Happy late Valentine's Day! This week was really good for us. We had a really fun district activity last week. I love my district this transfer. We are all like siblings and it's really fun to work together. Also, our district leader is Japanese, so he can have a hard time understanding sometimes and he says funny things :) we played uno and I played a power card on him. His reply, "ohh. You are so aggressive." Haha or the other day when I said something that "blew his mind" he said, "oh. You shake my brain." Haha it's hilarious and super fun! We went to a store down here and made shirts for our district! Each district made shirts and then we are all going to wear them for our zone activity today. So that should be fun!
We have still been trying to find people that are really prepared! We had a lady drop us the other day which was really sad because she hadn't even really given it a chance and she really would have loved it and benefited from it if she has just done what we had asked her to. But, people have their agency.
We did have a little miracle of finding a family this week. We are trying to clean up the area book so we were going to houses all in the same general area. We knocked on a door looking for a particular person. A lady opened the door with her newborn son and was super friendly and made small talk, which is super unusual when knocking on someone's door. Normally people want to know why you are there. Anyway we asked if she was the lady we were looking for and she said no, but we were able to talk to her and found out she had always seen missionaries around, but had never talked with them. I think she had a friend who gave her a Book of Mormon because she has read parts of that too. So we set up a time to go visit with her and family and get to know her better! It was a fun miracle to have happen!!! She seems really awesome.
We also have spent a lot of time this week trying to think of ways to help the ward get more involved in missionary work. We need referrals because that is how you find prepared people who will remain active in the church! So, as missionaries we consulted with the ward mission leader and decided we want to have a ward activity and have workshops that we teach from the book "The Power of an Everyday Missionary". We are still working out the kinks, but we presented it in PEC and the bishop is behind it. We are trying to think of ways to make it fun so people will come, but we have some good ideas that we are excited to present to the council! It should be really good! Luckily, we were able to fit it into the schedule before I go home :)
We haven't been able to meet with our church headquarters referral this week :/ We had several appointments set, but then she got out of work late most of those times. She works far away, and then with traffic, she doesn't get home in time. But we were able to stop by for a few minutes last night and explain the Book of Mormon too her.
Last night, we were actually able to teach our couple investigators about the Book of Mormon as well, and they are super excited to read it. Sad news though, they decided not to get married so soon after all. They want to involve their families more. Anyway we had some powerful lessons on the Book of Mormon last night that I really enjoyed. Antonia's daughter seemed really excited about it :) she is awesome. She actually came to activity days this week and she LOVED it. Plus, while her mom waited for her, she was able to talk to another member sister and they clicked so well, so I think that really helped her :)
Lastly, we heart attacked people on Saturday and of course made them treats to go with it as well. It was really fun to door bell ditch a few of them and to see the reactions. Especially this one guy. He looked so happy and he shouted into the dark, "hello!?...it looks pretty!" Haha adorable. And the mother/daughters we are trying to teach were having a rough day, and when they got home they were so happy and excited. The daughter said it was the best thing that happened all weekend :) so even though we didn't have any lessons, we felt so good and happy for making others feel loved. It was really fun and the spirit of service always makes you feel good :)
So my thought for the week... I have been reading the Book of Mormon and also studying its importance in PMG. We also had an emphasis on it in zone meeting this week too. Then we were able to have those powerful lessons his week. So I've just been thinking about how important the Book of Mormon is. I read in 3 Nephi 11:14-15 and it is when Christ appeared to the Nephites and told them to "come unto him and feel the nail prints in his hands and feet so they would know for a surety of who he was" and so forth. So then it made me think of "how can we metaphorically come unto christ and what can we do so that we may know of him with as much surety as those Nephites who actually got to see and touch him?" In verse 15 it tells us that we have to do it "one by one" or in other words, individually. So, what are the things that we can do to better know him individually? You got it, it's those primary answers. Pray, read, and go to church, etc. when we do those things, the spirit is there to touch each of our hearts individually. The most important one I could think of, is to read the Book of Mormon. It is another witness of Jesus Christ. More of his words and more knowledge of him so we can know him better. I am hoping to finish the Book of Mormon now, and read it again once more before I come home because I have recovered so much knowledge and understanding and answers from its pages and I know you can too! Reading the word of God everyday and praying, will bring more peace, answers, direction, and happiness than anything else. Thanks for all you love and support! I love and miss you all.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Grand Theft Auto
Soooo this week has been so, so crazy. As you can tell by the title of this post, you are in for a crazy story. So once upon a time, the Spanish speaking sisters were at the library doing their online proselyting time. One of them had started at a table on her Ipad because there wasn't another computer open. Well when one opened, she left both of their purses on the table behind them....bad news. After they were done, they discovered that their purses were gone. Bummer deal. So then they go outside and find....yup, their car was gone! dun, dun, dun. The keys to the car had been in their purses. So meanwhile, we had just gotten out of a lesson when the zone leaders called us and told us what had happened. They told us not to go into the church for a while because since the man had their keys, he also had the keys to the church! Bad news. A few minutes later, the assistants to the president (APs) call us and tell us that we can't go home either because he also has the key to our apartment. So we were to go home and pack an overnight back and anything that was valuable and find a member's house to stay at. So the zone leaders had been sitting around our apartment guarding it and waiting for us to pack bags. We stowed our bikes at their apartment so that if the guy broke in, he couldn't steal those. We packed our bags and while we were there the other sisters got home to pack as well. Then the Ap's came. We were waiting for the other sisters so we could drive them to their dinner and such but the Ap's told us we could get going to our dinner appointment and they could take them. So off we go to dinner and the hopes of finding a member's house to stay in that night.
