Hello All,
This week feels like it was really not eventful at all, so I apologize in advance for this email being so incredibly lame. But I want to start off by venting a little bit. Usually, I am very complimentary of the U.S.Postal Service. When you stop and think that it is possible to get a letter from one side of the country to the other in such a short amount of time…like four days, it’s pretty amazing. But it has come to my attention that my mail is not being delivered to me. One of my best friend’s letters never showed up, and I know that at least two pieces of mail have been delivered to my neighbors apartments. So, if you are reading this and you wrote me a letter, and I never responded back. I’m not being rude. It’s just that my mail hasn’t been getting to me! It’s quite a tragedy.
Okay, yesterday was Memorial Day, so we couldn’t email. We went grocery shopping with a girl that was baptized almost a year ago. It was SO much fun! Then we played soccer, as usual with the Elders. Lucky me. (Note the sarcasm). On Saturday, we decided to spend most of the day on Sullivan Road. Sullivan Road is a LONG road that is on the other side of the river. There are a TON of less active members on that road, and if all those people would start coming back to church, there would be a new ward in Bloomfield. So we tried to visit as many people as possible. But it was the holiday weekend and a lot of people took off. It was thunder storming, which played to our favor because I think we got a little bit of pity.
One of the members in the ward has been making us Cajun food lately… and I LOVE it. We had jambalaya recently. Yum!
Okay, so since I’ve been on the mission, I’ve started remembering my dreams more. And it’s ridiculous. I’ve dreamed about BYU turning into a pencil factory sweatshop, to being at the weirdest wedding. But this one takes the cake. I guess transfers have been on my mind a lot lately…but in my dream President Anderson called me on the phone, quite notably upset. He told me that I wasn’t supposed to be in the New Mexico Mission. He felt very inspired that I was to go to the New Zealand LDS Aquarium Mission. I cried and cried. I didn’t want to leave New Mexico. When President Anderson told my new mission president that I was coming, the new mission president told President Anderson that he could keep me in New Mexico, since they didn’t really need sisters in the LDS Aquarium Mission right now. But I had to go. All the companions I have had thus far in my mission drove me to the airport. When I got to New Zealand, they wouldn’t give me a companion, so I was wandering around the Aquarium completely lost. I wanted a companion so badly! None of the other missionaries could understand why I missed New Mexico. They kept saying things like, “New Zealand is so much better. You’re lucky to be here, because EVERYONE wants to go on a foreign mission. You escaped being a stateside missionary!” The LDS Aquarium was beautiful. It was huge, and had escalators going to many different levels. Pretty crazy right?
We did tract into one guy this week who attended Seminary in High School. His best friend served her mission in Spain, and he’s read a lot of the Book of Mormon and LOVES it. So we asked him if he had any questions about the Book of Mormon. He said no, and started talking about how he remembered Gaddianhi and stuff. He said it’s a record of what happened in America, and is a lot like the Bible. “Hmmm.” I thought. “What now?”
"Well, it sounds like you know a lot!...You should be a member!” I said.
“Yeah, I probably should.”
“Well, would you be interested in taking the missionary lessons?”
"No"
“No?” (WHAT? How can someone who knows this much refuse to learn more.) “WHY?” I said.
“Because my mother would kill me. She’s a Catholic.”
Okay, my companion and I were struggling to teach him something about the Church he didn’t already know. So Sister Weatherston pulled out a copy of the Family Proclamation.
“Have you seen this before?”
“Yeah, I sure have!”
We were stumped. So we chatted for a bit, and told him to have a great week. In my planner, I put his name down as a potential, with the comment… “GO back when mom is dead.”
I was studying this morning about the Book of Mormon and how so many of the books tell about the latter days when the ancient American prophets’ writings would be handed down to their children. I LOVE these verses because they talk about our mission and how we get to help fulfill prophecy: that the Book of Mormon would come back to these people. The Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises! The prophets plead with their descendants to believe their words, and to remember who they are! All of Mormon 7 is written especially for their descendants:
“1. And now, behold, I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared, if it so be that God may give unto them my words, that they may know of the things of their fathers; yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel; and these are the words which I speak:
2. Know ye that ye are of the house of Israel.
5. Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.
9. For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.”
One of the things that strikes me is that like the Lamanites, for whom the Book of Mormon was written in part, we must all come to know who we truly are. There is POWER in knowing that we are the children of God. He is our Father. When Satan was tempting the Savior, the one thing that he wanted him to doubt was that He was in fact the Son of God. Knowing our heritage enables us to do great things. But it is surprising how little, we as children of God value ourselves. The media, and its distorted emphasis on outward appearance, not valuing our bodies, and on the acceptability of disregarding and belittling those around us ALL plays to Satan’s goal: to have us believe that we are less than we are. To forget out divine parentage.
Here is an incomplete listing of scriptures dealing with the Book of Mormon coming forth to the remnants of the Ancient Americans. So amazing!
1 Nephi 13:35
1 Nephi 15:14
2 Nephi 3:19-20
2 Nephi 26:16-17
2 Nephi 30:4-6
Jacob 4:4
Enos 1:15-18
Helaman 15:12-13
3 Nephi 21:26
Mormon 7:1, 5, 9
Moroni 1:4
We also found a wonderful CD in the car this week. It’s called “The Mountain Speaks”, and someone put it together just for the Navajo people. It’s in both English and Navajo. It explains the Book of Mormon and how it relates to their people.
