*whispers* "Word of Wisdom"
Welp its Monday
again!
First off though, can
I just say how thankful I am to be a missionary?
Sometimes we get
caught up in the routine of life, and we don't stop to appreciate it all. I
have found that the moments that I stop to really take in the adventure of
life, and the miracle of missionary work, I am filled with my Heavenly Fathers
love. Its truly a glimpse of heaven.
Needless to say this
week wasn't perfect, we didnt have a ton of time in our area, but it was still
filled with blessings and miracles :)
Monday night our plans
fell through a little bit, but we were able to visit the Carter family. Sister
Carter is a ward missionary and her and her husband are AWESOME. To paint the
picture, they have 6 kids under the age of 12. Sister Carter is super happy and
talks a million miles a minute and Brother Carter basically is a tall, bald
version of the turtle from Finding Nemo. Aka, he says "Dude," every
other word :) Brother Carter always helps us with our church history questions.
He has taken a lot of time to study things out, because he had some questions
that troubled him for a while, but now he is a church history master. It is
crazy because there have been so many people we have heard of in our ward or
neighboring wards, who have left the church because of things they stumble
upon. And I'll tell you there's some weird stuff out there. But what Brother
Carter does, is first he studies his scriptures and makes sure he is in the
best frame of mind to look into these things. But basically he has looked into
all the crazy questions about polygamy, etc. So we come to him with our
questions that people bring us from chats. So side tip from them: if you are
having trouble with some church history... 1) "Give brother Joseph a
break" - Elder Cook 2) Study with your mind and heart open to the
spirit 3) Go to FairMormon - all these scholars that dive into the history and
answer the hard questions with background and logic. 3) Never jump to
conclusions and turn from your faith. We may not know all about the why or how
now, but we will later. For now, be patient.
Ok theres my little
rant for that.
Tuesday, we visited
with Mellissa Green. We just helped her and her husband make some food. She is
less active and her husband is a member and they have been out of town for a
few weeks. But they let us come over, and we make taquitos and cookies, which
we delivered to her new neighbors. When her neighbor opened the door, and saw
us with Mellissa, she literally took a step back behind the door. Haha classic.
We are normal people too! Just have church clothes on and a name tag
hahah
Wednesday evening, we
stopped by to see how the Staffords were doing. They were so sad they couldnt
make it to church the week before. Their air conditioning had gone out, and
Marcy was like, "This week, we are for sure going to be there for all
three hours no matter what!"
She also told us about
how a few days before, after we had taught Bella the word of wisdom, Cedae, her
older sister (who wasnt present for the lesson) was drinking an Iced Tea. And
Bella, being a character... leans over to her and whispers in her ear (in a
loud whisper), "We aren't supposed to drink that. Word of Wisdom."
Cedae is like what the heck? Hahaha. Anyway, we were just glad Bella had
remembered what we taught her.
Not much happened
Thursday, but Friday was Zone Conference!!!
It was so good!
I actually love
meetings as missionaries, because I really feel like we are just the army of
stripling warriors gathering together, preparing for the battle against sin and
evil.
I learned a lot about
what it means to be consecrated, and worthy of the Spirit. I trained on the
role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion, and I was really grateful for that
because it helped me to realize and strengthen my faith in the promises that
God has given us, that His spirit will be there, and we will not be confounded before
men.
That night, we met
with a sister in our ward who has been preparing to serve a mission, and she
leaves next week! We were able to talk with her and address her concerns and
fears about serving. We were kind of stressed, because we had so much to get
done, and not enough time to do it, and we were with her longer than we thought
we would be. But in her farewell talk, she said how much it had been an answer
to pray to talk to us, and how she had felt the pure love of the Savior
emanating from us. That was humbling. Sometimes, we worry about all that we
have to get done, and forget that God cares enough about the one to send His
servants to spend the time with them, so they feel His love.
Saturday, we had a fun
breakfast with all the sisters that hopefully Ill get pictures of, and also we
tried to do some weekly planning, but didnt get much done until we had to meet
with our Bishop.