Meanwhile, the Elders hadn't thought that through too well because the other sisters no longer had a key to lock our apartment. So they texted us and asked us to go home after dinner and lock up the place. We weren't TOO worried about someone breaking in because there are a billion apartment complex's here and there is no way he could find OUR one apartment. So, after dinner we went home to lock up, but I wasn't feeling well so I went to use the restroom while we were there. While I was in the restroom, my new companion was just waiting in our room. Our room is directly straight from the front door. So I'm just washing up when I hear a little tapping on my door. I think she is just telling me to hurry so I am about to open the door and tell her I'm coming. However, as I open the door she shushes me and shoves me back into the bathroom. She said, "shhh, he's here!" A million things just start running through my mind and my reaction, "Are you SERIOUS!?" She had heard someone messing with the doorknob and so she saw him walk in, took a quick profile of him, and then locked our bedroom door. Then she had started to tap on the door quietly saying, "Sister! Sister! call the police!" Then she realized she already had the phone. So she got in the bathroom with me and we locked the door. She handed the phone to me and said she couldn't do this, and dropped to her knees in prayer. The police department answers and I tried to quietly explain that someone was in our apartment. However, they couldn't hear me so they hung up. THEY HUNG UP! At this point I'm shaking and extremely nervous, but at the same time,surprisingly calm. I then called the zone leaders. Elder W answered and I said, "Listen, the AP's told us to come back and lock the doors and a man came while we were here. We are locked in the bathroom!" Elder W said, "Wait what?" So I try to quietly explain it to him again. His response, "Wait, slow down and say that all one more time." By this point I'm a little frustrated. I said, "Elder, LISTEN. There is a man in our apartment and we are locked in the bathroom!!!" Finally it clicked and you could hear his breath catch in his throat. "uhhh, ok just hold on! we'll be right there!" Then in the background as they are hanging up you can hear Elder T say, "Why did they go back!?" So I get off the phone and I'm trying to think of what we are going to do when the man finds us. We thought we could hear him in our room going through drawers and our bathroom is in our bedroom, which means he had unlocked our bedroom door. Then we hear him talking to someone. So now I think that he has friends and they are in our house. It was a terrifying thought! I had my bag on me which was pretty heavy that I thought I could probably use to throw him off guard and my companion was planning things too. (By the way, she is a black belt in Taekwondo). So, we are preparing ourselves for the worst, but then we hear banging on our bedroom door and the Elders yelling, "HERMANAS!!! HERRRMANAAASSS!!!" So we go out, and we find the Elders and the member they were with, standing in a defensive pose, and.....Elder C. Elder C is our housing coordinator for this area. He had been told to come lock the door as well! So poor Sister Wright has never met him before and thought he was the burglar. So, it was actually a tender mercy that the police didn't show up, although a little frightening because they didn't even call us back like they usually do to make sure everything is really ok (we have pocket dialed the police before and they always call back). So, it actually turned out to be a pretty funny story! But it must have happened for a reason, because it was way too ironic that it all worked out like that in the 3 minutes we were home. And it turns out, Elder C hadn't been in our bedroom, but had been opening and closing the sliding door which is right outside our bedroom and it only sounded like he was going through drawers. So ya, pretty scary situation. I have never been in a situation like that so I was surprised how calm I was able to be. So we all learned something from the situation. And luckily, the member that had the Elders, wasn't carrying his gun that day either! It just worked out too well in so many ways. So my poor companion went into shock after that. Crazy.
So ya, they still haven't found the guy, and he unplugged Tiwi (the monitoring system we have to make sure we aren't crazy drivers...and it can also be tracked) like right after he stole the car so they are a little worried that he knew too well what to do. But they re-keyed our apartment the next day so we were good to go home after that! We stayed at a member's house that night and it was very kind of them to let us stay there. So yes! We are all glad that we are safe and everything is ok. I mean mostly. The other sisters had to call their parents and close all their bank cards and stuff and also get a bunch of new stuff like bank cards, car, tiwi card, etc. So that is a very big bummer, but everyone is safe. But I feel so bad for my companion because she is already trying to adjust to missionary life and she's had people tell her that she is going to get murdered, seen a helicopter flying around the church searching for someone, the sister's car got stolen, then we had our little scare, and the Elders told us to still be cautious cause he could still come back. She had a little break down, but I would too! Talk about adjusting to missionary life. None of us have ever experienced anything like this! But hey, it's a funny story now right? Other than that we had a pretty good week.
We have been doing a lot of finding and knocking on doors. We had a really good lesson with our church referral and her daughters. We taught the Restoration and she seemed to accept it pretty well. We will be going with her ten year old daughter to activity days tomorrow so that should be fun.
Our male investigator also came to church this week and he stayed for all three hours! Woo! He's never done that. We didn't even have to ask him either. He had a meeting with the bishop this week and he told the bishop he would get baptized when he was ready. I think he is one of those people who wants it to be his own idea, so we are just going to stop talking about baptism for a few times and see what happens. He is making progress on his own so that is good :) Thanks for all the prayers!
Also, we taught our less active couple about repentance with the Bishop last night and he invited them to get married to help them fully repent. The girl was a little sad about it because she has always wanted a big wedding, but they don't have the money for it, which is why they have been waiting. But Bishop convinced them to have a little wedding just to make it legal, and then have a big celebration and reception when they get sealed in the temple. They agreed and will be getting married on March 8! We are so excited for them :) So it has been really good!
We helped a man and his family move this week. He is older and disabled and was a church headquarters referral. So we told him we could help and luckily the Elders could come because we did it all by ourselves. Even luckier, Elder M worked for a moving company for a few years so he was able to play "tetris" in the uhaul. So hopefully we can start teaching this man soon. They moved within our area so that is nice.
So my thought this week is about the Savior. I am reading about when the Savior came to the Earth and when Samuel the Lamanite is giving the signs of his birth and death. I am slow, so I have never made this connection before...but I love the symbolism that goes into the signs. When He is born, there is added light in the world. A night with no darkness and also a new star. Then, when he dies, there is NO light. The light is gone for three days. So to me, that then made me think of the scripture in John 8:12. "...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." When He was born, the light entered into the world. He IS the light. And when he was crucified, the light was taken from the world for those days while he was dead. It was something new to me and I really liked it! What a beautiful thing. We need to turn to Christ to get rid of the darkness in our lives. The darkness will surround us sometimes, but as we turn to the Savior, he can dispel any darkness that is around us. Thank you for all the love and support that you give me! I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is one of the biggest blessings in and for my life. I've learned a lot and I'm excited to be able to keep growing.
