We all have a past, but ... 1-25-2016

Ok, I have a million things to tell you but I'll start with the funniest one. 

 So last week I went to a sushi place in City Creek to get some sushi-to-go.

 I told the guy what I wanted and then he asked what I my name was. 

 I pointed at my name tag and I guess I said "Sister Helton" really quietly because when I got my to-go box of sushi the man had written "Jesus" as my name!!! 

 I died laughing. Good to know that the name that stands out the most on my name tag is Jesus Christ (Here's a picture of the box of sushi and what he wrote on it). 

Something that really hit home to me this week was a man who came on mormon.org chat. 

  He was telling us all about his past and how he is working towards getting baptized. He has made some pretty huge mistakes and he said it's been really hard to forgive himself when those he's hurt haven't forgiven him. 

  He said he's been talking to the bishop about everything and that the bishop told him:

 "We all have a past, but we all have a present responsibility to have a future relationship with Christ."

 I thought that was so beautiful. 

 We've all made mistakes and all do things that cause us to have feelings of guilt and shame but the message of the Savior is to look to him and move forward. 

  We decide today what we want to do and who we want to follow. 

  I was also reading today in Ephesians 5:8 and Paul is talking to the Gentiles about what it means to follow Christ and how we can do it. He says, 

  "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." 

  When I read that it made me think about how we all give in to the natural man at different points in our life. We are sometimes filled with darkness but as we look to Christ and choose to follow Him, His light is able to shine in us. 

 I've been thinking about what I will do when I'm home. How I will apply what I've learned and continue to move forward following the Savior and the words "walk as children of light" was a huge answer to prayer. 

 There is a tangible difference when you follow the Savior and when you don't. His light is there and it fills you up which then allows you to go out and fill others as well. I love my Savior. 

 Our investigators are doing really well! My companion is the most hilarious person on earth. I'm learning new things every day and I am so grateful. 

  The picture at right is of our zone activity. We ding-dong-ditched the houses of the families who fed us Christmas dinner and took them cookies. Of course, I had to drive and it was pouring snow and we got super lost so we just took pictures in our mini van... haha...I will never understand the layout of streets in SLC. 

  Sister Almeida and I walked over to this little pioneer house from the 1850's and took a picture in it. Today, we did a little district activity and had lunch together than went to the familysearch place in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It's super interactive and I did this little interview thing where you get asked 14 questions and record yourself. I also learned a lot about Popo's dad John Franklin Helton! 

Love you so much!

Sister Helton

Pioneer house from the 1850s

 

FamilySearch in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building at Temple Square is interactive and fun

God is aware of everyone 1-18-2016

Hi!

This week has been amazing. I think the biggest miracle happened on Thursday. Sister Almeida went on a tour and got to see behind the organ in the Tabernacle (I didn't get to go since I did it last year) and so I just stayed in the Tabernacle and contacted people.    Anyway, I started talking to this man named Stanley from Nigeria who told me he was a convert. He served a mission in Africa, and still has lots of family there. 

  Then I remembered that we had a new investigator named Samuel from Nigeria (he came on mormon.org chat and I talked to him twice over the phone).  I had tried to look up where his nearest church was because he was super interested in learning, but the closest one was a 5-hour walk from where he lived. 

  I had tried to call the branch president for the church 5 hours away to see if we could get any missionaries to visit Samuel in his city, but the service was terrible. He couldn't hear me at all and I couldn't understand him so he hung up on me and the phone wouldn't go through when I called again. 

  But when I met Stanley (the member in the Tabernacle), I told him where Samuel lived and he said he was pretty sure there was a ward there and he said he knew the mission president over the area so he'd call him and figure everything out for me. 

  Well, it turns out in Samuel's city, there is a "group." I think that means there's less than 15 members but I just talked to Samuel today and he's going to go to church (well, the group) on Sunday to see what it's like! 

  It never ceases to amaze me how aware God is of everyone. I had just figured that the church was too far away for him to attend and that there weren't any missionaries there. Only on Temple Square could you meet someone living in the U.S. from Nigeria to help your investigator who lives in Nigeria. 

Another cool thing that happened is this guy I taught last year with Sister Bellais emailed us and said he wants to learn again from missionaries.

  He was preparing to get baptized last year and had some incredible experiences and answers from God confirming that the Book of Mormon was true and that Christ leads and guide His church today through prophets and apostles, but he called us one day and said he couldn't do it. 

  He has a masters degree in Catholic theology and actually teaches Catholic theology at a Catholic school and he said it just wasn't the time for him. 

