this week I want to tell you all about Sister Tina. She is absolutely incredible.
My first interaction with Tina was in the first couple days in the area. She is a less active that had a note left on her teaching record saying that she was interested in coming back to church. So in our first phone call she told me she had just downloaded the gospel library app and how she listens to scriptures and general conference ALL the time. we set up an appointment to meet with her.
in our first appointment she tells us all about herself. raised in upstate new york, grew up going to the hill cumorah pagaent every summer. always had a very strong testimony that joseph smith is a prophet. she went to college and married a muslim man who did not let her practice her faith. she's been inactive for 30 years.she now has 4 children, and a couple of them don't even believe in God. it's hard for her, but she does all she can to help them.
in recent years her husband's heart has been softened, and she has been allowed more and more to return to her roots and rediscover the testimony that has always been there. and that's where we come in. every time we teach her, she knows everything and has a strong testimony of it. she just hasn't been able to live it for 30 years. she often ends up teaching us. one of her son's has sat in on our last couple lessons and she ends up teaching him.
yesterday in sunday school we were talking about gifts of the spirit. one of them that was talked about is the gift of knowing Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Tina made the comment of, "I think i have this gift, in fact I know I have this gift, because I married an Islamic man many years ago and if it weren't for my knowledge that Jesus Christ is the son of God, I would probably be Muslim today".
she comes to church every week and wants to be involved in everything. she introduces herself to everyone and is so excited to finally be returning to what she was taught as a teenager.
her faith has lasted through everything, for over 30 years.
two weeks after we started teaching her, we went to an appointment and she said, "i finished the book of mormon!" she listens to the scriptures for an hour or two everyday on the gospel library app.
she is AMAZING. she has taught me so much about not taking the gospel for granted. in fact the last couple weeks, she has made the comment after church that the members forgot how blessed they are to be able to attend church each week and practice as they will. I'm grateful for the freedoms we have, and for the knowledge of the gospel, and for the power of a testimony that lasts through the trials of life.
love you!
sister mal
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| finally found a dead big one-- they come out during rainstorms. they hop like two feet in the air. THEY ARE DISGUSTING. |
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| Florida sunsets tho |
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| how we avoid the wind. |
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| sis sackleys first time dipping Oreos in milk. Im forever changed. |
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| tina gave us eggplant sandwiches and dates this week... it was one of those "mission prep" moments... oh wait. this is real life!! haha |
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| chasing after birds level 10 |
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| How I come up to the doors when we are tracting, |
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| that one time our car got stuck in an elementary school parking lot for the night. let's just not talk about that shall we? |
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