Meanwhile, the Elders hadn't thought that through too well because the other sisters no longer had a key to lock our apartment. So they texted us and asked us to go home after dinner and lock up the place. We weren't TOO worried about someone breaking in because there are a billion apartment complex's here and there is no way he could find OUR one apartment. So, after dinner we went home to lock up, but I wasn't feeling well so I went to use the restroom while we were there. While I was in the restroom, my new companion was just waiting in our room. Our room is directly straight from the front door. So I'm just washing up when I hear a little tapping on my door. I think she is just telling me to hurry so I am about to open the door and tell her I'm coming. However, as I open the door she shushes me and shoves me back into the bathroom. She said, "shhh, he's here!" A million things just start running through my mind and my reaction, "Are you SERIOUS!?" She had heard someone messing with the doorknob and so she saw him walk in, took a quick profile of him, and then locked our bedroom door. Then she had started to tap on the door quietly saying, "Sister! Sister! call the police!" Then she realized she already had the phone. So she got in the bathroom with me and we locked the door. She handed the phone to me and said she couldn't do this, and dropped to her knees in prayer. The police department answers and I tried to quietly explain that someone was in our apartment. However, they couldn't hear me so they hung up. THEY HUNG UP! At this point I'm shaking and extremely nervous, but at the same time,surprisingly calm. I then called the zone leaders. Elder W answered and I said, "Listen, the AP's told us to come back and lock the doors and a man came while we were here. We are locked in the bathroom!" Elder W said, "Wait what?" So I try to quietly explain it to him again. His response, "Wait, slow down and say that all one more time." By this point I'm a little frustrated. I said, "Elder, LISTEN. There is a man in our apartment and we are locked in the bathroom!!!" Finally it clicked and you could hear his breath catch in his throat. "uhhh, ok just hold on! we'll be right there!" Then in the background as they are hanging up you can hear Elder T say, "Why did they go back!?" So I get off the phone and I'm trying to think of what we are going to do when the man finds us. We thought we could hear him in our room going through drawers and our bathroom is in our bedroom, which means he had unlocked our bedroom door. Then we hear him talking to someone. So now I think that he has friends and they are in our house. It was a terrifying thought! I had my bag on me which was pretty heavy that I thought I could probably use to throw him off guard and my companion was planning things too. (By the way, she is a black belt in Taekwondo). So, we are preparing ourselves for the worst, but then we hear banging on our bedroom door and the Elders yelling, "HERMANAS!!! HERRRMANAAASSS!!!" So we go out, and we find the Elders and the member they were with, standing in a defensive pose, and.....Elder C. Elder C is our housing coordinator for this area. He had been told to come lock the door as well! So poor Sister Wright has never met him before and thought he was the burglar. So, it was actually a tender mercy that the police didn't show up, although a little frightening because they didn't even call us back like they usually do to make sure everything is really ok (we have pocket dialed the police before and they always call back). So, it actually turned out to be a pretty funny story! But it must have happened for a reason, because it was way too ironic that it all worked out like that in the 3 minutes we were home. And it turns out, Elder C hadn't been in our bedroom, but had been opening and closing the sliding door which is right outside our bedroom and it only sounded like he was going through drawers. So ya, pretty scary situation. I have never been in a situation like that so I was surprised how calm I was able to be. So we all learned something from the situation. And luckily, the member that had the Elders, wasn't carrying his gun that day either! It just worked out too well in so many ways. So my poor companion went into shock after that. Crazy.
So ya, they still haven't found the guy, and he unplugged Tiwi (the monitoring system we have to make sure we aren't crazy drivers...and it can also be tracked) like right after he stole the car so they are a little worried that he knew too well what to do. But they re-keyed our apartment the next day so we were good to go home after that! We stayed at a member's house that night and it was very kind of them to let us stay there. So yes! We are all glad that we are safe and everything is ok. I mean mostly. The other sisters had to call their parents and close all their bank cards and stuff and also get a bunch of new stuff like bank cards, car, tiwi card, etc. So that is a very big bummer, but everyone is safe. But I feel so bad for my companion because she is already trying to adjust to missionary life and she's had people tell her that she is going to get murdered, seen a helicopter flying around the church searching for someone, the sister's car got stolen, then we had our little scare, and the Elders told us to still be cautious cause he could still come back. She had a little break down, but I would too! Talk about adjusting to missionary life. None of us have ever experienced anything like this! But hey, it's a funny story now right? Other than that we had a pretty good week.
We have been doing a lot of finding and knocking on doors. We had a really good lesson with our church referral and her daughters. We taught the Restoration and she seemed to accept it pretty well. We will be going with her ten year old daughter to activity days tomorrow so that should be fun.
Our male investigator also came to church this week and he stayed for all three hours! Woo! He's never done that. We didn't even have to ask him either. He had a meeting with the bishop this week and he told the bishop he would get baptized when he was ready. I think he is one of those people who wants it to be his own idea, so we are just going to stop talking about baptism for a few times and see what happens. He is making progress on his own so that is good :) Thanks for all the prayers!
Also, we taught our less active couple about repentance with the Bishop last night and he invited them to get married to help them fully repent. The girl was a little sad about it because she has always wanted a big wedding, but they don't have the money for it, which is why they have been waiting. But Bishop convinced them to have a little wedding just to make it legal, and then have a big celebration and reception when they get sealed in the temple. They agreed and will be getting married on March 8! We are so excited for them :) So it has been really good!
We helped a man and his family move this week. He is older and disabled and was a church headquarters referral. So we told him we could help and luckily the Elders could come because we did it all by ourselves. Even luckier, Elder M worked for a moving company for a few years so he was able to play "tetris" in the uhaul. So hopefully we can start teaching this man soon. They moved within our area so that is nice.
So my thought this week is about the Savior. I am reading about when the Savior came to the Earth and when Samuel the Lamanite is giving the signs of his birth and death. I am slow, so I have never made this connection before...but I love the symbolism that goes into the signs. When He is born, there is added light in the world. A night with no darkness and also a new star. Then, when he dies, there is NO light. The light is gone for three days. So to me, that then made me think of the scripture in John 8:12. "...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." When He was born, the light entered into the world. He IS the light. And when he was crucified, the light was taken from the world for those days while he was dead. It was something new to me and I really liked it! What a beautiful thing. We need to turn to Christ to get rid of the darkness in our lives. The darkness will surround us sometimes, but as we turn to the Savior, he can dispel any darkness that is around us. Thank you for all the love and support that you give me! I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is one of the biggest blessings in and for my life. I've learned a lot and I'm excited to be able to keep growing.
Giving "Birth" in my "old age"
Sooo, we finally got transfer calls last Tuesday night super late. I was called to be a trainer again! So I'm going to have another daughter! I'm assuming that I will just do her full training until I go home, but you never know what might happen. But I'm really excited because she will hopefully help me not get trunky! So she is super cute. She is from Arkansas. She is the youngest of 5 kids. I picked her up on Thursday and sent my mom/trainer, home. That was a sad day though. She has always been here my whole mission! And I thought I would have one more transfer with her here since the beginning, but she went home a transfer early rather than late. So that was hard to say goodbye to her.
I feel very privileged and trusted to be called to be a trainer at this time. Only 2 English sisters came in this transfer and I was called to be one of them! Sister W was called to be the other trainer too so that was fun for us to be together for that again. It was interested to see how our trainees fit our personalities too. Sister W is outgoing and crazy (of course in a good way) and I'm a little more reserved. We both got trainees that seemed to fit with the way we are too. So I feel privileged, but I'm also nervous and feel the pressure coming from President and of course, the Lord.
So this week we taught most of our recent converts at the beginning of the week so Sister K could say goodbye to them. I was super nervous about her leaving because everyone loves her, and also I still don't know the area super well. Sister K has a photographic memory so we never had to look at a map or anything! So this weekend we have been using a lot of maps. haha I know the major streets and it uses the grid system mostly, so that is nice, but I still struggle with all the small streets in between sometimes. I'm learning quickly though. Plus, its good for my new companion to have to look at the map and direct me so that she can learn the area too so that when I leave she will be prepared to take over.
So one of our new convert families taught US the Restoration this week and I was actually really, really impressed. The mom was like a natural missionary. I felt like she had been studying from Preach My Gospel for months and had applied the teaching skills and the patterns that we use to give commitments and promises and such. It was amazing! haha she loved doing it too so that was really good for them to relay the information to us and bear testimony of the truths that they have in their hearts now. They need to be ward missionaries! They are awesome and the gospel really has changed their lives. We also watched "The Testaments" with them for family home evening this week. They LOVED it and watched it a second time after we left. They wanted us to bring all the church movies we had so we got a huge bag of them at transfers. They were so happy.
