Peace, (President) Love,
and Happiness
Hey
hey everybody!!!!
Well this week was
reeeallly great!
It was fun filled with
the fourth of July festivities, meeting our new mission president, MLC, and
teaching families!!!!!
We had so much fun
Tuesday night at the Russells for their barbecue with a few member families and
even got to see some fireworks!!! so fun.
Wednesday we had MLC
with President and Sister Love! And oh my goodness, i Love them!!!
They gave a little
introduction to their selves and their families and THEY ARE THE CUTEST.
Literally like the sweetest friendliest funniest people ever.
They went over their
expectations, and basically their motto is: "Work hard, play
hard!"
All us missionaries
were looking around at each other like what the heck is going on.
Very different from
the Vests to say the least. hahaha
Thursday we had our
Half mission conference to meet the new mission president so it was like our
zone and 3 others, so that took up half the day. They introduced themselves
once again and told a ton of stories and basically we were laughing the whole
time. President Love is the most sincere man I have ever met. Its so cool
because he honestly doesnt say a lot, but its like he just speaks in short, powerful
phrases.
Friday was the BEST
full-proselyting day!! We had so many appointments and almost all of them
actually kept their appointment!! That was very refreshing.
We taught this little
boy in our ward who was preparing to be baptized the next day so we taught him
about the importance of being baptized and it was the sweetest.
After that, we did
weekly planning and then had a lesson with the Greens!
The Greens (ive
probably talked about them before) are a part member family. Theyre from
California and Mellissa, the mom, and her daughter Emily are both members.
Mike, the dad, is not a member, but is basically an eternigator (eternal
investigator) He has been taught for like 3 years and believes its all true,
has read the Book of Mormon just wont get in the water. Sister Draper refers to
him as a "Dry Mormon" lol.
Anyways, we were asking them about their faith and about
their experiences with missionaries in the past. It was such an amazing lesson,
and completely spirit-led. Before the lesson in our studies, Sis Draper felt
strongly that we should share our own personal conversion/testimony. We even
brought pictures of our family. As we shared about the love that we have for
the gospel and how we came to know it was true, and the gratitude of having an
eternal family... the spirit filled the room and testified to them that this
was true. Mike is gonna take some time, but we are loving him and helping him
into the Church on his own time. But they agreed to officially just starting
over and taking the lessons!
And we are actually
going to go work out with Mellissa today! (She's gonna teach us how to get fit
fast
On friday we also had
a return appointment with the Staffords!! i mentioned them a couple weeks ago.
Brother Russell has been working with Marcy for several months as her home
teacher and also he does business with her. But they had invited us over for
dinner and we had a lesson with Marcy( who's a less active - been less active
for 10 years) and her daughters Gabyy (the cutest special needs girl) and Cedae
(her unbaptized 17 year old) a couple weeks back and we felt like it went
well, but didnt know how much they wanted to actually take the lessons.
Brother Russell ended
up getting in touch with them and set up another appointment so we taught them
Friday night and it was awesome! It was amazing to see the difference in
them from the first time we saw them. They were much more open as we read from
the Book of Mormon and testified of it. We read 3 Ne 11 and 2 Ne 31:21 and it
was so powerful! The Book of Mormon really has a power, especially as you read
from its pages and testify of the truths therein. Cedae actually said she would
like to have the lessons taught to her again!
Saturday was busyyyy
but AWESOME, because I was on exchanges with SISTER BISHOP!! (#mtccompsreunite
#dreamcometru) Sadly we were at meetings like the entire day because we had
morning training meeting at the jail, and then shift, and then interviews with
President Love and dinner and service (we all did yard work and sister draper
got eaten alive by mosquito and I got poison ivy again) and then we had like an
hour of finding time...... hahaha but it was SO FUN! I am so grateful for her
example to me of positivity and hard work. It was cool to talk about how much
we have grown and changed on our missions and we even set goals for how we can
be even better by the end of the mission :)
Also interviews were
the most amazing thing.
I was literally with
President Love for probably like 10-15 minutes and I had a couple questions and
he said a few things but I left that meeting so uplifted I could have been
walking on a cloud.
President Love speaks
by the spirit, he told me in just a few simple sentences exactly the things I
needed to hear. He spoke the words that Heavenly Father put into his mouth and
I could tell that he was seeing me through the eyes of Father in Heaven. I LOVE
THIS MAN!
Sunday was AMAZINGGG
Marcy and Cedae and Gabby all came to church! As well as Bren! (the little
black kid who said he wanted to be baptized - like 3 weeks ago - we just havent
been able to meet with them - dang summer.) But they all were there, and
especially for Marcy that was a huge miracle. She has come to church probably
like once in 10 years. And now she is growing so much and reading the book of
mormon on her own. Like literally for this lady she almost was going to remove
her records, and all the missionaries in the past put that she wasnt receptive.
So that just goes to show, that just as elder holland says, "however late
you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many
mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however
far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you
have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you
to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." (The
Laborers of the Vineyard)
I was taught a lot of
things this week though. I learned SOO much from MLC and from the Half Mission
Conference. But over and over it seems that the Spirit has been nudging me and
teaching me that as missionaries and simply as disciples of Jesus Christ, we
need to be ALL IN. We need to act from our hearts. We need to be filled with
the Love of Christ. The love that Christ would have, the eyes that Christ sees
with, the hands that would serve as Christ would. So often we talk about our
purpose, how we are to invite others to come unto Christ. But as disciples and
missionaries it is SO EASY to just go through the motions. It is so easy to
simply do the things we need to just to check off the boxes. But I am certain
that that is not what our Savior did. He did not just go through the motions of
suffering, bleeding, and dying. He did that with His whole heart, because He
loves us.
As we act out of love,
as we are driven by this motivation of love, THIS is when we will truly have
His image engraven upon our countenances.
No we are not perfect,
and we will not BE perfect for a long long time. Probably not until the next
life. But that is why I am grateful for daily repentance, for getting a clean
slate every day when I wake up, because I have taken advantage of the Atonement
and power of Jesus Christ.
To sum it all up, ill
share with you what President Love told me: "Our Father in Heaven would
tell you, 'Well done. And keep doing your very best, nothing more.'" :)
Love you all,
Sister Bleak
Pictures!!
Fourth of July
MLC
More pics
Half mish conf
And crew zone
pics
Approaching 13 mo w
the original homies #wemadeitfam
TMTM @ the jail
Exchanges w the bff
sis bishop - yes McDonald's ;)
And other random
things :)
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