Dearest family and friends,
We had quite the week, we did!
I'll start with the best first. This Sunday, Brother Russell is getting baptized!!!!!! We could not be more excited for this momentous occasion! :) Sister Hatch is especially excited because it will be her first baptism on her mission! It is really great and we know that he is ready and he is super excited as well.
Yesterday, we had the unique opportunity to be a part of a mission conference held in Tulsa. It was unique because our whole mission NEVER gets all together because of how spread out we are. But this time, almost all of the mission was invited to come to Tulsa. There were so many missionaries and I got to talk to a lot of friends that I've made! It was great! The best part was that we got to be instructed by Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishopbric of the Church. It was so awesome to think that just a few short weeks ago, he was speaking in General Conference. It was so good to hear from President and Sister Shumway as well. It was a truly uplifting and inspiring experience. Sister Hatch and I are super pumped and ready to baptize all of Muskogee! We are going to try our hardest to have more lessons than we've ever had! One thing that Bishop Davies said was, "Don't get the DIMS!" DIMS stands for Discouraged Idle Murmur Sin. We need to work to not get discouraged. But if we do, get out of that state of mind. When we become discouraged, we become idle in our lives; then we murmur and then that leads to sin. So, I encourage all of you to not get the DIMS!!!! He also said that they predict that in a year, there will be 90,000-100,000 missionaries out serving in the field!!!!! How crazy is that??? I'm so happy to be a part of this amazing work! I love it!
We had an AMAZING lesson with Sister Disney. She is one that lives up in Wagoner. She's been reading the Book of Mormon, A LOT!!! We were able to talk about the Restoration with her this last week. She likes the experience of Joseph Smith and said that she wanted to pray about it before she said what she thought. We told her that that is exactly the point! :) There were a couple times when she related stories from the Book of Mormon to what we were talking about! It was AWESOME to hear her tell me, almost perfectly, stories that I've been learning since I was a little girl. The only problem we have with her is that her husband has some disabilities and so they don't leave their house much. She can't go anywhere without him and she can't leave him anywhere. That means that she can't come to church because he doesn't want to go. So we are praying for a miracle! One of the best things about her is she really does want to learn! She told us that she wants us to keep coming back and teaching her because she can't learn if we don't come and teach her. Ah!!! It is so exciting! :)
We were also able to have a good lesson with Winnter. She has short term memory loss and so we were worried about her remembering what we taught her. BUT, at the beginning of our lesson, we reviewed what we went over the last time and she was able to remember everything that we taught her! :) We asked her mom if she had been reviewing it with her and she said that she hadn't; which means that she remembered on her own! So, we moved on to the next thing. It was so great to see how the Spirit can work and how He can truly help us remember things and bring things back to our memory! Winnter is super cute and we're excited to see her progress!
We were only able to see Christina once twice this week. On Tuesday night, Bro. Parkes gave her a blessing. It was a beautiful one! I hope that she understood everything that was said. I also hope her mother, who was in the room with us, was also able to understand. She had to go to the hospital and she is still there as of right now. She is retaining too much water and it is having a really negative impact on her body. not good especially since she already has enough health problems! So we've been praying super hard for her this week...not like we don't already pray for her enough. :)
I came across this quote by Spencer W. Kimball the other day in my studies. I believe it was in Preach My Gospel. "The cultivation of Christlike qualities is a demanding and relentless task - it is not for the seasonal worker or for those who will not stretch themselves, again and again." I really loved it!! As missionaries, we are supposed to be working on strengthening one Christlike attribute a month. When I came across this quote, it hit me that I'm going to have to continue to work on my Christlike attributes throughout my whole life if I want to get back to my Father in Heaven. I mean, I always knew that, but now I'm more determined and have a better understanding of how I can work on it. I challenge all of you to work on a Christlike attribute this upcoming month. Pick one, and say a prayer telling Heavenly Father that you are going to work on this attribute. I know that as you do, you will see trials but you will also see yourself grow and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Well, I best get going! In the words of my good friend, Hermana LeBaron: time is short and Satan is working hard.
Love you!
See you soon, then!!
Picture 1- our district at a zone outing. Top row: Loveland, Peterson, Kent, Pahl, Hatch. Middle row: Bennett, Freckleton, Fonnesbeck, Staley. Bottom row: Sullivan.
Picture 2- A ZEBRA!!!!! In Poteau, Oklahoma...who would have guessed???
Picture 3- me and Sister Hatch
Picture 4- at mission conference with Bishop Davies. The Parkes and five sister missionaries that have lived with them...Hatch, Pahl, Meredith, La'au, Blocker, Sister and Brother Parkes.
No comments:
Post a Comment