This week I also studied chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel (using time wisely) so that we could have an awesome planning session and help my new companion learn how to set goals and such. So I was really excited about our weekly planning, but when we showed up, our area book had been all messed up with the other elders in our ward...so we spent all 2 and a half hours of weekly planning reassigning all the people that were theirs, back to them. We had to do it one by one and there were over 400 of them. It was ridiculous! Sometimes the iPads are a huge blessing, and sometimes they are a huge pain. That was one of the moments they were a huge pain. We didn't get to plan ANYTHING for this week. Not only did we not get to plan anything, but we NEED new investigators. So we did so much finding this weekend. We knocked on a lot of doors and most of the time they didn't answer. So I felt bad for my new companion, but hey, might as well introduce her with realistic things. haha.
We did have a couple good lessons within the first day though so that was good. So since we needed new investigators, our district goal for the week was for each of us to find one new investigator. We knocked quite a few doors and were able to meet a few people and set appointments to come back, but they weren't there when we came back. However, at the very end of Sunday night, we were trying to contact a referral from church headquarters that we had tried earlier in the week. She was home! When she opened the door and we told her who we were, she was so excited and let us in! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She has a friend who recently joined the church and she is going through a hard time so she invited her to have the missionaries over. She accepted and she is sooo solid! She is a single parent and has a 10 and 4 year old, both daughters. They are adorable! We established expectations and set up a time to come back, so she became a new investigator! Miracles!
We also are going to start teaching a part member family. The wife is a convert and the husband doesn't know anything about the church. We went over the Family Proclamation this week and we set up a time to go back and start teaching him more about the church because they want the gospel in their lives more :)
Lastly, we are hopefully going to start teaching another woman. She is a snowbird. She loves Native Americans/aborigines because her father is part native,so we gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back and go over more of it with her. She has a cousin who is a member and has loved what she has learned about genealogy from her so I think she will be really solid too! She was very kind to us and said she isn't sure why she is here per say, but I think this is why :)
Our less active couple is doing good as well! They want to move to Utah eventually so that would probably be good for them. We went over the family proclamation and looking to God to know how to be a good parent. That was one of the things they had wanted to talk about and it went really well. They have been saying family prayer and the husband gave examples of blessings that he has already noticed and been given just from doing that. They are so awesome as well. I love them. So we have a lot of awesome potential being built up! I'm so excited!
We also taught one of our male investigators this week and tried to uncover his concerns. He has decided he doesn't want to be baptized "yet" or pick a date. It's hard because I know he has been getting answers, he just is too stubborn to recognize them and also forgets about the experiences he has. Hopefully he comes around. He says he doesn't want to get baptized, yet he still reads the Book of Mormon and believes it is true, believes in Joseph Smith "because the Book says he was a prophet", and he was going to come to church but he got the flu and couldn't. So we still have yet to uncover the real reason. He says he still doesn't feel he has received an answer that he wasn't already baptized by the proper authority.
Anyway, it has been a really good week! I'm really focusing on the fundamentals this past week and trying to be the best trainer I can. I want to get her started on all the right habits now so she can be going strong when I leave! haha this time feels a lot more like parenthood since the last sisters I trained. Probably because that is going to be one of the next big steps in my life. Which is super weird to think about, so I just won't think about it right now. haha. So this week I would say I have learned mostly about the importance of goals. If we don't have goals to work towards, then we aren't progressing. And many times when we aren't progressing, we start to go backwards. We need to continually make goals for ourselves so we can keep growing spiritually. It is so important! So I invite each of you to make a goal for yourselves in an area that you want to work on the most. For example, I am working on studying the Christlike attributes right now and also the fundamentals. Then I make little goals that help me focus on them. Maybe you want to be more outgoing with the gospel and open your mouth, so make a goal to talk to 1 person that week about the gospel, whether you just mention it or invite them to do something, as you prayerfully set a goal and stick to it; God will help you reach your goals if you do everything you can! Just like our new investigator for the week! We didn't reach that goal until the very end of the night on the last day. Yet, we pushed forward in faith and did all that we could, and God helped us with the rest. Blessings and miracles occur when we have set goals prayerfully. Also, setting the time when you want to accomplish the goal is so important as well, or else we will all procrastinate! I hope you all set goals this week to help you keep progressing! :) Thanks for your love and support! Have a great week!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
D&C 58:26-27
So this week was pretty good! We went on exchanges and Sister G came to my area with me. It is going to be a sad day when Sis K leaves because she knows where everyone lives and she has a photographic memory. So we never have to look at a map. Well, we had to use a map the whole day. haha. I'm really going to have to learn the area. I know where some stuff is but I tend to get confused here. Sister W left me her gps, but our car charger doesn't work...so it's dead. That's unfortunate.
So transfers are a mystery because we receive transfer calls tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be staying in this area.
We did a lot of work with our older male investigator this week. We had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon the day we were on exchanges. He believes everything we tell him, because it is in the book. We keep trying to tell him that he needs to get an answer for himself, but he says he has no reason to not believe us. So we really hammered into him that he needs to gain a testimony for himself. He still doesn't think he needs to get baptized because he already was baptized. He understands authority, so we are trying to many different things. We told him to pray about Joseph Smith and to know if this is God's church that night, because we went to the visitors center with him the next day to watch the Restoration movie. His grand daughter took all of us and asked him if he was going to get baptized. She straight up told him that his baptism wasn't valid and it was like her just dunking him in a bathtub. We did the family walk through at the visitors center and she bore testimony that in order for them to be a family, he needs to be baptized. He thinks that he will be with his wife anyway. So we talked about temples and he cried. He is the cutest thing when he cries and he cries all the time. So then we watched them movie and he cried when they restored the priesthood, and when they talked about the Book of Mormon. I know that he received an answer that this is true. He agreed to pray about being baptized on Valentines Day. However, we then took him to a baptism this weekend and when we asked him, he said he's not getting baptized because he has already been, and that he is comfortable being Baptist. AHHH, LEO! Darn it. So we need to figure out what is not working for him and help him have an actual DESIRE to find out for himself. I feel like he's avoiding the answers he is getting because he is scared and he doesn't want to change. He said he wasn't going to get baptized but he still came to church the next day and we are still going over this week. So hopefully we can figure out what he needs and help him understand. It's hard to teach old people. They are so stubborn. But man, I love him. He's the cutest. His birthday was this week and he turned 87. So pray for this man to have his heart softened and for him to understand.