  I called him when I got back from outbound (it was in November, I think) and we talked for a few minutes over the phone but he still seemed pretty set on his beliefs so I just told him if he ever does want to learn again, we are always happy to talk with him. 

  So, when we got an email from him this week, I was really surprised. I was even more surprised when he told us that he had started reading the Book of Mormon again because he felt like his spiritual life has gone dry and he wants to feel like he has a relationship with God again. 

  I literally almost cried. I truly believe that everyone has their own time and our role as missionaries is to always invite people to come unto Christ because you never know when their moment might be. 

I love my Savior. I'm so grateful I'm a missionary. Hope you have the best week!

Sister Helton

 

Last photo with President and Sister David Poulsen

I seriously love the scriptures 1-11-2016

Sister Rebecca Isaksen

The weeks literally just keep going faster and faster. 

  So, the most exciting news, first! I got to see Sister Isaksen yesterday!! She's now in Provo for school. Since President and Sister Poulsen spoke in our sacrament meeting yesterday for their farewell talks, she came up for it. 

  She brought me Norwegian chocolate and it is the best chocolate I think I've ever had in my life. I miss her so much. I don't think I'll ever be able to call her Rebecca. haha. 

I sent you a bunch of pictures of the class I came to the MTC with. It's pretty cool that no one in our whole class went home. We all started and will end our missions together. 

A lot of the sisters I came out with are going home this transfer so we took departing pictures with the Poulsens. 

My MTC sisters

Anyways! Even though Temple Square has been a lot more quiet since the lights turned off, we have been finding like crazy. Sister Almeida is like a Brazilian magnet and I don't know what she says in Portuguese but seriously the minute she opens her mouth, people want to learn more. 

 We met this really cool guy on Temple Square a few days ago (he spoke English surprisingly - haha) and we just started talking and ended up taking him on a tour.

  He said he had no idea that Temple Square was a religious place. He said he felt like coming to Temple Square was a sign from God that he needs to start going to church and strengthen his faith in Christ. 

  He said missionaries had knocked on his door several times but he didn't know who they were or what they were about but he said he wants to meet with them now and he wished he would have taken the time to talk to them in the past. 

  It really is these little miracles that help me keep going. That knowledge that there really are people out there who are searching for the light of Christ who just don't know where or how to find it. 

This week I've been thinking about Alma 32 a lot. I mean, I've read it quite a few times during my mission but this week different parts of the chapter have really stood out to me.   We're teaching two people right now who don't believe in God and I feel like this chapter is pure gold in helping one find out if God is there.

  In verse 28 of Alma 32 it talks about 3 ways that one can know whether or not something comes from God or if what they are learning about Christ is true. 

• The first one is that it "will enlarge your soul". My interpretation of that is it will help you understand your divine worth and potential being a child of God. 
• The second one is, "it will enlighten your understanding" meaning, truths that you have been taught in your life will begin to click into place and you will see and understand your purpose on earth and the role you play in God's eternal plan. What you are learning should add a new dimension of clarity and meaning to your life. 
• The third is that what you are learning, "will be delicious to you." The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to fill our lives and souls with peace and happiness that lasts. Even more so than when we are full physically, Jesus Christ fills us spiritually. As our souls are filled with truth and light, we will want to continue to learn more and take more in just as we do when food tastes really good! I seriously love the scriptures. 

The more I read the New Testament and Book of Mormon and really study and ponder it, the more what I've been taught my whole life (and been teaching these past 17 months) makes sense.

Love you so much!

Sister Helton

Good-bye to the Poulsens

Denise Burnett was on Temple Square for a wedding

Stay on the path by following the Savior 1-4-2016

Hi!

So, the Christmas lights have officially turned off on Temple Square and the slow season is settling in. But this week really did come to an end in an amazing way. 

  Seriously, the only other time in my mission where people have just walked up to us on Temple Square, asked for a Book of Mormon, and accepted to be baptized was when I trained Sister Kemple. Heavenly Father has sent us the most amazing people to teach the gospel to this week. 

  For starters, my companion is AMAZING. She has been finding tons of Brazilians to teach and this week she committed 2 of them to be baptized at the beginning of February and they accepted! 

We had a really cool experience last night. Two nights ago we were just about to finish our night. As we were about to go downstairs, I saw this lady just standing by herself looking at one of the exhibits.  

