Hi Family and Friends!
How are you guys doing?! It’s definitely been a crazy week, and there is definitely not enough time to tell you all of it because today is going to be a District Pday, but I will do my best!! 🙂 Before I start though, the pollen here in Georgia is INSANE!!! You go outside and instead of dirt devils, it’s pollen!!! And then you go to the car and your silver car is literally yellow! I’ll have to get a picture one of these days lol, because it’s crazy! ??. I hear it will still get worse too! ??
Monday evening, what a day! We met two people as we were shopping, and one of them was from Jamaica! Immediately, my thoughts went to Brother Stephen’s, because I know he went to Jamaica! He actually recognized us as missionaries, and recognized the church’s name from Jamaica, so that was cool! By the end of our conversation, he was talking about Jamaica, and he started having a Jamaican accent, and I was dying, because it was so cool to hear man! ?
Tuesday, we had exchanges where I exchanged with Elder Dodge and Elder Pererson went with Elder Mapp. For the first time (officually) I had to be in charge of the area! We had no miles, so we pretty much stayed at the church making calls and walking to the nearest people to the church. There ended up being a youth event for our ward, and WOW, the Stilesboro Ward has a LOT of youth!! I was surprised!! We got hotdogs and were with them until they went to a soccer game. ⚽️ But I did end up getting to drive home, and I used cruise control for the first time! That was fun ?. In all of the mission cars, there is a little box named TIWI, which yells at you when you’re speeding or being a bad driver. The smart move when traffic isn’t bad is to use cruise control to keep your speed steady so you don’t get a “check your speed”. I am proud, because I don’t think I got any bad driving record things :). I might have driven super slow, but it was all good ?.
Wednesday, we had exchanges 2.0 for the morning and switched back at lunch time. Overall, I would say it was a super good exchange, and we got a lot of good things done!!! This week, we have another exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday again, so that will be fun! 🙂 This time I’m going to go to Hirum and be with Elder Mapp.
Thursday, we had a really good weekly planning! I think we actually made it through the whole week!! So that was good. It pretty much took the whole day, but we had Lunch with Brother Farrar and Ralph again, so that was super fun! We also had dinner with the Gullinos and they are nice people.
Friday, was a day of finding!! We did studies in the morning, and then went to a botanical garden after lunch. It was super pretty and we got to talk to some peeps there. It was actually really close to the apartment, so I think we are going to go back!! In the evening, we made some calls to some of our friends, and we ended up having to lessons!! They both went super great, and it was really nice after a whole day of finding :).
Saturday was General Conference!!!! For the Morning session, we went to Sister Carillo’s house who is a new member in the ward fo set it up for her with a member. We watched it there with her, and it was super good!! It was super cool because there was a LOT of talk about missionaries and missionary work, and I was like, “wait, that’s me?!” It was really cool :). In between the morning and afternoon, we went to another member’s house, the deLeons and helped them move some furniture. We ended up having to take the feet off the couch and the door off the hinges to get it to fit!! But, it did fit!! We watched Conference with them and it was another Fantastic Session!! Then, we went to another member’s house and did some yardwork for them! Saturday was a great service day!
Sunday, we had more General Conference!! The morning session we watched with the Farrar’s and so that was sweet! Brother Farrar is like a professional table tennis player, and I guess he has a cool practice setup, so I think we’ll get to see that on Thursday, so that will be fun! From there we went back to the apartment, made some calls, and then headed to the Reeve’s house. We had dinner there one week and they are a super nice family. We had dinner afterwards and then went to do reports with the ZLs and STLs.
That brings us to Today! What a great day its going to be!!!
For a spiritual thought today, I wanted to share some of the themes that I noticed in Conference. First and foremost, be a peacemaker!! Wars, Contentions and fights are not good places to be to feel the spirit. We can use our gift of Agency to do everything that WE can to be an example to the rest of the world. Wow! What a powerful message! I really liked when I don’t remember who, said that Heavenly Father won’t, and Satan Can’t force you to do anything. We have complete power over him we feel and what we do.
Another theme I noticed was to put off the Natural Man and become a Saint! There were a lot of ways that we can do this, and there were quite a few talks that talked about it of really good ways, my favorite, “being like a child” but not “childish” :).
There was also a good theme about repentence! We all need to repent daily!! There is no other way that we will be able to have the spirit to be with us always, which is so important in today’s world!! The Prophet gave an amazing talk about 5 things we can do to continue our spiritual momentum upward!! When it comes out, study this talk!! It is the words of the living prophet we have on the earth today to lead us and guide us. That’s powerful!!!!!
Finally, I really loved the theme that we are ALL children of Heavenly Father. We are all striving to be converted disciples of Jesus Christ, whether they are in our faith or not. There was an interesting thought that was shared about how we, the people are the Church. Recently Reading in the Book of Alma, that was actually one of the things that I’ve been thinking about, so to hear it in General Conference was ? (mind blowing). As a missionary, we are to teach ALL to Come unto our Savior Jesus Christ. Everything will be made right in the Lord’s timing, and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity here in Georgia to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands to bring his Children back to Him. It is truly humbling, and it is not easy! Sometimes, it feels like I’m going insane! As I have trusted in the Lord, prayed and repented daily, and continued to grow my faith in Jesus Christ, I have Always felt the Happiness and Joy that the gospel brings. There is tangible Joy that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is real. I know that this is the restored church and that President Nelson is called of God to be the prophet. There is a plan for each and every one of us, and as we turn to the Lord, we Will find true joy and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