We had another great opportunity to teach a couple this week. We were so excited because the girl is less active and wants to come back, and her boyfriend thought it would be good to learn more about the church. So when we started we asked a question that somehow led to the boyfriend telling us that he had been baptized when he was 8....what? Darn. haha but it's ok! He wants his daughter to be raised with God, and he is willing to give this a try because he is basically an investigator. He doesn't know really anything about the church. So even though there won't be a baptism, we are so excited to help them become active and gain their own testimonies :)
So random side story. I was ACTUALLY getting ready one day this week. I put effort into it and was actually curling my hair. Unfortunately as I went to unplug the curling iron, it was a little bit off the counter so my hip bumped it, turned it around, and cause it to rest on along my thumb. It took me a second to realize what happened and then to move the curling iron. Man, I burned myself so good. So good that the burn was white, not red. Needless to say, I have a second degree burn from a curling iron...I have never done that before. Ridiculous. So now my thumb is blistering. No fun. haha luckily Sis K. has some tea tree oil that I have been putting on it, so that has helped. I am such a klutz now.
Anyway! I had another blessing of being able to go back to my last area this week! One of the young woman I helped teach was baptized and I was able to go. Bishop drove us down because he has family there so that was fun :) He took us out to eat and we had a fun evening. The baptism was super good and I was really excited to see them again. I sure do love them. This young woman is such an amazing girl and I was able to feel of the spirit at the baptism and know that this was the right step for her (obviously), but it's always nice to get that confirmation from the spirit.
Also, since we were with the Bishop, he asked us to speak tomorrow because the other speakers had a family emergency. Luckily, I had a talk written in the past about listening to the spirit, and the topic is the Godhead. There is only so much you can say about the Godhead in general, so I decided to just use most of that talk and discuss one member of the Godhead and why he is so important. So I didn't have to prepare much. Sis K prepared a little talk on real intent, and when we were going over it in sacrament right before we spoke, we realized our talks go together so perfectly. So she went before I did and talked about real intent and then I talked about how to listen to the Holy Ghost and find answers. It went SO well. There were so many people who came up to us after and thanked us and asked for the references we had used and told us that was just what they needed. The Bishop even said that is exactly what he had been trying to get across to people lately. So that was really cool.
I think that is what stood out to me most this week. God does inspire people and prepares things. I don't know if that talk really helped anyone last time I gave it, hopefully it did, but I think maybe God prepared me to give that talk in this ward at this time. He inspired Sis. K to know what to talk on and we had no idea that it would work together so perfectly. It made me continue to realize that we don't always know why things happen in our lives or sometimes we think we did something for nothing, yet God knows those things and can use them to our advantage. It was very nice to be able to hear that it helped someone, because I felt that it maybe didn't go so well at first, but it did :) So we were grateful for that opportunity.
I am so grateful for the gospel and for God being in the details of our lives. I know that He has a plan for us, and sometimes its hard to find that plan or have the faith to push on and hope that you are making the right choices to be in line with that plan. I was refreshed by the talks I had read a few months ago when I was preparing the talk I gave in church. God doesn't make it easy for us to receive guidance from him or else we wouldn't learn. I think that has been one of the hardest things for me. I just want to do what he wants me to do. However, also as I have been reading the Doctrine and Covenants, many times the Lord tells them that he isn't going to command them in all things. Or he will tell them they need to do something, but he doesn't care how they do it. They have to put the work into it and learn to make wise choices and that can be SO hard sometimes. It is a scary thing for me to do. But if we have faith and do our best to make right choices. I believe God will make it all work out. So I'm grateful for that! I encourage each of you to look through Preach My Gospel chapter 4 and ponder on ways the spirit has spoken to each of you in your lives, because it is different for everyone and it is something we have to learn. It takes practice and action, and as we do those things, we will receive more promptings and answers, and God will know that he can trust us to follow them. I hope you all have a great week! Love you!
So transfers are a mystery because we receive transfer calls tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be staying in this area.
We did a lot of work with our older male investigator this week. We had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon the day we were on exchanges. He believes everything we tell him, because it is in the book. We keep trying to tell him that he needs to get an answer for himself, but he says he has no reason to not believe us. So we really hammered into him that he needs to gain a testimony for himself. He still doesn't think he needs to get baptized because he already was baptized. He understands authority, so we are trying to many different things. We told him to pray about Joseph Smith and to know if this is God's church that night, because we went to the visitors center with him the next day to watch the Restoration movie. His grand daughter took all of us and asked him if he was going to get baptized. She straight up told him that his baptism wasn't valid and it was like her just dunking him in a bathtub. We did the family walk through at the visitors center and she bore testimony that in order for them to be a family, he needs to be baptized. He thinks that he will be with his wife anyway. So we talked about temples and he cried. He is the cutest thing when he cries and he cries all the time. So then we watched them movie and he cried when they restored the priesthood, and when they talked about the Book of Mormon. I know that he received an answer that this is true. He agreed to pray about being baptized on Valentines Day. However, we then took him to a baptism this weekend and when we asked him, he said he's not getting baptized because he has already been, and that he is comfortable being Baptist. AHHH, LEO! Darn it. So we need to figure out what is not working for him and help him have an actual DESIRE to find out for himself. I feel like he's avoiding the answers he is getting because he is scared and he doesn't want to change. He said he wasn't going to get baptized but he still came to church the next day and we are still going over this week. So hopefully we can figure out what he needs and help him understand. It's hard to teach old people. They are so stubborn. But man, I love him. He's the cutest. His birthday was this week and he turned 87. So pray for this man to have his heart softened and for him to understand.
We had another great opportunity to teach a couple this week. We were so excited because the girl is less active and wants to come back, and her boyfriend thought it would be good to learn more about the church. So when we started we asked a question that somehow led to the boyfriend telling us that he had been baptized when he was 8....what? Darn. haha but it's ok! He wants his daughter to be raised with God, and he is willing to give this a try because he is basically an investigator. He doesn't know really anything about the church. So even though there won't be a baptism, we are so excited to help them become active and gain their own testimonies :)
So random side story. I was ACTUALLY getting ready one day this week. I put effort into it and was actually curling my hair. Unfortunately as I went to unplug the curling iron, it was a little bit off the counter so my hip bumped it, turned it around, and cause it to rest on along my thumb. It took me a second to realize what happened and then to move the curling iron. Man, I burned myself so good. So good that the burn was white, not red. Needless to say, I have a second degree burn from a curling iron...I have never done that before. Ridiculous. So now my thumb is blistering. No fun. haha luckily Sis K. has some tea tree oil that I have been putting on it, so that has helped. I am such a klutz now.
Anyway! I had another blessing of being able to go back to my last area this week! One of the young woman I helped teach was baptized and I was able to go. Bishop drove us down because he has family there so that was fun :) He took us out to eat and we had a fun evening. The baptism was super good and I was really excited to see them again. I sure do love them. This young woman is such an amazing girl and I was able to feel of the spirit at the baptism and know that this was the right step for her (obviously), but it's always nice to get that confirmation from the spirit.