  I rarely feel super prompted to talk to people but for some reason I just knew we needed to speak with her, so I go up to her and was like, "Hi! How are you?"   She looked at me really confused and than looked at Sister Almeida and goes, "Oi!" It took me like 5 complete seconds to realize she didn't speak English, she spoke Portuguese. haha 

  She and Sister Almeida started talking and she motioned for us to walk with her and meet her family. As we talked to her family, we learned that her son served a mission like 5 years ago but none of the rest of his family were members. They had just come up to SLC to visit him. 

  We didn't have very much time so we asked if they wanted to come back to Temple Square the next day (Sunday) so we could take them on a tour of everything. They said yes and we got their number and they came back last night. 

 So, long story short, the tour was kind of all over the place. We asked the parents how they felt about their son serving and you could tell it was something that had broken his parents' heart. 

  Their family is reallyyy strong Catholic and so it was so hard for them to understand why their son would change his religion. It kind of broke my heart, too, because you could tell that his family really wanted to be supportive but didn't know how to because what he believes is true seemed so different from what they believed. 

  I'm just so grateful we were able to take them on a tour because by the end, the dad told us he loved us and shared an amazing story about why he believes in God. There was just such a feeling of mutual understanding and love. His sister actually took a Book of Mormon and asked us to call her this week. 

  I don't know what will happen with their family but I am so grateful that they were able to come to Temple Square and ask the questions they had and understand more that the message we share is Christ. 

  I think family relationships can get really hard with different religions but I know with my whole heart that when you show love to one another, it doesn't matter the differences because having Christ-like charity (love) changes everything.

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity each morning to study the scriptures. 

Sometimes, I have doctrinal questions that I don't know where to find the answers to and then, months later, I randomly find the answer!! 

  I'm grateful, that even when I forget the questions I have, Heavenly Father remembers them and enlightens my mind as I study.

 Like 3 months ago, Sister Linares and I took a couple on a tour and we were explaining the Restoration to them. 

  We mentioned the scripture in John 10:16 where Christ talks about his other sheep that will hear his voice and there will be one fold and one shepherd. 

  We explained that Christ's "other sheep" were the people in the Americas at the time because they literally hear his voice as he ministered to them. 

  She disagreed and said that scripture is in reference to the Gentiles and used the example of the woman at the well from the New Testament. 

  Honestly, I can't remember what we said to her. I think Sister Linares with all her scriptural knowledge clarified so she understood but I didn't really understand fully. 

  Anyways, as I was studying a few days I ago I was reading 3 Nephi 15 where Christ tells the Nephites that they are his other sheep

 and it reminded me of the question I had!! 

  As I continued to read and reverted back to the story of the woman at the well, I realized the woman at the well was a Samaritan and at the time of Christ, Samaritans and Jews did not get along, and that's why it was so significant that Christ reached out to her. This woman wasn't a Gentile though because the apostles preached in Samaria prior to Peter receiving the revelation that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 1:8, Acts 8:4). 

  I don't know if this even made sense but I'm really grateful to know that no matter what question I have, whether 

today, tomorrow, or in 50 years, 

I will eventually find an answer. 

The key is just to keep studying and not give up 

because the answers are there.

Ok, last thing. With all the craziness of Christmas, we have different assignments than the rest of the year. One of them being "Christus" and "Theater 5." 

  When people leave the presentation at the statue of Christ, we are waiting at the theater to show them a 3-minute video about Jesus Christ. Some people want to watch and some don't. 

  The upstairs of the North Visitors' Center is like a big circle and so sometimes, people walk around like 3 times in a row because they don't want to watch the video but they don't know where the stairs are so they just follow the crowd to where they think an exit is and then end up circling around a million times not knowing how to get back downstairs. 

 I think I've been asked in the past month and a half at least 100 times where the stairs are. 

  Last week, I realized that there are literally 3 different "Exit" signs that are green and illuminated on the wall that people never see. 

  Maybe I've just spent too much time standing outside the theater thinking, but I realized it's such a big part of our nature as humans to think we're going to right way and then get totally lost because we don't pay attention to the signs or we just follow the crowd because we assume everyone else knows where they're going or we're just distracted by the people we're with. 

  God has shown us the way to walk and we will stay on the right path by following the Savior. 

  He will give us answers as we look up, and most of the time the answers are already right there in front of us. 

  I'm so grateful for the scriptures that are the map God has laid out for me and for the knowledge that if I do have questions, he will answer my prayers.

Love you so much! I can't believe it's 2016 already. Have the best week.

Sister Helton

Check out Carly in The Church News (Jan. 1, 2016). http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644588/Winter-attractions-abound-at-Church-headquarters.html?pg=all

Picture top right - Carly and Sister Gabrielly Almeida in The Church News Jan. 1, 2016