Well, I love you all.
Have a wonderful week!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
When the Saints Go Marching In . . . the Work Does Too!
Hello everyone!
You’re getting this email today (Tuesday) because yesterday was our missionary day at the Albuquerque Temple. It was amazing to see so many missionaries in the temple. We had four sessions of missionaries, and I was the last group to go through, so the Mission President and his wife went through with our session (although he and Sister Anderson and the Temple President and his wife spoke to each group in the chapel right before their sessions began.) The talks focused a lot on the temple being the counterpart of what we as missionaries are doing right now among the living. We were to think of our name as someone else’s investigator, and to think about all our missionary counterparts who have passed on before us: Abraham and Noah, mother Eve, Joseph Smith, etc. I love to think about the many people involved in this work! Heavenly Father won’t let anyone fall through the cracks.
We found FIVE new investigators this week! It’s pretty exciting. We had the first lesson with one woman, and the experience was interesting! Our mission president has challenged us to invite people to be baptized right from the beginning so that people know what our purpose is. Anyway, I told this woman something to the effect of: “If God reveals the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon to you, and when you come to know these things are true, will you be baptized?” I ADORE her response. She said something similar to this: “Well, yeah. God is the Man. If he tells you to do something, you better do it. So if he tells me to get baptized I would!” Yes! God’s commandments bring greater happiness than what we could devise. So many people don’t get that! I appreciate her sense of clarity. So many people dodge that question when we ask it, but if God tells you to do something, you just had better go ahead and accept it! She continued by saying. “In the past, I have shut the door on Jehovah’s and you religious people. But when I saw you a few weeks ago, God told me to listen. And even today…I was supposed to go to the grocery store, and I forgot you were coming, but God made it possible for me to be here…and not stand you up.” It is days like that when I LOVE being a missionary.
The other family I am excited about was AMAZED that we even found them in the first place. They live in a forgotten part of town. The mother has been looking for a church to go to, and her aunt is Mormon. Her husband is pretty interested in learning about other religions, but he, like SO many of the people we teach, doesn’t think that there is ONE true religion. He sees so many similarities between the religions he’s studied, that he thinks they are all pretty much the same. But they both agreed to read the Book of Mormon and give it a try. Our lesson today went well, and the mom emphasized at least twice that she wanted us to come back! I used to laugh when missionaries would write about their investigators so much in weekly emails. But I am coming to see how EXCITING it is to actually have families invite you into their homes after knocking on so many doors where people call you deceived, or say they’re not interested. Getting invited into a home is a miracle!
We also held Bloomfield Days this week! We had a booth and everything. It was pretty great, if I do say so myself. We had four people give us their name and number. I think all those people live in the 1st ward’s boundaries . . . but we’re all on the same team, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
OH! I’ve got another investigator story! How can I forget Harold? We met Harold’s grand-daughter back in February. This was the 17 year old girl who had just been through the Draper Temple open house, wanted a CTR ring, and had been in a lot of trouble. Anyway, the girl moved away, and Harold expressed right from the beginning that he wasn’t interested and that he belonged to the Church of Christ. Well, anyway, after his granddaughter moved away, we’d stop by his house from time to time to see how he was doing. We even did the one thing that Sister Missionaries are notorious and despised for . . . yes. . I admit it…we delivered cookies. (Those Sister Haters criticize us for that :) Anyway, we saw Harold as we were tracting this week, we said hello as usual. But this time was different! He started asking us about what we believe. He even said that he would be interested in coming to our church! He said “If you’re around here again, maybe I’ll sit down with you and you can tell me about what you believe, and I’ll listen to one of your lessons.” We were ELATED! It goes to show that often times, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care! By developing that friendship, it opened the doors for him to start taking the lessons. Just by being friendly with people, they will eventually take interest in what we believe. So to all you members back home . . . keep at it!
My companion and I got really silly one night and decided to use nail polish to paint Indian war paint on our faces, tie ribbon in our hair, and take crazy pictures. Our district leader called for nightly phone calls, and he found out . . . he thinks we’re crazy…but that’s okay…because we are!
Well, that’s probably the MOST exciting stuff that happened this week. A few other things happened, and some other investigators made some baby steps of progress. So we were excited about those signs. But I’ll let you go, and stop rambling. I don’t want to live up to the reputation of being a long winded "Gohmeley" or Mormon as the Navajos say.
Love you all!
Sister Waters
You’re getting this email today (Tuesday) because yesterday was our missionary day at the Albuquerque Temple. It was amazing to see so many missionaries in the temple. We had four sessions of missionaries, and I was the last group to go through, so the Mission President and his wife went through with our session (although he and Sister Anderson and the Temple President and his wife spoke to each group in the chapel right before their sessions began.) The talks focused a lot on the temple being the counterpart of what we as missionaries are doing right now among the living. We were to think of our name as someone else’s investigator, and to think about all our missionary counterparts who have passed on before us: Abraham and Noah, mother Eve, Joseph Smith, etc. I love to think about the many people involved in this work! Heavenly Father won’t let anyone fall through the cracks.
