Sister Kelsey Rook: Nebraska Omaha Mission

August 28, 2017

Hi Fam!!

This week has been so good! Everyday is always so great and there are always so many little tender mercies and miracles that happen! We just have to be looking out for them! I just want to focus on a couple of experiences that I had that have been absolutely incredible!!

1.) District meeting was absolutely amazing this past week. I learned so much! We focused on how the Book of Mormon was the Keystone of our religion and I related it to how it was the keystone in my life. At district meeting we did a couple of role plays where one person was the missionary and the other was just a random human. We had to do a normal approach, except we couldn't use anything except our testimonies of the Savior and Book of Mormon, and the person who wasn't the missionary had to reject us every single time. It was so powerful to hear all of these missionaries's testimonies and how the gospel truly blesses us in our life if we let it. It was also crazy to experience the other aspect of it when we had to reject the gospel ourselves- it felt absolutely terrible! Elder Swaner gave us the promise that whenever we bear testimony to someone and they reject us, they will feel as we felt when we were rejecting the missionaries. He is so powerful it was so crazy! The most craziest part of it was... a couple days later Sister Banks and I were finding and we were using the Book of Mormon as much as we could and all we were doing was testifying, and you could tell that this lady was feeling the spirit so strongly- yet she rejected us! We knew that she felt those same feelings we did in district meeting. We know that one day she will have the desire to have the gospel in her life!

2.) This is with our investigator Miguel! He was a referral a couple weeks ago from Washington and he is so interested in learning how he can better keep the commandments in his life. He is about 12 years old. We were able to teach him the Restoration last week and one of the commitments was to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he did it!! We were so excited!! We asked him how he felt and he said he felt like he never had before, it was this good feeling that he couldn't describe but he knew that this book would help him to know how to better keep the commandments in his life! It was so cool!! The Book of Mormon is the way to sincere conversion!!

3.) We had a lesson with Caesar and Sonia (Spanish investigators) this week, and it went really well! It is always so crazy teaching them because we can only teach and testify in English, and then the member will translate and lead into other things as well to better answer their questions- so we often times don't know all of what is being said, but the spirit does and so that is how we are able to teach them! It is so crazy! We taught them about the Law of Chastity and the Family Proclamation and how they go together. It was so neat to see how it finally clicked of the importance of marriage and family. They still have to get some papers so that they can get married but they are for sure working towards that now!

4.) My studies this week have been all about Charity and how we can obtain that and how we can have it for every single person that we see. I was reading in Helaman Chapter 5, and ultimately it is a choice whether we want to have charity for someone or not- we have to make the choice ourselves every single day, and no one else can make that choice for us. It was so neat to be able to focus on that and to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of his children that we came in contact with just a little bit more this week!

Funny Moments!!

1. Bugs are literally attracted to me... I look diseased with all the mosquito and bug bites that are on my legs... so that has been fun.

2. Thursday was the worst day haha, I ended up getting another spider bite and it made my foot swell up so much, it was so gross, so Sister Taggart made us go home early so I could elevate and ice it. Also this is the same day that Sister Banks had to start her all liquid diet for 24 hours because her stomach was acting super funky.... good thing is... we survived and everything is okay now!!

Sister Banks and I have been great! We are still trying our best to do everything that we need to accomplish,and we are still learning so much from each other! I feel like I learn something new from her every single day! Well, that is pretty much it! I love you so much! Have the best week possible!! Thank you for all the support you give me!! Love you to the moon and more!!

Love,

Sister Rook