Also, since we were with the Bishop, he asked us to speak tomorrow because the other speakers had a family emergency. Luckily, I had a talk written in the past about listening to the spirit, and the topic is the Godhead. There is only so much you can say about the Godhead in general, so I decided to just use most of that talk and discuss one member of the Godhead and why he is so important. So I didn't have to prepare much. Sis K prepared a little talk on real intent, and when we were going over it in sacrament right before we spoke, we realized our talks go together so perfectly. So she went before I did and talked about real intent and then I talked about how to listen to the Holy Ghost and find answers. It went SO well. There were so many people who came up to us after and thanked us and asked for the references we had used and told us that was just what they needed. The Bishop even said that is exactly what he had been trying to get across to people lately. So that was really cool.
I think that is what stood out to me most this week. God does inspire people and prepares things. I don't know if that talk really helped anyone last time I gave it, hopefully it did, but I think maybe God prepared me to give that talk in this ward at this time. He inspired Sis. K to know what to talk on and we had no idea that it would work together so perfectly. It made me continue to realize that we don't always know why things happen in our lives or sometimes we think we did something for nothing, yet God knows those things and can use them to our advantage. It was very nice to be able to hear that it helped someone, because I felt that it maybe didn't go so well at first, but it did :) So we were grateful for that opportunity.
I am so grateful for the gospel and for God being in the details of our lives. I know that He has a plan for us, and sometimes its hard to find that plan or have the faith to push on and hope that you are making the right choices to be in line with that plan. I was refreshed by the talks I had read a few months ago when I was preparing the talk I gave in church. God doesn't make it easy for us to receive guidance from him or else we wouldn't learn. I think that has been one of the hardest things for me. I just want to do what he wants me to do. However, also as I have been reading the Doctrine and Covenants, many times the Lord tells them that he isn't going to command them in all things. Or he will tell them they need to do something, but he doesn't care how they do it. They have to put the work into it and learn to make wise choices and that can be SO hard sometimes. It is a scary thing for me to do. But if we have faith and do our best to make right choices. I believe God will make it all work out. So I'm grateful for that! I encourage each of you to look through Preach My Gospel chapter 4 and ponder on ways the spirit has spoken to each of you in your lives, because it is different for everyone and it is something we have to learn. It takes practice and action, and as we do those things, we will receive more promptings and answers, and God will know that he can trust us to follow them. I hope you all have a great week! Love you!
Manuia lou aso fanau
Happy Martin Luther King Day Ya'll. Forgive me for misspellings or odd sentences because we are emailing from our iPads today and the auto correct is stupid sometimes.
So you are probably wondering what the title means....well this week was President's birthday! We had interviews this week and he was coming to our zone on his birthday so we wanted to make it special for him. Sooooo, not too long ago he told us a really cool story about his mission in Samoa and how they were able to establish a church on an island that missionaries had been banned to go to. (The chief said the next missionary to set foot there, would be killed). Long story short, President was able to get past that and ended up building a shack as a church there. Someday I'll tell you the full story. But we were ordering a cake a couple weeks ago from Walmart and we found this awesome beach cake that had a shack on it! So we asked to change it a little bit and add some things he had talked about in his story and we made it HIS shack. So we were really excited about that. We decided to have the theme of how much his mission had affected him and made him who he is, and show our gratitude for the role he plays in our missions and help making us who we are. So we each wrote a little note to him about that and Sister K and I laminated it and made it look all nice. Well, we also know a family that is Samoan so we also wrote a note in Samoan on it and then we learned how to sing happy birthday in Samoan!!! So the title is how you say happy birthday :) It is actually pronounced "mon-o-wee-uh low ah-so fu-now." Haha so we were able to get everything prepared and teach the zone how to sing it. It turned out so good! He wasn't expecting it at all and kept telling us we weren't even supposed to know about his birthday. Also one of the elders had a member make a piñata of Phoenix for president so that was also fun :) It turned out really good and his wife texted us later and thanked us for putting that together for President. It was fun because he ended his last interview and walked past the kitchen to go make closing remarks. Well, Sister K and I hid in the kitchen and then when he walked past, we wheeled the cake out behind him and followed him in and then started singing. It worked really well :) it was fun to be able to do something for him like that.
We met with a lot of less actives and recent converts this week so there isn't much news for the week. We met with one of our investigators though. He sure is the cutest old man I've ever seen, he's also a little sassy pants so we get along well :) haha. We went over the restoration with him again because he doesn't understand why he has to pick a church. It's weird though because he understands that Jesus went to John the Baptist because he had the authority to baptize. But somehow it still doesn't click for him when we teach authority. However we finally got him to pray! It went well and he usually says no because he will get embarrassed or something.
I've been reading the war chapters lately and I've learned a lot from them. There is an older lady that we are teaching the lessons to. She has been a member of almost every church, and she is very old, so she gets confused sometimes as to what is true. So we are trying to help her. Well she says it's hard for her to read the scriptures, so I retold one of the stories for her that I had recently read, but I modernized it a bit. So that was fun to help her understand that she can learn from the scriptures and make it so she can understand it too. So anyway, the things I have been thinking about this week are how we need to fortify ourselves. Captain Moroni is continually helping the Nephites fortify their cities and be prepared for when the Lamanites attack them again. So my thoughts have been lately, "How do we fortify ourselves? How can we make those weaknesses we have, strong?" Obviously it is through the gospel and the savior, but sometimes it is hard to apply and know. Because I read my scriptures and pray all the time, but what more could I be doing to fortify myself against the adversary and the natural man? So I invite each of you to pray and ask Heavenly Father what it is you can individually be doing to fortify yourself so that when temptations or trials come, you are spiritually prepared to fight. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
So you are probably wondering what the title means....well this week was President's birthday! We had interviews this week and he was coming to our zone on his birthday so we wanted to make it special for him. Sooooo, not too long ago he told us a really cool story about his mission in Samoa and how they were able to establish a church on an island that missionaries had been banned to go to. (The chief said the next missionary to set foot there, would be killed). Long story short, President was able to get past that and ended up building a shack as a church there. Someday I'll tell you the full story. But we were ordering a cake a couple weeks ago from Walmart and we found this awesome beach cake that had a shack on it! So we asked to change it a little bit and add some things he had talked about in his story and we made it HIS shack. So we were really excited about that. We decided to have the theme of how much his mission had affected him and made him who he is, and show our gratitude for the role he plays in our missions and help making us who we are. So we each wrote a little note to him about that and Sister K and I laminated it and made it look all nice. Well, we also know a family that is Samoan so we also wrote a note in Samoan on it and then we learned how to sing happy birthday in Samoan!!! So the title is how you say happy birthday :) It is actually pronounced "mon-o-wee-uh low ah-so fu-now." Haha so we were able to get everything prepared and teach the zone how to sing it. It turned out so good! He wasn't expecting it at all and kept telling us we weren't even supposed to know about his birthday. Also one of the elders had a member make a piñata of Phoenix for president so that was also fun :) It turned out really good and his wife texted us later and thanked us for putting that together for President. It was fun because he ended his last interview and walked past the kitchen to go make closing remarks. Well, Sister K and I hid in the kitchen and then when he walked past, we wheeled the cake out behind him and followed him in and then started singing. It worked really well :) it was fun to be able to do something for him like that.