We found FIVE new investigators this week! It’s pretty exciting. We had the first lesson with one woman, and the experience was interesting! Our mission president has challenged us to invite people to be baptized right from the beginning so that people know what our purpose is. Anyway, I told this woman something to the effect of: “If God reveals the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon to you, and when you come to know these things are true, will you be baptized?” I ADORE her response. She said something similar to this: “Well, yeah. God is the Man. If he tells you to do something, you better do it. So if he tells me to get baptized I would!” Yes! God’s commandments bring greater happiness than what we could devise. So many people don’t get that! I appreciate her sense of clarity. So many people dodge that question when we ask it, but if God tells you to do something, you just had better go ahead and accept it! She continued by saying. “In the past, I have shut the door on Jehovah’s and you religious people. But when I saw you a few weeks ago, God told me to listen. And even today…I was supposed to go to the grocery store, and I forgot you were coming, but God made it possible for me to be here…and not stand you up.” It is days like that when I LOVE being a missionary.
The other family I am excited about was AMAZED that we even found them in the first place. They live in a forgotten part of town. The mother has been looking for a church to go to, and her aunt is Mormon. Her husband is pretty interested in learning about other religions, but he, like SO many of the people we teach, doesn’t think that there is ONE true religion. He sees so many similarities between the religions he’s studied, that he thinks they are all pretty much the same. But they both agreed to read the Book of Mormon and give it a try. Our lesson today went well, and the mom emphasized at least twice that she wanted us to come back! I used to laugh when missionaries would write about their investigators so much in weekly emails. But I am coming to see how EXCITING it is to actually have families invite you into their homes after knocking on so many doors where people call you deceived, or say they’re not interested. Getting invited into a home is a miracle!
We also held Bloomfield Days this week! We had a booth and everything. It was pretty great, if I do say so myself. We had four people give us their name and number. I think all those people live in the 1st ward’s boundaries . . . but we’re all on the same team, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
OH! I’ve got another investigator story! How can I forget Harold? We met Harold’s grand-daughter back in February. This was the 17 year old girl who had just been through the Draper Temple open house, wanted a CTR ring, and had been in a lot of trouble. Anyway, the girl moved away, and Harold expressed right from the beginning that he wasn’t interested and that he belonged to the Church of Christ. Well, anyway, after his granddaughter moved away, we’d stop by his house from time to time to see how he was doing. We even did the one thing that Sister Missionaries are notorious and despised for . . . yes. . I admit it…we delivered cookies. (Those Sister Haters criticize us for that :) Anyway, we saw Harold as we were tracting this week, we said hello as usual. But this time was different! He started asking us about what we believe. He even said that he would be interested in coming to our church! He said “If you’re around here again, maybe I’ll sit down with you and you can tell me about what you believe, and I’ll listen to one of your lessons.” We were ELATED! It goes to show that often times, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care! By developing that friendship, it opened the doors for him to start taking the lessons. Just by being friendly with people, they will eventually take interest in what we believe. So to all you members back home . . . keep at it!
My companion and I got really silly one night and decided to use nail polish to paint Indian war paint on our faces, tie ribbon in our hair, and take crazy pictures. Our district leader called for nightly phone calls, and he found out . . . he thinks we’re crazy…but that’s okay…because we are!
Well, that’s probably the MOST exciting stuff that happened this week. A few other things happened, and some other investigators made some baby steps of progress. So we were excited about those signs. But I’ll let you go, and stop rambling. I don’t want to live up to the reputation of being a long winded "Gohmeley" or Mormon as the Navajos say.
Love you all!
Sister Waters
Help from the Spirit
Well, today will be an exciting day! We finally get to go to the Aztec ruins! I’m pretty excited. We will also be practicing our musical number for Zone Conference . . . which should be interesting. Zone Conference is tomorrow. The missionaries in Bloomfield will be hosting our own booth at Bloomfield Days on the 16th. . . and then on the 18th we have our missionary temple day. (We leave for Albuquerque super early in the morning, so our email schedule will be probably later in the day, just FYI .) Once again, thank you so much for the great package you sent. I forgot to tell you yesterday that one of the sisters in the ward commented on how cute my brown skirt was, so you did well! I’ve been listening to the Les Miserables soundtrack a lot lately. It reminds me of being home, plus it’s not hard to find motivation to go knock doors after listening to stuff like “Do You Hear the People Sing” and “One Day More.” I can’t tell you enough how much your letters mean to me.
Well, we’ve been doing a lot of walking lately, partly in order to conserve miles. I like it though; it feels good to get exercise. I thought I wouldn’t have much to write about since I called home yesterday (Mother's Day). I was worried that after talking with you yesterday, that I would get even MORE homesick. But surprisingly, I feel energized and super uplifted. It’s just great. Well, you asked me to type out this story . . . so here goes. Remember that family I always write about? The one that tried to feed me “squirrel” meat? And who also likes to make the HOTTEST salsa they can . . . and then feed it to the missionaries? Yeah, we had that party for less actives and investigators last week, and they scared me so badly that I screamed. Yeah. It wasn’t very befitting of a sister missionary. When I first came to Bloomfield, the family thought I was too quiet. . .so they felt the need to break me in. They want me to be ready to face ANY thing. I say pretty much EVERY prayer at their house, opening and closing. They don’t even ask someone to pray anymore. Brother “Jones” just looks at me. . . and I’m expected to pray. It’s pretty funny. But one time I started to pray, just as I’m “expected” to do. . .and he interrupted me. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s not your turn. It’s Elder “Smith’s” turn!” Hilarious, Brother “Jones” you’re just soooo funny.
