Mar. 20, 2017 "9 More Months to be a Missionary" "Adventures of Crooked River Battle site"

9 more months to be a missionary

Hi family!! Sorry this one is going to be a short one, we have been all over the place today for pday! Going bowling and to the Far West Temple Site as a district and then up to hang out with the Zone in kidder, MO!

This week was slightly uneventful. Haha all of our appointments and 3 of our dinners canceled on us .... BUT we still made some appointments, they may have been last minute but all still worked out.

We were able to have an amazing lesson with Barbara and Larry and brought a nice elderly couple to be their friend and they each bore powerful testimonies of their conversion. Barbara and Larry are a little slower on their progression, but you can see they are accepting the truth and are almost there!! Larry also came to church on Sunday and received a priesthood blessing because he has surgery next week, and he came out and told us he felt so amazing... he was crying and just was so touched that someone would do that for him. It was so sweet! We hope it all clicked for him (the significance of priesthood power)

I also hit my 9 month park!! Craazzzyyy!!!! Haha we had an amazing last district meeting of the transfer and made waffles for district lunch!! After, we had planned to go to the Liberty Jail with a less active (planned it two weeks ago) and then they canceled on us the night before, so we found someone else and it was all working out.. and then they canceled on us ten minutes before we had to leave.

Hahah sooo it ended up being kind of a rough day, but we tried to follow the spirit and still showed gratitude for the miracles we saw, no matter how small they were.

The only other significant things to report on this week was first, surprisingly I got called to train AGAIN. Haha I was shocked. But so I guess Sister Brinegar and I won't be staying together!! I wasn't expecting that at all... so I have no idea if I'm staying or leaving. Seriously no idea. But I'll put it all in the Lords hands and trust that He knows what He's doing... because I sure don't!!!

We had a low key St. Patrick's day other than that news, and members fed us eggs and ham!! (We decided to omit the green haha)

Saturday we had the amazing experience of being able to go onto the land and see where the Battle of Crooked River!! For those of you who don't know that battles significance.... look it up :) hahah it was basically the domino that fell and caused Gov. Boggs to send out the extermination order. What is really cool though is the owners of the land don't let ANYONE on it EVER. Like church historians haven't even seen this place. BUT there is a man who is friends with the owner and offered our service in helping to clean up an old cemetery of theirs (doesn't have to do with the battle, but has the guy who owned the land at the time of the battle buried there) in exchange for a group of us to go see the battle site!!! So we hiked down there and took a whole tour and saw exactly where it all would have taken place!! It was so neat!!

It turned out as well that the owner of the land was SOO nice! We had a wonderful gospel conversation with him and it turns out he has read some of the Book of Mormon and has a strong belief in God. We gave him our number and the church address and invited him to read the Book of Mormon again!! He said you know with all the work you helped me with (cus we made that cemetery look dang good) I might just have to look into your church. Yeahhh!!!

We also had our ward party that night and Barbara and Larry came and loved it! We learned all about austere medicine (battlefield stuff - like when you can't get to the hospital and have to do it yourself) and it was pretty interesting!! Haha

Sunday night, last minute we went to the Liberty Jail with a member and met Gary a Recent Convert who has been struggling. We planned to meet him there at 6:30 for a recent convert devotional, but he didn't show up till 7:20 and he was not in good shape. He has had a lot of struggles with a crazy ex wife and other trials, and had just gotten the cops called on him. The devotional was just ended when we finally got down there, but we were able to jump in on the end of a presentation and so he was able to listen to the words of Joseph Smith in the Jail crying out to the Lord, and the Lord promising to him that his trials would be a small moment. The spirit was so strong and we knew we were where we had to be when we had to be here, even if it didn't go as planned.

All in all a good week. The lord definitely tried my faith and patience a lot this week. But I know that as we submit to His will and a His timing, no matter how hard that may be sometimes, we are blessed in the end, and He will always be there for us. Sometimes all you have to do is keep the faith and trust and persevere. Even if you can't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

I love the story of Daniel and his friends and how when they were faced with a fiery furnace death he basically said we know that God will deliver us as we keep His Commandments ... "BUT IF NOT" we will still not obey His commandments. (Daniel 3:17-18) I admire his faith so much. He still held strong even if God wouldn't deliver him.

I hope to have that faith one day.

Love you all friends!! Stay strong and stay close to the Lord.