We met with a lot of less actives and recent converts this week so there isn't much news for the week. We met with one of our investigators though. He sure is the cutest old man I've ever seen, he's also a little sassy pants so we get along well :) haha. We went over the restoration with him again because he doesn't understand why he has to pick a church. It's weird though because he understands that Jesus went to John the Baptist because he had the authority to baptize. But somehow it still doesn't click for him when we teach authority. However we finally got him to pray! It went well and he usually says no because he will get embarrassed or something.
I've been reading the war chapters lately and I've learned a lot from them. There is an older lady that we are teaching the lessons to. She has been a member of almost every church, and she is very old, so she gets confused sometimes as to what is true. So we are trying to help her. Well she says it's hard for her to read the scriptures, so I retold one of the stories for her that I had recently read, but I modernized it a bit. So that was fun to help her understand that she can learn from the scriptures and make it so she can understand it too. So anyway, the things I have been thinking about this week are how we need to fortify ourselves. Captain Moroni is continually helping the Nephites fortify their cities and be prepared for when the Lamanites attack them again. So my thoughts have been lately, "How do we fortify ourselves? How can we make those weaknesses we have, strong?" Obviously it is through the gospel and the savior, but sometimes it is hard to apply and know. Because I read my scriptures and pray all the time, but what more could I be doing to fortify myself against the adversary and the natural man? So I invite each of you to pray and ask Heavenly Father what it is you can individually be doing to fortify yourself so that when temptations or trials come, you are spiritually prepared to fight. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Lessons I've Learned
Hey! Happy.....Monday? haha I feel like for the past 4 months I've been saying something that had to do with the holidays. However, they are now over, so I guess I don't have to say that anymore, that is until Valentines day rolls around.
Anyway this week has been good. I feel like this week has been pretty routine and we had a lot of random things that we did that interfered with just normal proselyting. This week was ward conference so this week we did some "rescue visits" with the auxiliary leaders and their stake counterparts. That was good to be involved in. We went with the Primary President to visit some people which turned out to be a very inspired visit on her part. So that was cool to be a part of. We visited a very active family that has callings in the primary. The Primary President said she thought sometimes we pay too much attention to the inactives and forget about the active people and strengthening them. So we went on Tuesday and the message we were sharing with people was about hope. So we shared the message and we found out that the family we were visiting had found out they were pregnant! So they were really excited and it was a lovely visit. Well the next day, the family found out that she had a miscarriage. They were having a really hard time because they had also recently just had another sad death in the family during the holiday season. So they have been struggling. But it turned out to be very inspired to visit her and share that message of hope as they are now holding on to that message that was shared, even though when we came the night before, she was wondering why we had visited her and that she didn't really need that much hope in her life at the time. So it was very cool to see that and to see how in tune we need to be with the spirit at all times so that we an act on promptings such as those and be an instrument in the Lord's hands.
This week we also did some good service. We went as a zone to a food bank and assembled bags of foods for families. It was really fun. We were in an assembly line and we all had to keep up the pace and it was GO time the whole time. It was really fun. This is the second time they have done this in this zone and both times we have finished an hour early. haha last time the workers were telling them that they needed to slow down because they were going too fast. So I guess we just work really hard and fast and they don't usually expect that. So that was really fun. Then we also went to the senior center again. The old people really enjoy it when we come. There was an old lady doing a food demonstration and she loved to use us as her little puppets. haha they are seriously so funny. But also it makes me realize.....I never want to get old... haha. :) Seriously though. It is fun to get to visit with them. However an old lady was very cranky with me because there was a broadcast of Obama on and a lot of us were talking and not watching. So apparently Obama was just a few miles down the road at a high school in our area. Not sure why. So she was very angry that I was not watching "OUR PRESIDENT." haha. She gave me a good chewing out because I was the only person who was nice enough to acknowledge her.
This week we also went on exchanges. That was a different experience for me because this was the first time I have been on an exchange where one of us was not a sister training leader. Both of us were just normal missionaries so we didn't have to evaluate really or anything. I mean, of course we still learn from each other and such,but neither of us really had to "give advice" or find out if there are any problems and such. It was fun though. I went to the Spanish area and had to crack out my bike for the first time in 6 months. Luckily, it was a beautiful/perfect day that day. The weather has been all over the place lately. The past few days have been rainy. Anyway we got to teach a family that they recently put on date. The mom wasn't there but the boys and the dad were. The kids understand English and the dad understands Spanish. We were reading from the Book of Mormon so we read verse by verse, first in Spanish and then in English. It was really nice for me because prior to that I mostly just sat there because I couldn't understand anything. So I was able to explain what was going on to the boys. They were 9 and 7. They were really smart though and remembered a lot of what the sisters taught them last time and caught on pretty well. They even had questions and comments that all connected well. They seem to be a very prepared family so that is very exciting for them!
We also had an interesting experience that day. We visited a less active lady. She is married and has two kids and her husband. She is the only member. So there is an 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. The boy, is extremely smart. Very, very, very book smart. He knows probably way more than I do. He was rattling things off about other religions and science and stuff. It was crazy. Anyway we were introducing the Book of Mormon and reading from the introduction (luckily this was all in English) and came to the part where it says that reading the Book of Mormon will bring us closer to God. I asked him how it would make him feel to have a better relationship with God. Well that turned out to be an inspired question because he confessed that he is atheist. What!? An 11 year old atheist! I was able to address his concern and explain and promise to him that he can know there is a God and that He loves him. His mom gave us more of his concern and told us that he felt there was no God because of some of the hard things he has gone through in his life. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he said he wasn't sure he would because he didn't have that "sincere heart or real intent" that we need to have. So we committed him to read at least the testimonies of the witnesses and the prophet Joseph Smith. He agreed. Well the next day the mom texted the sisters and said after we left her son tried to go to sleep but couldn't. He went to his mom and said they all needed to read the part we assigned together. They did so and he still couldn't sleep. He later told his mom, "I don't know what it is about the Book of Mormon, but I've GOT to read it." He just really felt like he needed to read it! How amazing. It was really cool. It was a really good experience for me too because I was talking and addressing his concern, I felt the spirit working through me. Lately I've had a bit of a harder time feeling guided and directed because my companion knows the people and what they need better than I do, so usually it is easy to just follow her lead. But while I was there, I could feel the spirit as I testified and found out that there was a concern that we needed to know in order to help him. And now he is reading the Book of Mormon!
This week we also had a relief society activity and compared to my last ward, so many people came! It was all about emergency preparedness as well as food storage. I was able to learn a few things. But the best part was that we had two less actives come! So this week a lady and her husband
came into church one night and asked what time church started. They had been inactive for a long time and wanted to come back to church! We invited her to the activity and she came :) We also invited another less active. This lady lives with her boyfriend and they have a one year old daughter. Anyway, she came also and had a good time as well.