Here’s a great story from yesterday. I was sitting on the couch during personal study. And I suddenly heard a baby crying. My first thought was: “Oh no! Somebody abandoned their baby on our doorstep, because they think we’re nuns! Mormon nuns!” I slowly opened the door, only to see a stray cat run through the parking lot. I sure do have a lot of blonde moments.
The past couple weeks have been difficult. Some of our investigators have cancelled a lot of lessons recently. I was especially sad about the one with a baptismal date. It’s hard to see investigators make so much progress, and then have things come to a screeching halt. We brought a member to one of our teaching appointments recently, but we found out the next week that the member used to be the vice principal of the investigator’s high school. Apparently, he suspended the investigator from high school, and so it was a little awkward for our investigator.
One thing that I have a really strong testimony of during my mission, is how the Spirit can enable you to push onward when you feel too exhausted to be pleasant, or to teach, or to even have the Spirit in the first place. Well, the Holy Ghost quickened me again this past week. It is so exciting to feel the transformation, and to literally feel energy being pumped right back into you. The thing is, this message is SO important to our Heavenly Father, and HE wants his children to come back to Him so much that He will enable us to overcome physical limitations. I LOVE getting that second wind suddenly and dramatically. In the MTC, we were told that this work is so important that we will be prompted more during our missions than we have ever been before. The trick is to learn how to recognize those promptings and seek that guidance in EVERYTHING. That’s why, as I said last week, complacency, or just going with the flow, is one of my greatest fears. Anyway, I’ll get back to my story. We had just gotten out of District Meeting, it was an incredibly hot day, and I was exhausted. We were teaching about Joseph Smith’s first vision. And as I shared his experience in his own words, the Spirit came to back me up. It was invigorating! And the Spirit was there so strongly, that our investigator was almost brought to tears. I’ve noticed that this happens a lot when we talk about how Heavenly Father answered Joseph Smith’s prayer. I just wish our investigators would cling to what they felt when we talk about the first vision.
Sister Crossley was telling me about Russel M. Nelson’s visit to the mission. She didn’t get to go to his fireside because he requested that only the missionaries near Albuquerque and a few towns nearby attend. He said that this work is so important and that time is SO limited and precious, that even hearing an apostle of the Lord is not worth taking away from proselyting time. I try to remember this always. We are on the Lord’s time, don’t waste it. I’m not PERFECT at using time effectively. There are days that are harder than others. . .but I wish every missionary would understand this better.
I had a lesson with a lady this week. Her father is a Jehovah’s Witness, and sat in on the lesson. It was frustrating. He pretty much just talked about how important gospel basics are. It felt a little like he was trying to attack us on the things our two religions do have in common. Also, there is a less active guy in the ward who we met this week. He was very straightforward with us about being a self-proclaimed “Jack Mormon.” His birthday is tomorrow, and we’ve got a brilliant idea to leave root beer bottles at his door with a card saying something to the effect of “don’t party too hard"…and leave a scripture or quote or something. I think it will be funny, and I think he’ll take it well. Maybe we’ll get to joke around and gain his trust or something. Well I love you all dearly. Have a wonderful week!
Well, we’ve been doing a lot of walking lately, partly in order to conserve miles. I like it though; it feels good to get exercise. I thought I wouldn’t have much to write about since I called home yesterday (Mother's Day). I was worried that after talking with you yesterday, that I would get even MORE homesick. But surprisingly, I feel energized and super uplifted. It’s just great. Well, you asked me to type out this story . . . so here goes. Remember that family I always write about? The one that tried to feed me “squirrel” meat? And who also likes to make the HOTTEST salsa they can . . . and then feed it to the missionaries? Yeah, we had that party for less actives and investigators last week, and they scared me so badly that I screamed. Yeah. It wasn’t very befitting of a sister missionary. When I first came to Bloomfield, the family thought I was too quiet. . .so they felt the need to break me in. They want me to be ready to face ANY thing. I say pretty much EVERY prayer at their house, opening and closing. They don’t even ask someone to pray anymore. Brother “Jones” just looks at me. . . and I’m expected to pray. It’s pretty funny. But one time I started to pray, just as I’m “expected” to do. . .and he interrupted me. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s not your turn. It’s Elder “Smith’s” turn!” Hilarious, Brother “Jones” you’re just soooo funny.
Here’s a great story from yesterday. I was sitting on the couch during personal study. And I suddenly heard a baby crying. My first thought was: “Oh no! Somebody abandoned their baby on our doorstep, because they think we’re nuns! Mormon nuns!” I slowly opened the door, only to see a stray cat run through the parking lot. I sure do have a lot of blonde moments.
The past couple weeks have been difficult. Some of our investigators have cancelled a lot of lessons recently. I was especially sad about the one with a baptismal date. It’s hard to see investigators make so much progress, and then have things come to a screeching halt. We brought a member to one of our teaching appointments recently, but we found out the next week that the member used to be the vice principal of the investigator’s high school. Apparently, he suspended the investigator from high school, and so it was a little awkward for our investigator.
