I can't believe this month is almost over. Can you believe how fast time flies? It's almost been six months since I've been out on the mission, but who's counting? - haha! There was a lot of cancelled appointments this week, but miracles do happen. We saw Eddie and Bernice, and I got to hold the snake Brave again. It's cool, I'm so weird. But I love animals. Eddie and Bernice are planning to get married in six months. I hope sooner because Eddie wants to get baptized. The Bishop told him and us that he could marry them for free and they can have the wedding at the church.
Sister Hosea is the best. All week, she's been lifting my spirits. I was having a spiritual low. I know we're human and we don't feel the Spirit all the time, but I just don't like the way it feels when I don't sometimes. So I decided to talk to my companion about it. She suggested I change the way I pray. When I say my personal prayers, I always try to think to myself, what is it that I'm really saying? What am I really asking of Heavenly Father? It helps to talk to Heavenly Father as our "father" instead of rehearsing every night. Talking about it made me feel better. We're not perfect, and we don't always feel the Spirit, but we can find new ways to invite the Spirit back into our lives.
We went to visit a family and teach the Restoration. It's fun to teach children. They have good insight and this gospel is so simple, a child can understand it. Leo, one of the kids, had his scriptures out and flipped through it. He turned to the Pearl of Great Price and found one of Abraham's drawings. He could've found the one where Abraham was saved by an Angel of the Lord, but nope. He found the drawing where it talks about Kolob and other deep doctrine. How do you explain that to an eight-year-old? I just told him it explains some of the mysteries of God. But how do you explain Abraham's drawings? Thank goodness we have great teachings of these drawings. Haha!
We got to visit a lady named Terry. She's very sweet, but she doesn't understand why bad things happen to good people. That's a hard thing for all of us to understand, but we know it's part of life. We all have to experience opposition in all things. We will never know happiness if we don't experience sadness. "The word 'happiness' would lose it's meaning if it were not balanced by sadness." - Carl Jung.
A member in the YSA Ward and her mom found a gluten-free bakery and bought a chocolate cupcake for me! It was soooooooooo good! People keep making me gluten-free desserts- I'm gonna get fat! Haha! We were able to do a lot of service this week. We've been pulling weeds out of gardens for members, and have been helping clean houses. It's been fun and I love doing service. I find work fun - go figure! I don't know why, but it's definitely something I want to teach my children about...how we can have fun while we work.
On Friday, we got to go on a hike with John and Sabrina. Sabrina is a member and John is an investigator. But he knows more about the church's history than I do. He's been doing a lot of research. The bishop keeps asking him: "When are you going to get baptized?" John wants to make sure that he can commit to this, so he came up with a two-year plan. But the gospel really can bless his life! He and Sabrina loved the hike so much, that they want to do another one. Sister Hosea and I both like where this is going.
Remember that cute elderly lady we met named Stella? Guess what? We got to meet with her again, and we introduced her to a member. Sister Haight sat down with us and shared her story. It was awesome! We got to teach Joe. He's so close to baptism, and.....He can get baptized! His doctor said it would be okay! He can go into the water! We just need to help him commit to sacrament and help get him to church. But we have a date set!
We stopped by Stacey's to wish her a happy birthday. Right now, all we can do is visit her, be her friend and pray for her. I wish there was more we could do for her. We are trying to help her understand and to invite the Spirit in, but we realize that it's up to her. She's got to want it for herself. But we want her to know how much we care about her, so we keep in touch with her. We've baked together and went to a candy store together. She's fun. :) We taught a young girl named Caitlyn. She always tells us she loves Jesus. She calls the church building Jesus' house, and Temples are Jesus' castles. Makes sense to me. We taught her that God is our Loving Heavenly Father.
The relief society had a nice dinner, and they put on a few skits of women in history, helping each other. It was really nice. At Sacrament Meeting yesterday, I brought my own bread, and they broke it and blessed it and put a piece on each tray. They placed the pieces in cups to avoid contamination. And best of all, they made sure I got a piece. I was so happy to partake of the sacrament.
We went to a member's home to teach and invite him to help us teach Lorena. He's an older man from Haiti. He's speaks a language that's a mixture of French, English, Spanish, and African. He and his wife take care of her mother. She is 95, and loves listening to music. She was jamming out and bouncing a little with the tune. She is the cutest little old lady I've ever met. She wanted us to listen to her music too. She kept handing us the headphones. It was so cute! She told us she loved us!
It was a good week. Some ups and downs. Sister Hosea and I even got into a little disagreement. But we were able to work it out. I'm so glad Sister Hosea and I can be honest with each other. As we were weekly planning, it was starting to get stressful and tense, which created a bit of an argument between us. I suddenly felt like a terrible companion. I felt like I hadn't been helping enough, or I haven't been working hard enough. As we were driving I was finally able to express how I felt to Sister Hosea. She said I shouldn't let anyone cut me down- not even her. I told her I was sorry for not being as helpful as I should've been. But she took a moment and listed off good things about me. It was very touching. She told me that I do work hard and I have a strong desire to serve the Lord, and I should only worry about what He expects of me, not what others expect of me.
Keeping that in mind, it helps us when we meet with Bishop. He's really competitive and says he wants to win all the time. He has really high expectations. But we do our best when we remember what the Lord expects of us, and that's just to do our very best. That's what keeps us motivated. And I love my companion! We kept telling each other that yesterday. We are officially sisters...we fight like sisters, and we laugh like sisters. And we figured out that since we hang out 24/7, sometimes it does get tiring. But we should love our companions no matter what. Yeah, Sister Hosea is my forever sister now.
No comments:
Post a Comment