Sunday, December 21, 2014

I'll go where you want me to go....

Well, I am leaving Casa Grande. I am really sad about it. I was really excited to hopefully spend Christmas here and I love my companion to death so I was hoping for one more. Plus, I say this every time, but I hate packing. Anyway it will be interesting to see where I go. Maybe I'll go back to a biking area so I can lose some weight. Although I never lost weight when I was in a biking area before either. Guess we will find out on Thursday!

So this week has been alright. We've had quite a few things fall through so that was a bummer deal. But we also had a super awesome day where we found quite a few potential investigators! That was a testimony to me that God always knows what he is doing. Our newly wed convert had to cancel her appointment with us, so we had nothing to do that day. I had a terrible headache the night before, which caused me to feel sick. So I had left Sister R to plan by herself. So we had a lot of random people put in besides the ones we had put in during weekly planning. So we had put a bunch of people in the boonies in to visit since that is where our appointment lived. We decided to go out there anyway even though she cancelled so we could see a bunch of the other people! Well, we ended up being in places that I have never been before and we had a lot of success! We found this neighborhood way out there that we had never been to before. However, the people we were looking for weren't home so we called another guy that was supposed to live out that way too, and he was actually on his way to the Mesa Temple to see the lights! So that was cool :) He told us to call him at the beginning of next year to see him. Then we drove to another part of the boonies to find some part member families and share the "He is the Gift" video with them. We knocked on one of the doors thinking it was this one family...well it was actually a different lady. Apparently the family we were looking for lived across the street. However, this family turned out to be a part member family too! We shared the video with this lady and she said she has studied with Baptists, Jehovah Witness, and Catholics and had been searching for the truth but didn't feel like her husband knew all the answers. So we asked her if she would like to take the lessons so she would know for herself what we believed. She said yes and that she would prefer to come into town to do the lessons! So we get to have our lessons at a church building :) So that was exciting in and of itself but then she went on to tell us that she had been in a car wreck earlier that week and it had made her start thinking about what is really important in life, "and then you showed up." She then said that the only reason we were even able to catch her at that time was because of the car wreck. Her car had been totaled. So she normally would never have been home at that time. Miracles! I love being able to see God guide us. But usually we don't get to hear of those things and we think we are just running through the motions or making it up :) But God knows what he is doing! So that was awesome. After that we only had a few more minutes before we started to head back, but we wanted to try one more. So Sister R just picked a "random" house and we knocked. There was a guy who recently moved down here and he didn't really want to listen, but I softened him up ;) haha but it turns out that he is YSA age! So that was so awesome because it is terribly hard to find new YSA investigators here! He was super nice and seemed interested by the end so it was just a really awesome day :) We also had a few other random lessons that people said we can start coming by regularly in the New Year. One of them was a cute lady that had a full table of food set for us when we got there. She had tea (herbal) and tons of snacks and she wanted to hear about what we believe in while we ate. She is a historian and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. It was really good! She was so nice!

We had another good lesson this week too! He is awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him as well and were able to go over some of the questions he had and address some of his concerns. He seems really solid though. He talked about how he might have to redo his work schedule and how it will really be stinky hours and such but he might be able to do that so he can come to church. :) If he takes all of the things we ask him to do, into his life and really ponders it, I know that he will be baptized someday :)

Also, our mother investigator bought us a Christmas tree! She loves Christmas and was so sad when she heard we didn't have a Christmas tree. She said she was trying to figure out how to make it a surprise, but couldn't, so she just told us and we went to pick it out at a Christmas tree lot together. She had ornaments and lights for us too. It's so cute! I felt so bad because it was a real tree! Expensive! But she was so excited :) I love her so much. I have grown really close to her. I'm really sad that I am leaving because she is getting baptized this weekend. Hopefully I can come back for it though. Who knows.

This week we also sang in the YSA. They put together a Christmas program and we were one of the lucky ducks who got asked to sing. So Sister R and I sang "Angels We Have Heard On High." I always get so nervous. I'm tired of singing haha. Which is funny because we were told that if any of us wanted to do a musical number for the Christmas conference that we needed to get it together and tell Sister T. I suggested we do something as a zone. So the zone leaders jokingly delegated that responsibility to me. Well jokes on them because I did it. We asked ladies in our ward for music and one of the ladies actually had a piece that her mom put together! It is "What Child Is This (lullaby)." So it has a girl part that is different from the regular song, then the boys sing the regular song, and then we sing our separate parts at the same time. Then there is chorus that we all sing together. It is super cool, so i am really excited! We are just going to sing as our zone now so that will be kind of awkward at the conference when I walk up and I'm not in the zone anymore but oh well :) So we are going to practice it today. The whole zone agreed to do it so we will see how it sounds today! It will be our first out of two practices sooooo wish us luck ;) haha I'm excited though. Hopefully it works out. It's really cool because no one will have heard this version before :)

Anyway I'm out of time for the day, but I just wanted to share a little thought. I have been reading the Book of Mormon and today I read about Alma and Amulek preaching in the city of Amonihah. This is the time when Zeezrom tries to discount what they say and make them cross their own words and in the end Alma and Amulek are thrown in prison. However, because of their faith they are able to break the bonds and the prison ends up falling and killing all those who had opposed them. Then after that, they travel to Sidom and those people who had listened to their words in Amonihah had fled there and so they were willing to listen to Alma and Amulek. Well Zeezrom was also there and he had become super sick because he felt so guilty about all that he had done. Long story short, he ends up calling for Alma and Amulek to come heal him. They didn't even hesitate, but immediately went to him! Although he had done some wicked things and had caused Alma and Amulek much grief and persecution, they instantly forgave him. Then through Zeezrom's faith, he was healed and immediately baptized after. It then says that he preached the gospel. I think there are so many things we can learn from that story! Faith, Repentance, Forgiveness. That just really stood out to me this morning as I was reading that when we have faith, it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, that we can get through it because God knows best. So even though I am sad, I am ready and willing to go wherever God has me go. If I trust in him, then it will all work out :) Anyway love you all! Thanks for all your support and help that you give me.

P.S. I'm so behind on letters right now, so if you have written me, I will write back I promise, but it might be around Christmas. I have to pack and have a lot to do today! So sorry!

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