It's All About the HEART

Guten Morgen! I hope everyone is doing well! I just have to start off with how cool it is to be on a mission right now. The hastening of the Lord's work is incredible and I am so grateful to watch it happen and be a part of it! Like usual, time is so weird on missions. I feel like i was just emailing. We had a really good week here in Linz! We were able to do quite a bit of Inactive work - there are so many inactive members in our ward. There are roughly 400 members on our ward list...and only 200 come to church. We went with an old lady in our ward who knows everyone and their dog. Her name is Schwester Dephalias and she is hilarious. Let's just say I was warned she was a bad driver...and my testimony was strengthened that we have "angels round about us" haha!  One thing I have learned on my mission, is that missionary work is all encompassing. I always imagined simply teaching new investigators, but the work of strengthening members, the youth, and rescuing the inactives is so crucial. As we drove in the Austrian hills to tiny villages trying to visit these members, I thought of Jesus leaving the 99 sheep in search for the one lost. So cool. 

We also had a cool experience this last week with some new investigators. We met Florian and Tatjana going door to door. We later in the week met Tatjana and her cousin Effy from Greece for a lesson at a park. We talked about the Restoration and the reason behind so many different churches today. It is always so neat to see the familiarity of what we are teaching in the eyes of our investigators. I love seeing the desire to know and understand more simply because they feel the Spirit. Well at the end of the lesson we said a prayer in the middle of the park. We explained a little about prayer and how we talk with our Heavenly Father like we talk to our father or friend. As we ended the prayer, both Tatjana and Effy had tears rolling down their cheeks. They were able to be connected to heaven and their loving Heavenly Father. The Spirit was super strong. It was times like that, which make "dooring" worth it! haha Tatjana, Florian, and Effy all came to church yesterday which was really cool! The talks in sacrament were perfect and they said they wanted to come back! So I am excited to see the miracle the Lord works there. Another story which was a little more on the humor side was dooring and coming across a jehovah's witness...and not knowing it...and maybe cracking a jw joke in the beginning....uhhh ya. Reallllll smooth Sister Jaynes. Heavenly Father must have a sense of humor. Don't worry though, she took a Book of Mormon :)

This week in my personal study I have come across several good quotes which i thought i would share today! "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye" and "Our certain reunion with Him at the judgment bar will be more pleasing if we first do the things that make Him as familiar to us as we are to Him." I have such a strong testimony of the Savior and His love. I am grateful for the ability to recognize and feel those things of most importance that are invisible to the eye. I am also a fan of doing those things that the Savior would do. His footsteps are known, He is waiting to bless us...we just have to take the first step and follow Him. 

Ich liebe euch!!!

XOXOXOXOXO 

Schwester Jaynes 

p.s. Coke supports us Schwestern :)