But AHHH Bishop
Russell is so awesome!!! He is always coming up with new and better ideas for
missionary work. So this week we are starting a new initiative, showing this
video to each family and helping them look for the ways that they could do
missionary work and reach out to others. We have had different monthly
missionary goals that the ward is focusing on.
This month has been to
pray for those who you think could be receptive to the gospel.
And I just wanna tell
you about one of the miracles we heard!
We had dinner at the
Tate's home on Thursday. They told us all about one of the people their family
has been praying for. It is their neighbor. The daughters are friends, and the
family across the street actually met with missionaries in the past, and like
came to church. But then they just stopped after the mom and her boyfriend
broke up. But the Tate's have continued to be friends with the Brooks family,
and Lawson, the daughter is friends with the Tate's daughter. That night, they
invited her to Activity Days, and she came! On Sunday, Sister Tate texted us,
and told us that Lawson ended up loving activity days so much that she wants to
come every week, and even wanted to come to church that day! AND SHE DID!!!
Such a miracle!!!
And guess who else
came to church for ALL THREE HOURS!!! Yep. the Staffords!!! Cedae was really
sad that she had to work so she wasnt there, but Marcy, and Bella and Gabby
were all there!! And they stayed for all of the classes! We think that it went
pretty well, Gabby did pretty good the whole time too! And everyone was
friendly and said hi to her! But we were still nervous and hoping it went well.
-- We know it did for Bella because she got to meet her favorite youtubers.
Haha, if you have ever heard of J-House Vlogs, then that is the Johnston
family, and they are in our ward. So we introduced Bella to Sister Johnston at
church, and she was STARSTRUCK. haha shes so cute.
But this morning,
Heidi, Bishop's wife, forwarded us a text Marcy sent to her. Marcy said that
she couldnt thank their family enough for reaching out to her and loving her.
She said she felt so welcome and loved, and not judged at church, which meant
so much to her. She wanted Sister Hanson's number because over a year ago, she
stopped by to meet her and Bella on behalf of the primary, and she remembered
meeting her, but when she recognized that, and saw that she was at church and
Bella was going to be baptized now, she started to cry in front of Marcy. In
this text Marcy asked for Sister Hanson's number so she could reach out to her
because she was so touched that Sister Hanson cared that much.
AHHHHHH
miracles are happening people. Sharing the gospel is the most amazing thing. I
have never been filled with so much love for others, and so much love for my
Savior Jesus Christ.
No
matter how much I try to give back to Him, or how much I try to sacrifice for
Him, He is ever giving more in return to me. He is ever blessing me.
Sometimes
we think we don't deserve it; or sometimes we think that we have lost touch
with Him, and he seems far distant. But when we really open our minds and
hearts, we are reassured from Him that He has always been there.
But
I never want Him to say to me, like He did to Phillip, "Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not know me?" (John 14:9)
Why
would we not remember this perfect Man who died for us, that we may not suffer.
And why would we not take advantage of that sacrifice, so freely given?
How
do you think Christ must feel when we choose to carry around burdens that he
died to heal.
And when
I always remember Christ, I am able to look at the gospel as less of a
checklist and more of a toolbox. Reaching in to grasp onto the truths that will
sustain me through the day. Praying and saying, "Okay I need help, I need
God to bless me because I know I am weak."
It
is my goal to live like this, and to keep my covenants in always remembering
Him.
Because
truly, the greatest gift that we could give back to the Savior is to live so
that His sacrifice for us, won't be wasted.
I
love Him. He is my friend.
I
hope we will all remember and appreciate Him more this week.
Love
you all,
Sister
Bleak
And PICS! (There will
probably be more to come)
The Staffords!! L2R-
Marcy, Bella, Gabby and Cedae :)
Then other fun
things
Torrential rain and
zone conference!
Today at the "Best BBQ in America!!"
Loveee the Petersons
Loveee the Petersons
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