Aug. 14, 2017 "Learn from Alma and Amulek"

Learn from Alma and Amulek

Sorry I actually sent this way earlier but my ipad didnt send it apparently....BUT HERE YA GO!

Hello everyone!! Happy Monday! I cant believe its pday again, time is just FLYING BY! 

Well honestly not much to report on this week.. It was basically a blur. 

We had a few awesome lessons, a couple sweet exchanges, some sweet tours, and thats basically it! Haha just kidding. 

We are so excited for the Stafford family though! We met with them again this week, and it went really well! We taught about prayer and asked how their prayers had been going, and Bella the 9 year old was like they are good! So we asked her how she felt as she prayed and she's like "I feel...... Christian." We couldn't help but bust out laughing with the family. Hahha she was all serious though but we told her how that is an awesome answer! I mean Christian.. follower of Christ... feel His spirit...all the same thing right? ;)

Haha it was good though.They are just glowing and so excited to be baptized! Bella still wants to be baptized on her birthday though..... So still working on helping her to move up that date haha cus its Dec. 14 right now. 

Last Monday night, though, our appointments canceled, so we decide to show up at our Bishop's house in service clothes and told them to put us to work. They have the most beautiful house on all of this land with chickens and bunnies and horses .. so we helped them with their chores because they have been way busy. They were so appreciative and it actually wasnt that bad to scoop out some donkey poop. Hahah we had a good time though :) 

Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Sister Wilkins! We served at the VC together at the beginning of our missions, and she goes home in 3 weeks! We spent most of the day down in Independence getting a new car! Then had a little time in our area. We tried to find some of their investigators, but ended up having a cop come up to us and ask if we knew a couple people who lived int he apartment complex. We explained how we were missionaries and we didn't live there, and they told us how they thought the people they were trying to find were missionaries too... we were like uhhh ok. But sure enough they go to that church by the mormon temple. Haha not missionaries though. We didnt know the members but apparently they are in trouble! Awk. Haha that was pretty much the day tho.

People have been SO busy with summer and now getting ready for school that it has been really hard to meet so we didnt have a lot of lessons this week and ended up having a ton of straight finding time. Which is always pretty daunting. Our whole full-pros day we were just out finding. But we saw some cool miracles in that every single person that we had to see showed up to their house right as we got there! So we did actually get to contact a lot of people who we have needed to contact! And even when some people weren't around so we decided to stop by a random potential from the Areabook at 8:45 pm - we ended up meeting this really nice guy who was mowing his lawn in the dark. He proceeded to tell us all about these gigantic wolf spiders that are breeding in his backyard. He said we could come back the next day though! He also was drinking a beer so he could have been a little tipsy when he was talking to us. But hey we were glad we got to at least stop by. Just a day in the life of a missionary in Missouri. 

I got to have exchanges with Sister BIshop as well and it was so fun!!!! I came to North Kansas City with her and I learned so much! It was so cool to see how much we each have grown and talk about all the things we have learned from our missions. 

We were kind of frustrated with people this week. First, we run into a LOT of anti serving at the Jail and also doing the online teaching we do. A couple days this week we had people who came on chat on mormon.org who were telling us that our religion was literally a cult because of all the things we do, saying we were brainwashed and all this really rude stuff. Sister Draper also had a really rough tour with this guy who was probably an excommunicated member and his two nonmember friends and they basically were bashing her the entire time. It's actually really sad that people do that. 

But that day when we were just feeling wrecked, and our ward mission leader and ward missionaries like weren't helping us either .... I read in my studies Alma 14. This chapter is all about Alma and Amulek on their missions. They get to watch as these terrible people take all of their converts and fellow believers and throw them into a fire. Amulek is like, "We need to stop this! We can use our priesthood to stop these people!" But Alma is like "the spirit constraineth me." He knew and he knew that God knew that these people were innocent and they woulld be received into this glory. And even when Amulek is like, "Perhaps they will burn us also. And Alma said: Be it according to the will of the Lord. But behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not." How much faith he must to have had to let that happen and still be receptive of the spirit and willing to submit to Gods will!! 

But I was just thinking about how hard that would be with all these people who are mocking and saying if these people really believed in a true God then why wouldnt that God save them Then Alma and Amulek are thrown into prison and basically have everything taken from them "And many came forth also, and smote them, saying: Will ye stand again and judge this people, and condemn our law? If ye have such great power why do ye not deliver yourselves?"  "...but they answered them nothing. ... And he commanded them to speak; but they answered nothing." 

And they didnt lose their faith!! Until finally, "when the last had spoken unto them the power of God was upon Alma and Amulek, and they rose and stood upon their feet. And alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, gives us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound. And when the people saw this, they began to flee" 

And basically The whole prison broke down and they walked free. 

Reading this passage was just really comforting to me - seeing that even the most powerful missionaries face that rejection and suffered a lot. God is no respect or of persons. If you are a servant f the lord, it is going to be hard! There will be opposition. But I hope i can follow the example of these faithful missionaries. 

Lastly here's a quote Ill leave y'all with: 

"When the righteous and innocent suffer, some become critical or lose faith. President Spencer W. Kimball offered the following counsel for when we witness suffering: ​​​​“If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective....​“If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls.

​​​​“Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood” (​Faith Precedes the Miracle​ [1973], 97).

I am grateful for the lessons I've learned as a missionary, for the people I get to meet and help. It's not always easy, but wouldnt have it any other way! 

Have an awesome week! Keep reading your scriptures.

Love, Sister Bleak

ANd pictures!
Shoveling poop
LOVE THE RUSSELLS House/land!
New car with Sister Wilkins! #soccermomcar
Had dinner with such a sweet family! THey made us their favorite meal:
Volcanoes! (Spaghetti mountain, saucey lava and Dino nuggets :))
WHen the jail breaks and so you have to go in and fix it, yes we can
quote the narrations
Volunteered at a triathalon (a low key one a member put on - hence the
neighborhood pool lol)
EXCHANGES W THE BFFFF
Table of a less active in NKC. Classic.
And this morning! Mancake challenge round 2 (throwback to the Fourth
of July) with the whole zone! the elders were dying... hahaha