Dear family and friends,
I'm sad to say that I've run out of D&C scriptures to share with you! I hope you enjoyed looking up the scriptures about how the Lord said that he will "come quickly." I really enjoyed doing that study while I was reading the Doctrine & Covenants. Now I'll have to figure something else out. I've never been too good with subject lines.
Anywho. It has been an interesting and long week! I took a much needed nap after studies this morning. Since the library doesn't open until noon on Mondays, we have about two hours to do whatever before we email. This morning I choose to take a little nap. It was great! I think it was my meeting at the beginning of the week that wiped me out. It was so spiritual and such a great meeting that I was just spiritually exhausted! That's what you get for being a missionary I guess. :)
Wednesday night we had dinner with the Safranek's here in Charleston. They're Italian. At least Bro. Safranek is. They are super nice! They've helped us a lot with getting to know the people on the ward list. They've given us lots of information. Then they took us to the church and we were able to do some things there. We met with the Bishop and he helped us to know who else we could focus our work on. Then while Bro. Safranek was at the church doing his calling, Sis. Safranek took us to our Ward Mission Leader's house. He had called us the day before and told us that if we were in his area to stop by because his wife's children were going to be in town. His wife is also a non-member. Little did we know, it would be an adventure just getting to his house. We had a GPS but he lives waaaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere kind of in the mountains but they aren't mountains, they're hills. ;) Anyway, he is working on building a house up there and it was interesting finding his place. As we were driving up their long driveway, his wife and her kids were going on a walk. So we stopped and talked to them for a little bit - Sis. Safranek had talked to her before when she has come to church. Then we went up and saw the house that Bro. Pitcock is building. It is quite amazing! We were sad that we didn't get to talk to his wife more but hopefully we will another time.
Thursday was pretty great. We had received a media referral for someone and so we called and set up an appointment for that day. He works at McDonalds in Booneville so we met with him after his shift. Turns out that he started taking the missionary discussions 23 years ago when he was 17 but his grandma told him that he couldn't do it any more because she didn't want the missionaries around. Since then, he still has been reading the Book of Mormon, has received an answer that it was true, and now he is starting to read the Pearl of Great Price. He downloaded the LDS tools onto his phone so that's how he has been reading and studying. It was pretty amazing! He really wants to be baptized but he is worried about his family because he hasn't told them about it yet. So we are going to pray and hope that his family is okay with it. Even though he is older, he lives with his parents because he has some health issues and they help to take care of him. But he is pretty golden! His name is Bro. Henry. When we were teaching him, he was practically teaching us the lesson about the Restoration! It was amazing!
That night we also had a lesson with the Riley family. We had it at a member's house so their kids could play together. We had dinner and then we talked a little bit about their goal to go to the temple. We talked about having family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study and how that would help them to get to the temple. They are super amazing and we love them already. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church yesterday because one of their sons has some mental issues and he was having a really bad day. But we are having family home evening with them tonight at the Safranek's home. It is going to be good! Sis. Safranek said she would do the lesson and she told us that it is going to be on "Families Can Be Together Forever." We are pretty excited! :)
On Friday we had a meeting in Ft. Smith. It was our Zone Training Meeting that we have at the beginning of the month. I always love being in these meetings! I just love being with all the missionaries! It's fantastic.
After the meeting, I went on my first exchange as a Sister Training Leader. I got to go back to Muskogee! I was with Sister Stockhoff. She is from Oregon and I love her to death. It is amazing the way that the spirit works because I was going to go on an exchange with her companion first but felt like I needed to go with her first instead so I did and it turns out that that's what was needed at this time. We went and met with a few people that they are still teaching from when I was there and then we also met with a guy that the Bishop found. He is pretty golden and Sister Stockhoff did an amazing job with teaching him and committing him to a baptism date! I love Sister Stockhoff and I think we'll be friends for a long time. Her and her companion have only been out for 6 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me how much I see that the missionaries that are coming out right now have been so prepared. I've seen it both in my companion and in Sister Stockhoff. They are just ready to teach people and bring them to Christ. They are much better missionaries that I was when I was out as long as they've been out. I know they've been well prepared to serve at this time.
On Saturday we changed back. Before dinner we ended up going tracting because we didn't really have much else to do in this little tiny town without using a TON of miles (we are limited on how many miles we drive a month). But it was really good because Sister Ficklin and I are working on Diligence as our Christlike attribute of the month and so it was good to know that we were being tested. We were blessed too because we found a few people that invited us to come back and they all seem pretty promising! We are excited to go back and teach them!
On Sunday we had a special Ward Council where we just focused on missionary work. We had a little brainstorming session on how the ward can better do missionary work. The Elders and us were in charge of it. That was pretty nerve wracking. But we showed a video from the Hastening the Work website at the beginning and then had the little brainstorming session. It was really good because we were able to get a lot of good ideas from everybody and we'll hopefully be able to put those ideas into action pretty soon.
I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time! I could not have asked for a better experience. My mission has been super duper hard at times but I've been able to get through it with the help of my Father in Heaven. I could not be more grateful for Him and His influence in my life and in my mission. There's no way I'd be able to still be out here and doing the things I'm doing without His help. I've truly been able to see His hand in my life on my mission. I'm excited to see what He has in store for me in the next few months! I really cannot express how much I love being a missionary. It's the best thing ever!
I love you all and hope you all are doing great! I pray for you all the time!
LOVE YOU!
See you soon then!
Love, Sister Pahl
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