This weekend we were also able to go to the visitors center with a couple to watch "Meet the Mormons". The guy said it really touched him and he seems very prepared, so we hope to start teaching him soon!
This weekend we also had a baptism!:) This girl's family was baptized about a month ago and now she was able to follow their examples. It went really well. She is very happy. So many people came too. It was great. And while we waited for her to change, we opened it up for testimonies after our presentation and there was never a silent moment. It is so different from the other wards I have served in. I'm beginning to love it and to love the people.
So my thought for this week is to really be in tune with the spirit and be worthy of the spirit to guide you at all times. The spirit is so important when it comes to serving in the church and also in raising a family and being a disciple of Christ. I had my first ward council meeting in this ward and the stake was there also. Like I said, this ward is different from any ward I have ever served in. They are each so on top of things and each auxiliary had a detailed report of at least one family they were working with. In my past experience, not every auxiliary does that or has something to report. But in this ward, every single auxiliary had something to report and it all related back to missionary work. It was amazing and the spirit was definitely strong. The Bishop is so involved and has a very strong testimony of missionary work and that it is what makes the difference. He really cares about the people and because each of those auxiliary leaders is in tune with the spirit, they each had been able to act on promptings to help those families they were working with. It was amazing. I also have such a testimony now of the importance of home teaching and visiting teaching. It is so crucial and essential in lifting everyone in the ward up. The leaders can't do everything and it is our job as disciples of Christ to care for one another and uplift each other. Home teaching and visiting teaching isn't something we should do once a month and be done, it is something that we need to take seriously. We need to be a true friend to those we visit and be there for them always. We can bless their lives and do things for them all month that are simple and easy for us, but means a lot to the recipient. (phone calls, texts, facebook message, plates of cookies, etc). As I've seen people who just need help and someone to reach out to them, those little things make a difference. They even make a difference in the lives of active people who we think might not need it. But they do. Anyway, I invite all of you to pray for a "missionary" or spiritual experience this week. Be an instrument and tool in God's hands for him to help one of his children. It could be at school, within your own family, or ward, or the grocery store. Try to recognize those promptings and then act on them. As you do this, you will get more because God will know he can trust you to do his will and take care of his children. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Sunday, January 11, 2015
2015
Happy New Year! I can't believe it is already 2015. It is so cool for me to think that I solely dedicated the year 2014 to missionary work. That's crazy!
Anyway we celebrated the new year by...sleeping. Man we were tired and of course we had to be in bed by 10:30 so that's always fun. Although I was woken up several times by all the fireworks and parties going on at midnight. That was lovely.
This week we taught a Samoan family everyday. They are recent converts and we have been teaching the daughter. She is 16 and didn't take the lessons with the rest of the family. However, she listened much of the time from her room and thought about it and decided she wanted to take the lessons as well. She is cute. So we put her on date for this coming Saturday a couple weeks ago so we have been teaching them everyday to get everything in that we need to. She is really excited to be baptized. We took her and her cousin to the temple visitors center this weekend to watch the Joseph Smith Movie. They LOVED it. They took pictures of anything and everything. We also did a family walk through that they really enjoyed. It was good to take just her and let her feel the spirit of everything on her own because her mom is really protective so its good to be able to let her experience things on her own and for herself. She really wanted to be able to go inside the temple, but knew she couldn't at that time. So we need to get her involved in family history to go to the temple and do the baptisms for the dead after she is baptized. So we are excited for that this weekend!
Also we took this other guy to the temple lights this week too. He enjoyed that and also took pictures of EVERYTHING. People are so cute. They get so excited about all of it. So that is really good :) We started teaching him when I first got here and he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He's pretty far already too. It's awesome to see people take these things into their lives and do the work for themselves to find out if it is true. He is really into UFO's and lights in the sky and such so he is interesting to talk to. He sees a lot of biblical evidence too he says, so its interesting. He also came to church this week for the first time so that was good. I think he felt a little awkward, but who wouldn't their first time at church! That is why we have to be super on top of things and make sure we are very welcoming to visitors :)
There are so many families here who are so poor. The circumstances are even worse than my previous area because NO ONE has money. In my other area we had a few nice housing developments in our ward, but the rest of the ward was really run down. However, people could help each other because they had money to spare and help others. Here, NO ONE has money and most of them need help. So it's really heartbreaking and sad to see people who are almost homeless and have nothing. We visited a lady this week who is sick and just got out of jail for shoplifting to try to get things for her kids. They literally have nothing. So we went shopping and bought them some food and left it on their doorstep. We figured anything would help. However, fail on our part....we got caught! We hid around the corner to make sure they opened the door, but they walked down the stairs and found us!!! Who does that!? You are supposed to just take the bags. But we didn't even hear the door open and all the sudden they found us and it was a little awkward. haha oh well. It is the thought that counts I guess. We tried. Hopefully it helps them though.
We also talked to a really nice homeless man outside Walmart when we went to buy that food and we didn't have any money to give him so we bought him a sandwich to give him when we came out. Fail again...he was gone when we came out! We were sad we didn't get to give it to him.
I swear I am bad luck because the church building got vandalized here the other day. Someone got in somehow and broke into the fire extinguishers and sprayed them all over the overflow of the gym as well as some classrooms. They also go into the library and just threw a bunch of stuff everywhere. The geniuses also photocopied their hand. Aren't they smart. So that was a bummer deal. 3 out of the 4 zones I have been in have all been vandalized and broken into. It's so stupid. Why would anyone want to mess with God's house! It's like they want to be damned or something. Sometimes people aren't very smart.
We visit a lot of recent converts that I am trying to get to know as well. So we visited this lady. She is super sweet and just hit her year mark of being a member. She is struggling right now a lot, but she has a super strong testimony. She came to church this week and bore her testimony and it was really good. She even brought her 16 year old cousin! Her cousin was with her this week when we visited and she felt the spirit so she brought her to church. She felt the spirit there too so we hope to start teaching her soon :)
Speaking of fast and testimony meeting, it was amazing! I have never seen anything like it in my whole life. When they opened it up for testimonies, people flooded the stand. Most of the center choir seats were filled with people waiting to bear their testimonies. If you didn't get up in the beginning and go sit on the stand, you didn't get to have a turn to bear your testimony. Sacrament went a half hour longer than it is supposed to. It was crazy! I was just baffled. So this ward may be poor, but they are also very poor in spirit and just very full of love for their Savior. It was a really cool thing to witness. So that is my thought for this week. We should all be as anxious as the people here to share our testimonies and our love for the Savior. Next time there is a silent moment in testimony meeting, don't keep putting it off, but get up right away and share what you know to be true. It doesn't have to be long or fancy, it just needs to be heartfelt :) So I invite all of you to bear your testimony this next fast Sunday and after that, go into each fast Sunday with the determination to bear your testimony if there is a dead moment and if the spirit prompts you to do so. You will strengthen others testimonies, and it will strengthen your testimony as well :) I hope you all have a great week! Happy 2015!
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