One thing that I have a really strong testimony of during my mission, is how the Spirit can enable you to push onward when you feel too exhausted to be pleasant, or to teach, or to even have the Spirit in the first place. Well, the Holy Ghost quickened me again this past week. It is so exciting to feel the transformation, and to literally feel energy being pumped right back into you. The thing is, this message is SO important to our Heavenly Father, and HE wants his children to come back to Him so much that He will enable us to overcome physical limitations. I LOVE getting that second wind suddenly and dramatically. In the MTC, we were told that this work is so important that we will be prompted more during our missions than we have ever been before. The trick is to learn how to recognize those promptings and seek that guidance in EVERYTHING. That’s why, as I said last week, complacency, or just going with the flow, is one of my greatest fears. Anyway, I’ll get back to my story. We had just gotten out of District Meeting, it was an incredibly hot day, and I was exhausted. We were teaching about Joseph Smith’s first vision. And as I shared his experience in his own words, the Spirit came to back me up. It was invigorating! And the Spirit was there so strongly, that our investigator was almost brought to tears. I’ve noticed that this happens a lot when we talk about how Heavenly Father answered Joseph Smith’s prayer. I just wish our investigators would cling to what they felt when we talk about the first vision.
Sister Crossley was telling me about Russel M. Nelson’s visit to the mission. She didn’t get to go to his fireside because he requested that only the missionaries near Albuquerque and a few towns nearby attend. He said that this work is so important and that time is SO limited and precious, that even hearing an apostle of the Lord is not worth taking away from proselyting time. I try to remember this always. We are on the Lord’s time, don’t waste it. I’m not PERFECT at using time effectively. There are days that are harder than others. . .but I wish every missionary would understand this better.
I had a lesson with a lady this week. Her father is a Jehovah’s Witness, and sat in on the lesson. It was frustrating. He pretty much just talked about how important gospel basics are. It felt a little like he was trying to attack us on the things our two religions do have in common. Also, there is a less active guy in the ward who we met this week. He was very straightforward with us about being a self-proclaimed “Jack Mormon.” His birthday is tomorrow, and we’ve got a brilliant idea to leave root beer bottles at his door with a card saying something to the effect of “don’t party too hard"…and leave a scripture or quote or something. I think it will be funny, and I think he’ll take it well. Maybe we’ll get to joke around and gain his trust or something. Well I love you all dearly. Have a wonderful week!
Monday, May 11, 2009
The First Week of Transfers is Over and Happy Mother's Day
As you know, we had transfers this week. I think I hate transfers and the changes that come with it. I guess the mission is designed to get you used to changes, and losing companions. But I really do feel blessed to have been able to stay in Bloomfield. In the first week alone, I feel like I have grown a lot. Since I know the area, I have had to make a lot of the decisions as to where to go and who to see. I've gotten to step out of "Greenie" shoes and lead.
We had a game night this week for less actives and investigators so they could get to know other young families in the ward. I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. Yeah, there was a little awkwardness at the beginning, but by the end, everyone was laughing! Hopefully, we'll be able to do these somewhat frequently.
I also made a huge batch of Mom's famous chocolate chip cookies for transfers. I brought about half the batch to the stake house for the missionaries to eat while we waited for everyone to arrive, pair up, and transfer to their new areas. I should have known that with so many 19 year old boys, they would go pretty fast! (I saved the rest of them for breakfast, and for the party.) Although, they didn’t' turn out as well as Mom's, I always forget to add more flour since the altitude out west is so different from back home.
I say this a lot, but I am so grateful for the time built into the missionary schedule for scripture study. Occasionally, something happens, and I will miss out on scripture study. I never knew what a HUGE difference reading the scriptures can have on your day! Scripture study really does give your day a huge sense of stability, assurance and peace! The difference is becoming almost black and white to me. I was reading out of, Preach My Gospel, this morning and one of the activities was to read sections from Moroni and Mormon. This message means a lot more than we sometimes remember. The restoration is magnificent, and it is often easy to become casual in our testimony of it. But when you really internalize the restoration, the message is magnificent! It happens in our day! Heavenly Father won't stop speaking to his children. The Book of Mormon prophets plead with us to believe their words. I feel a bit like Mormon sometimes. It is so frustrating when the people we visit with just don't get it! As Mormon says, if there are weaknesses, they are the weaknesses of man (aka two 21 year old girls). Moroni takes every opportunity he has just to write a little bit more. It's the 11th hour! (D&C 33:3) If anyone knows what lonely is, it is Moroni. . . yet he persevered in sharing the one message that has such eternal importance. I love D&C 14:8. What a blessing to bear record of things that you will "see and hear." There are HUGE opportunities and blessings in store for missionaries. I don't want to become like a turkey that learns how to fly. . . but then walks home. I think I'm realizing that complacency is one of my greatest fears.
I can't believe I'm coming up on my 4 month mark soon! I feel like I just got out of the MTC. And June is only a month away . . . and guess what!?! I will probably be coming home in June 2010 (since that is when President Anderson goes home, and that is my early transfer date, and I hear that sometimes they make sisters go home on the early transfer if the next transfer would put them a month beyond the expiration date on the ministerial certificate.) Anyway, that’s a long way of saying, that in June I'll only have a year left. Crazy right? Ok well, I love you, and will try to get a whole bunch of letters done today!
