Dearest family!
How have you all been? It's been a long 4 months but it keeps going by faster and faster! Days are long, weeks are short, and transfers (6 weeks) seem even shorter. So I try to have the best attitude and the greatest desire to do everything I can with the time I've been given. On Saturday, we were at a fair (I'll explain later) and we ran into the Stake President, President Stout. He is an amazing man. They just had a Standards Night for the youth and we heard that they were talking about Captain Moroni and how he "rent his coat; and wrote upon it - In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children - and he fastened it upon the end of a pole." (Alma 46:12) So to go along with this, he took off his suit coat, and wrote on it. When I heard this I was like, "WHAT??? He wrote on his expensive suit coat??" Anyway, I thought it was cool. Then there were white shirts provided for all of the youth to go make their own "Standard of Liberty." He is such a great Stake President! Anyway, going back to the fair.....we ran into him and he asked us how we were doing. He then said that his daughter is on her mission and she got physically sick because she was so stressed about being good enough. He asked us if we ever get like that - stressed about being good enough, we proceeded to tell him that we did and that I, Sister Pahl, had actually had a breakdown just the other night! He asked us why? We said because we are girls and we are harder on ourselves than boys are. He then told us that Heavenly Father has called us to be his servants and that he qualifies those who he calls, so why get stressed about being good enough? If we are doing our best, the Lord will do the rest and we will be great in Heavenly Father's eyes. This was seriously such an answer to my prayers! The night that I was not doing so well, I just prayed for help. I didn't know what kind of help I needed but I knew I needed help. Heavenly Father hears AND answers our prayers! I can truly testify to that! If we go to him in prayer, in our darkest hours, or our brightest days, He will answer us. We will be able to know He is there but we have to be looking for those answers. If we aren't looking, we might not find them. The Spirit works in soft and quiet ways. If we don't accept little things as answers, we might miss them altogether. Heavenly Father knows all of us and He knows what we need to hear and how we need to hear it. He isn't going to answer us in a way that we couldn't recognize. If we feel that we aren't getting answers to our prayers, we aren't doing our part. It is never Heavenly Father's fault, He will ALWAYS answer the prayer of his child, what loving parent wouldn't?
Out here in Bella Vista, I am continuously impressed with the members and their efforts to reach out to those in need! On Monday, we had dinner with Sis. Clawson and her two children (her husband was still at work). She is the Visiting Teacher with one of the less active sisters that we are working with! So after dinner, we were sharing a message with them and she started asking how Sister Kelly was. We told her that we hadn't been able to get in contact with them for a couple of weeks but that we were going to stop by after we left dinner. She said that she would try calling once we left and she would try to get a hold of her and invite her to dinner before we got there. To our surprise, when Sister Kelly let us in, she said, "I just got off the phone with Sister Clawson!" I don't know about Sister Knutson but I was so happy that Sister Clawson did what she said she was going to do and that she has made a friendship with Sister Kelly! That is what a true Visiting Teacher should do - make a good friendship with those she teaches! That's the kind that I want to be!
Kate! Kate is the young single adult that some of the Elders transferred to us. Last email, I said that she is going to be baptized on September 8th. Well, we had to push her date back to September 15th because she wasn't aware that she needed to be living the word of wisdom before her baptism date. She had been doing really good with not drinking her coffee, but the day we met with her, she had had a cup because she needed an extra energy boost. But she was okay with it and she is just AMAZING!!! Truly is amazing and has been prepared to receive the Gospel! I love her so much and can't wait for her to be a member of God's church!
We met with Sister Jones this week and we read Joseph Smith History, versus 1-26. The things that she said and agreed with made it seem like she truly believes that what happened to Joseph Smith back in 1820 is true! We all kept saying, "How could these Pastors that are grown men persecute a 14 year old boy if what happened to him wasn't true?" Really, how could they go from caring about him to persecuting and harassing him? It just wouldn't make sense if it wasn't true!
We've been meeting with the Burnetts right after church on Sundays which can be hard because their three children go crazy and it can be really disruptive to us and to the people that are still in church. But, we've decided and they've agreed to commit to a date for baptism! So this next week we are going to pray and give them a date that they can work towards! It won't be for about 3-4 months, but they said that they are goal oriented and so if they have a date, it might help them get over the problems that they are having that are keeping them from being baptized. I hope that this works! I just love them so much and want them to be an eternal family! But they can't be if they can't get over their addictions so I hope that having a date in mind will help them be motivated to overcome their obstacles and temptations that they have in this life.
We have a miracle in the works! One miracle has happened and so I hope that that will lead to another miracle! The first lesson I taught out here in the field was with Brother and Sister Sandford. She recently came back to church and he is her husband who is an investigator. Missionaries have been meeting with them for a while! He is a sweet, sweet man and will one day, I'm sure, be one of God's elect. Every time he's been asked to be baptized, he's said no. He had a job that required him to work on Sundays and so he would sometimes come to church on his lunch break, and in his church attire. He's been looking for a new job that will not require him to work as many hours in the week. Yesterday, to our surprise, he showed up with his wife in a white shirt and tie! We havent' been able to meet with them for a few weeks because they've been doing other things so they told us that he got a new job and he will be able to come to the first two hours of church! So that was miracle number one. Miracle number two starts out with Sister Sandford telling us that she will know when he is ready to be baptized. She thinks that he'll just get up one morning and say, "Okay, I'm ready to get baptized." So, when she was hugging Sister Knutson, she whispered in her ear, "You better start praying to see if it's the right time to ask him again to be baptized." YAY!!!! That comment means that she thinks that he's ready! So, hopefully miracle number 3 is going to be him accepting a baptismal date when we meet with them on Thursday!!! :) That would be so GREAT!!! And we had planned to talk with them about the Atonement. So what better topic to be talking about and then propose a baptismal date? We are super excited!
On Saturday, we attended the 6th Annual Northwest Arkansas Emergency Preparedness Fair. It was so much fun! It is hosted at none other than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It was a long and tiring day but I want to do this in Utah! It had all sorts of booths with people that are part of companies that help people get prepared for emergencies! The lady that is pretty much in charge of the whole thing is in our ward and so we asked her for all the information on it and all the different booths they had so we, Sis. Knutson and I, can attempt to put one together in our hometowns! It is so important for us to prepare for disasters! We've been told by the prophets that we need to be doing this!
Another sort of miracle happened yesterday at church! We walked in to our Gospel Principles class and a member of the Relief Society presidency was sitting next to someone that we didn't know! So we introduced ourselves and she said that her son's teacher had told them to try out this church......the website they went to said that the services were at 8:30 and 10 so they came at 9.....odd thing is....our church does not meet at 8:30 and 10, we meet at 9, 11, and 1.....so Sister Knutson and I were discussing it this morning and we came to the conclusion that we think the teacher told them to go to Grace Point, a church right next to ours, so they probably got mixed up and came to our church. Coincidence?.....I THINK NOT!!!! So hopefully they LOVED church and we can get in contact with them and start teaching them! Everything happens for a reason!
One last thought and then I have to go. On Saturday, August 24, 2012, I finished the Book of Mormon. I read it in 4 months. All I have to say is, "IT IS TRUE!!" If you haven't read it, you need to, whether you are a member of the church or not. I promise you as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, that if you read it, and pray to know that it is true, Heavenly Father will answer you and tell you that it is and it will change your life if you let it!
I love you all and hope you are doing great! I pray for you all the time!
See you soon then!!!!
Love, Sister Pahl
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