Sis. Hassell wasn't feeling well all week, so we had a
pretty chill week, but it was still awesome.
Tuesday we both had a first on our missions. We got to meet
with a Muslim family! It was pretty cool. There are a lot of Muslims in Houston
and there is even a mosque in our area. We knock into a lot of Muslims and they
are usually pretty nice. But on Tuesday we were tracting before going out with
the Sapp's, and a Muslim lady answered and immediately invited us inside. She
made us icees to cool down with. We had some small talk when she was in the
kitchen making the icee, but it was kind of awkward because she was far away.
She told us she was from Pakistan, etc. When she sat down the first thing out
of her mouth was, "So we're Muslim." So we started talking about what
she believed. Pretty much we believe a lot of the same things except they believe
Jesus Christ is just an awesome prophet and A son of God, and not THE Son of
God. She told us a lot of things that would take forever to explain, but she
was so nice. Then she started showing us a video of guy who used to be Catholic
and converted to Islam and he was giving a lecture about what Muslims believe
about Jesus Christ. We had to go, though, but then her husband and kids came
home and her husband started telling us a bunch of stuff. They talked a lot so
we couldn't get much out. We evenutally were able to say "We have very
similar beliefs." He said "Kind of. We are the same until Jesus
Christ and then we go in different directions." And then we told him we
were Mormon and then he liked us more and agreed that we had paralleled beliefs.
In the end they gave us a Qur'an. And Sis. Hassell loves those Indian outfits
and has always wanted one, so she asked the lady where she bought her clothes,
and the lady ended up giving Sis. Hassell one of her outfits. She was so
excited.
The visit was cool and unique. But it was interesting to
notice the Holy Ghost and when it was there and when it wasn't. When we first
walked in, I had a thought that I should pay attention to when the Spirit was
and wasn't there. And that the beginning the Spirit was there, and we were just
having a nice conversation. But once they started talking about what they
really believe and about how Christ isn't the Son of God, the Spirit fled. It
was gone. And then at one point we were able to tell them about Joseph Smith
and the Book of Mormon (we left them with a copy in exchange for the Qur'an),
and instantly the Spirit came back. It was pretty awesome. And the whole
experience definitely strengthened my testimony that Jesus is the Christ. He is
our Savior. And He is the Only Begotten of the Father. And it makes me so sad
to think of all of those people who don't know that and don't know and
understand His love for them.
We started reteaching a lady named Stephanie. She started
meeting with the missionaries 1 1/2 years ago. We would go over every now and
then, but now missionaries and really taught her in awhile. We asked if we
could reteach her and she agreed. She originally had referred herself on mormon.org, so we asked her why. For a few years
she had been really depressed and just in a slump, and somehow she stumbled
onto mormon.org and started watching all of the
"I'm a Mormon" videos. They made her happy and helped her feel at
peace (the Spirit!) and she was impressed at how happy and peaceful all of the
people in the videos were and wanted to be like them. She asked us some
questions about different things. We showed her some more videos and she loves
them. She said the thing she struggles the most with is Joseph Smith. We can
definitely try to fix that. She reminds me a lot of Megan when we first started
teaching her. We just need to help her realize that what she is feeling is the
Spirit and what that means for her.
This weekend we had stake conference. It was legit! An Area
Seventy, Elder J. Romeo Villarreal, was there. He is hilarious and awesome. The
Spirit was strong the whole time. The Sunday session was really cool. All of
the missionaries in our zone sang "The Spirit of God" and President
and Sister Mortensen both spoke. They are so awesome! I love them so much! It
was great to be able to see all of the missionaries. We got to see our zone
everyday this weekend (zone meeting on Friday, and stake conference on Saturday
and Sunday). I love being with other missionaries. The Spirit is always so
strong and I just always feel so uplifted and reenergized. And they are all
just so awesome and fun and hilarious. It's the best. I love being a
missionary. And I love this special missionary spirit that I get to feel all of
the time. It is the best feeling in the world. Nothing can beat it. I am so
grateful for this wonderful chance that I have to serve the Lord and be edified
by this missionary spirit; for everything that I have learned; for all of the
experiences that I've had; all the people I have met; how much I have grown;
and most importantly my strengthened relationship with my Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ.
Love,
Sister Sylvester
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