We had a game night this week for less actives and investigators so they could get to know other young families in the ward. I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. Yeah, there was a little awkwardness at the beginning, but by the end, everyone was laughing! Hopefully, we'll be able to do these somewhat frequently.
I also made a huge batch of Mom's famous chocolate chip cookies for transfers. I brought about half the batch to the stake house for the missionaries to eat while we waited for everyone to arrive, pair up, and transfer to their new areas. I should have known that with so many 19 year old boys, they would go pretty fast! (I saved the rest of them for breakfast, and for the party.) Although, they didn’t' turn out as well as Mom's, I always forget to add more flour since the altitude out west is so different from back home.
I say this a lot, but I am so grateful for the time built into the missionary schedule for scripture study. Occasionally, something happens, and I will miss out on scripture study. I never knew what a HUGE difference reading the scriptures can have on your day! Scripture study really does give your day a huge sense of stability, assurance and peace! The difference is becoming almost black and white to me. I was reading out of, Preach My Gospel, this morning and one of the activities was to read sections from Moroni and Mormon. This message means a lot more than we sometimes remember. The restoration is magnificent, and it is often easy to become casual in our testimony of it. But when you really internalize the restoration, the message is magnificent! It happens in our day! Heavenly Father won't stop speaking to his children. The Book of Mormon prophets plead with us to believe their words. I feel a bit like Mormon sometimes. It is so frustrating when the people we visit with just don't get it! As Mormon says, if there are weaknesses, they are the weaknesses of man (aka two 21 year old girls). Moroni takes every opportunity he has just to write a little bit more. It's the 11th hour! (D&C 33:3) If anyone knows what lonely is, it is Moroni. . . yet he persevered in sharing the one message that has such eternal importance. I love D&C 14:8. What a blessing to bear record of things that you will "see and hear." There are HUGE opportunities and blessings in store for missionaries. I don't want to become like a turkey that learns how to fly. . . but then walks home. I think I'm realizing that complacency is one of my greatest fears.
I can't believe I'm coming up on my 4 month mark soon! I feel like I just got out of the MTC. And June is only a month away . . . and guess what!?! I will probably be coming home in June 2010 (since that is when President Anderson goes home, and that is my early transfer date, and I hear that sometimes they make sisters go home on the early transfer if the next transfer would put them a month beyond the expiration date on the ministerial certificate.) Anyway, that’s a long way of saying, that in June I'll only have a year left. Crazy right? Ok well, I love you, and will try to get a whole bunch of letters done today!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ropin' Missionaries
It’s transfer time again! And I’m staying in Bloomfield 2nd Ward for another transfer! But Sister Crossley is leaving for Cortez, Colorado, and Sister Weatherston will be my new companion. I didn’t anticipate staying at all! So I’m kind of a mess. Sister Crossley had me convinced that she would be staying and I would be leaving. I feel a little stressed out. Even though I’m not the senior companion this next transfer, I feel “in charge” of all the investigators, less actives, and potentials (since Sister Weatherston won’t know what has been happening in the area). I feel hugely inadequate. All our investigators and the entire ward just adored Sister Crossley. (I compare this to the Chantilly Ward back home, imagine how Elder Swensen’s companion would feel if he were transferred). I will miss her a TON, and I KNOW our investigators will too. I just hope they still let me come! I also worry that my “greenie” stereotype within the ward will be difficult to overcome. I was kind of a wreck last night, but one of the ward missionaries called both Sister Crossley and I at about 10 pm last night. She told me that I have her confidence and that Heavenly Father and President Anderson wouldn’t have left me in this area if they didn’t know I could do it and am up to the challenge of taking charge a little bit. She basically just told me that I was a good missionary, which I really needed to hear right then. This transfer will be a huge opportunity for growth, I’m sure. I have a LOT of anticipation for this transfer, and don’t really know what to expect.
In other news, today was an excellent Preparation Day! One of the families in our ward has a huge ranch and they let Sister Crossley and I come up and learn how to rope! It was so much fun! They even let us keep the ropes so that we could keep practicing! They have their own rodeo arena as part of their ranch, and it was so much fun to see all the horses and steers. Then, we got back into our “city girl” roots and went shopping. I needed some more summer clothes, so we made a trip into town.
I think the ultimate highlight of the week was the baptismal date from last week. As I mentioned, we have a new emphasis on committing people to baptism. One of our investigators was SO excited to get baptized, but we hadn’t had the chance to tell them about the fact that the investigator needed to be married first. I was terrified of bringing up this requirement, because I didn’t know how our investigator would handle it and I also wasn’t sure whether or not they had already told a lot of family. But we went over there on Monday night to briefly go over the baptismal requirements. I had been praying all day to have the Spirit with us so that I could explain this topic with love. We had also prayed that our investigator would be prepared to hear about the marriage requirement, and would be aware of it. Well we were HUGELY blessed. Not only was the investigator still excited to get baptized, but they had already been thinking about marriage and was wondering when we would bring it up! I sensed that they were actually relieved that we brought it up! I’m not surprised that I was so scared to extend the invitation. The adversary does NOT want Heavenly Father’s children to get baptized, but he also knows how important family relationships are to our eternal progression as well! We stepped forward with faith…into the dark. We followed our mission leaders’ advice, not knowing beforehand how it would go, and everything turned out just perfectly! I’m so excited! That was definitely one of the highlights from my mission experience so far!
