floods this week... (Fun fact.. You'd think Arizona's ground would soak up any rain water but the truth is that it is SO dry that it all just runs away and floods houses and just makes a mess) 

This week has been tough but our motto has been "Faith to find, Faith to drop". So many of our progressing investigators have recently told us they no longer want to hear the lessons and don't want us to come back. THAT IS DEVASTATING......THIS IS SALVATION WE'RE DEALING WITH! THIS IS REAL! So it can be hard at times to let people go knowing that they may never accept the gospel again in this life or in the next.

This is the story of the ONE LEGGED PIGEON

Once upon a time two Mesa, Az sister missionaries lived in a second floor apartment. They lived around an abundance of desert wildlife including cactus, lizards, and lots and lots of pigeons. They noticed that one of these pigeons that frequented the apartment grounds had only one leg. He hopped around the grass and hobbled by all of his bird friends while they walked with ease. That seemed sad to the sweet sisters. However, there was no need to worry. When all the birds took flight, the one legged pigeon was no different from the rest. He could fly just as high as the other birds, if not higher because he didn't have the weight of his other leg to weigh him down.

So here's the lesson to take out of all of this:

We are all the one legged pigeons. We have trials and concerns and hard times and sacrifices, troubling experiences, things we can't change, things we want to change but are so difficult to do which make us feel disabled, missing a piece, incomplete. 

But YOU CAN FLY JUST AS WELL AS ALL THE OTHER PIGEONS.

Don't just hobble around and wallow in sorrow for things you can't change... If you can make a difference to improve your life... Then DO IT.

If you can't... Then FLY

There is no need to walk when you can FLY!

Let go of what is holding you back and fly this week, then shoot me an email and let me know what comes of this.

With all my love,

A fellow ONE LEGGED PIGEON,

Sister Zimmerman