We also met with a less active this week who decided that they want the missionary discussions again!!! They even invited a friend to listen in as well! That was above and beyond what we were asking!
One funny thing that happened this week: We were teaching one of our investigators about the importance of scripture study. We pointed out that in Alma 31, Alma talks about how the word of God is more powerful than fortifications, or armies or ANYTHING and how he gave up the judgment seat to preach it. After the lesson, we tried to commit the investigator to read their scriptures each day this week. THIS was the response we got:
“Well, it was kind of like this TV show about midgets that my granddaughter and I were watching. I said that I HATE little people. And my granddaughter didn’t think that was nice of me. That is a very interesting show all about midgets.”
WE really didn’t know how to transition back onto a gospel topic with that one. So we just didn’t even try.“Yeah, scripture reading is really important. We’ll see you next week!”
Love you all! Hope all is going well for you. I don’t have much time to write letters this week, sorry. But I love you and appreciate your support. Hope all is going well for you!
PS We also had the neatest baptism. We found the woman, but the Spanish elders taught her. The baptism was all in Spanish, but the Spirit was so incredibly strong! I loved hearing "JesuChristo" -- that was about the only word that I recognized!! The woman got baptised even though her husband didn't agree with it. She basically just told him, "This is between me and the Lord, and you don't need to worry about it." She comes to our ward even though Relief Society is all in Englsih. It is so sweet to see the returned missionary spanish speaking sisters translate for her. It sounds like her husband might finally be interested! Yay!
We also tracted into some Spanish people this week. One of us (I'm not telling who!) went up to the women and gave them a pass along card, smiled, gave them a thumbs up and just said "Jesu Christo...moy bien!" So funny! They just laughed at us :) I think there were more funny things that happened but I can't remember tham all! Yikes.
In other news, today was an excellent Preparation Day! One of the families in our ward has a huge ranch and they let Sister Crossley and I come up and learn how to rope! It was so much fun! They even let us keep the ropes so that we could keep practicing! They have their own rodeo arena as part of their ranch, and it was so much fun to see all the horses and steers. Then, we got back into our “city girl” roots and went shopping. I needed some more summer clothes, so we made a trip into town.
I think the ultimate highlight of the week was the baptismal date from last week. As I mentioned, we have a new emphasis on committing people to baptism. One of our investigators was SO excited to get baptized, but we hadn’t had the chance to tell them about the fact that the investigator needed to be married first. I was terrified of bringing up this requirement, because I didn’t know how our investigator would handle it and I also wasn’t sure whether or not they had already told a lot of family. But we went over there on Monday night to briefly go over the baptismal requirements. I had been praying all day to have the Spirit with us so that I could explain this topic with love. We had also prayed that our investigator would be prepared to hear about the marriage requirement, and would be aware of it. Well we were HUGELY blessed. Not only was the investigator still excited to get baptized, but they had already been thinking about marriage and was wondering when we would bring it up! I sensed that they were actually relieved that we brought it up! I’m not surprised that I was so scared to extend the invitation. The adversary does NOT want Heavenly Father’s children to get baptized, but he also knows how important family relationships are to our eternal progression as well! We stepped forward with faith…into the dark. We followed our mission leaders’ advice, not knowing beforehand how it would go, and everything turned out just perfectly! I’m so excited! That was definitely one of the highlights from my mission experience so far!
We also met with a less active this week who decided that they want the missionary discussions again!!! They even invited a friend to listen in as well! That was above and beyond what we were asking!
One funny thing that happened this week: We were teaching one of our investigators about the importance of scripture study. We pointed out that in Alma 31, Alma talks about how the word of God is more powerful than fortifications, or armies or ANYTHING and how he gave up the judgment seat to preach it. After the lesson, we tried to commit the investigator to read their scriptures each day this week. THIS was the response we got:
“Well, it was kind of like this TV show about midgets that my granddaughter and I were watching. I said that I HATE little people. And my granddaughter didn’t think that was nice of me. That is a very interesting show all about midgets.”
WE really didn’t know how to transition back onto a gospel topic with that one. So we just didn’t even try.“Yeah, scripture reading is really important. We’ll see you next week!”
Love you all! Hope all is going well for you. I don’t have much time to write letters this week, sorry. But I love you and appreciate your support. Hope all is going well for you!
PS We also had the neatest baptism. We found the woman, but the Spanish elders taught her. The baptism was all in Spanish, but the Spirit was so incredibly strong! I loved hearing "JesuChristo" -- that was about the only word that I recognized!! The woman got baptised even though her husband didn't agree with it. She basically just told him, "This is between me and the Lord, and you don't need to worry about it." She comes to our ward even though Relief Society is all in Englsih. It is so sweet to see the returned missionary spanish speaking sisters translate for her. It sounds like her husband might finally be interested! Yay!
We also tracted into some Spanish people this week. One of us (I'm not telling who!) went up to the women and gave them a pass along card, smiled, gave them a thumbs up and just said "Jesu Christo...moy bien!" So funny! They just laughed at us :) I think there were more funny things that happened but I can't remember tham all! Yikes.
Mandolins and Violins
Hello!
This week was exciting. We tracted into a Spanish woman last transfer who decided to take the missionary lessons with the Spanish Elders. After only 6 weeks of study, she’s decided to get baptized! Yay! We also set a baptismal date with one of our own investigators this week. It’s pretty exciting!
Yesterday, we were leaving a sticky note for one of our investigators, when we heard someone playing bluegrass music on the other side of the street. We looked over and saw an older man sitting outside his house playing, so we went up to him and found out that he was playing a mandolin. It was so fun to listen to! He asked us if we play any instruments. When he found out I played the violin, he explained that the mandolin is just like the fiddle, as far as fingerings go. Then he got out his fiddles and asked me to play with him! It was incredibly fun! He started on the mandolin when he was 8, but then picked up the violin in his 30s. Due to his bluegrass training, it was really hard to follow him, he used a lot of embellishment that made it difficult to keep time. I explained that I learned classical violin, and therefore, couldn't fiddle very well. It would be so fun to learn how to do that better after the mission! Anyway, the guy plays bluegrass with one of the brothers in our ward. They go up to the bluegrass festival in Durango every year and perform together. They were just up there on Friday as a matter of fact!
We had interviews with President Anderson this week. After the representative from Church headquarters came in last week, there has been an increased focus on letting people know “Our Purpose” right up front. “Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.” Well, they asked us to invite people to pray about our message and consider being baptized on the very first lesson! We’re excited about this, but it will be interesting so see how everything works out, since when you do this, people don’t know exactly what all the commandments are that they will be asked to keep. I guess that’s where faith comes into play. If they receive an answer that they need to be baptized, then it will make it a little easier to keep those commandments. It is a little scary to teach those difficult commandments though, after someone already has a baptism date.
In interesting news, we met a woman who is an energy worker. She has intuitive powers, and said that she saw two little cherubs floating around Sister Crossley. They are twins, and are looking for a good mother…and she also said that they want to come soon. So that made us laugh a little bit . Soon eh?
We taught one of our investigators about the Joseph Smith story this week. I’ve never heard someone explain how they felt the Holy Ghost in a cuter way. “It’s like I have goose bumps…except, I can’t see them! They are on the inside!” Me too! I felt. I love having a reconfirmation of the truth nearly every time I teach.
I was reading about the Spirit World today, and there was a quote about how there is a thousand times more work to do there than there is to do here. I loved thinking about that. Sometimes I get frustrated teaching people who aren’t progressing. But it made me realize, that whatever they learn here, in this life (which IS the time to prepare to meet God) will only help them progress faster in the next life when missionaries on that side continue the teaching record there.
Well, that’s pretty much it. Thanks for your love and support! Ay Yo Nen Shney = I Love You!
This week was exciting. We tracted into a Spanish woman last transfer who decided to take the missionary lessons with the Spanish Elders. After only 6 weeks of study, she’s decided to get baptized! Yay! We also set a baptismal date with one of our own investigators this week. It’s pretty exciting!
Yesterday, we were leaving a sticky note for one of our investigators, when we heard someone playing bluegrass music on the other side of the street. We looked over and saw an older man sitting outside his house playing, so we went up to him and found out that he was playing a mandolin. It was so fun to listen to! He asked us if we play any instruments. When he found out I played the violin, he explained that the mandolin is just like the fiddle, as far as fingerings go. Then he got out his fiddles and asked me to play with him! It was incredibly fun! He started on the mandolin when he was 8, but then picked up the violin in his 30s. Due to his bluegrass training, it was really hard to follow him, he used a lot of embellishment that made it difficult to keep time. I explained that I learned classical violin, and therefore, couldn't fiddle very well. It would be so fun to learn how to do that better after the mission! Anyway, the guy plays bluegrass with one of the brothers in our ward. They go up to the bluegrass festival in Durango every year and perform together. They were just up there on Friday as a matter of fact!
We had interviews with President Anderson this week. After the representative from Church headquarters came in last week, there has been an increased focus on letting people know “Our Purpose” right up front. “Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.” Well, they asked us to invite people to pray about our message and consider being baptized on the very first lesson! We’re excited about this, but it will be interesting so see how everything works out, since when you do this, people don’t know exactly what all the commandments are that they will be asked to keep. I guess that’s where faith comes into play. If they receive an answer that they need to be baptized, then it will make it a little easier to keep those commandments. It is a little scary to teach those difficult commandments though, after someone already has a baptism date.
In interesting news, we met a woman who is an energy worker. She has intuitive powers, and said that she saw two little cherubs floating around Sister Crossley. They are twins, and are looking for a good mother…and she also said that they want to come soon. So that made us laugh a little bit . Soon eh?
We taught one of our investigators about the Joseph Smith story this week. I’ve never heard someone explain how they felt the Holy Ghost in a cuter way. “It’s like I have goose bumps…except, I can’t see them! They are on the inside!” Me too! I felt. I love having a reconfirmation of the truth nearly every time I teach.
I was reading about the Spirit World today, and there was a quote about how there is a thousand times more work to do there than there is to do here. I loved thinking about that. Sometimes I get frustrated teaching people who aren’t progressing. But it made me realize, that whatever they learn here, in this life (which IS the time to prepare to meet God) will only help them progress faster in the next life when missionaries on that side continue the teaching record there.
Well, that’s pretty much it. Thanks for your love and support! Ay Yo Nen Shney = I Love You!
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