Hey!
For today's post I write a lot about tender mercies, or miracles from the Lord that come in times of deep distress. As I was pondering that concept I just wanted to thank you all for being the best of tender mercies to me. Being a writer is hard. Trying to navigate the literature, theatre, film, and education fields is hard. Being a recently returned missionary now a full-time college student in a small town in Utah trying to get life together is hard. Life, as you all well know, is very discouraging at times. But today I just feel so grateful to have a wonderful support system of family, friends, followers, fans, and fandomeers. You are all the best. I love being able to hop on this blog and talk to all of you--talk about anything. We can write together and share together and it is undoubtedly the happiest community on the internet. So thank you for being here and for the interaction. You make me so happy and I love and adore you.
Enjoy!
Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
When you go outside after an appointment and the air is suddenly really smoky, and then you notice a big gray cloud, and then as you bike home white ashes are falling in your face so you can't see, that's when you know you're a missionary in California. Gotta love them California fires.
This week we really got better at making finding people to teach a priority every day. Our teaching pool was depleting rapidly so we knew it was the only way. I remember starting the week wondering how we would even survive it. But as we worked really hard, Heavenly Father provided nothing but finding TMs (tender mercies) frequently. If I could describe all the miracles we saw this week I would, but there are way too many. So in this email you're gonna see a lot of new names, so just know that a lot of them came from street contacting miracles.
In the mission a lot of people either give clothes to the sisters or the sisters that are leaving an area or going home will leave their old clothes behind (because a LOT of stuff is obtained on the mission a LOT of the time). When that is the case, before we donate the clothes we go through them and take whatever stuff we want, so when I come home with entirely different clothes than I came with don't be super shocked. Mission fashion shows are the BEST.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
On p-day we had a zone cereal party! Everyone brought their favorite cereals and we just ate cereal together and hung out. The Granola Hills zone is simply the best.
This week Sister Merkley and Sister Brower moved out. It has no lie been pretty hard to live without them. Definitely very emo for them. But our new roommates, Sister Pace and Sister Smith of the El Camino Real area, are totally awesome and we love living with them!
This week in district council Elder Kreger trained us on how to respond to objections with/about the Book of Mormon, as well as a cooking training so like that was cool. I also gave a training this district council! I trained on how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul, and how we can use that in street contacting. I think it went pretty well!
It's been five months on the mission! Yikes we are approaching that one year left mark really fast. The mission has already gone by super fast but I know onec that point hits it will practically be over. Time to use this time to the fullest!
FRIENDS:
We talked about the spirit world and living prophets with Sukki, and started reading the talk "Come, Follow Me" by President Nelson with her.
We met Lui street contacting about two weeks ago, and this week we taught him! He learned about the Great Apostasy and understands that if God's power and authority isn't on earth, we can't act in God's name.
We met Rolando in a park and he was interested in meeting with us, because he wants to raise his son knowing about God. Well, Rolando approached us in Spanish so I thought he would be more comfortable with Spanish missionaries. The good news? We now live with the Spanish missionaries! Sister Pace and Sister Smith came to our lesson with him and they are now teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he is loving it!
Carmen had been taught by missionaries before so we found her in our Area Book. She has a lot of questions and a lot of faith in God. She prayed at the end of our first lesson and it was amazing.
We met Son on the street and he has a lot of faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ. We talked about faith and agency (the gift and ability to choose) with him this week.
We talked about the premortal life, Creation, and Fall of Adam and Eve with David. He understands it very well and is progressing a lot in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yesterday after some really hard moments, I had personal study. I read in the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 2 (a great chapter about the Redeemer of the world, agency, and the Fall of Adam and Eve) and the second verse brought me a lot of comfort:
"Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."
It was one of those glorious moments when I knew God was talking right to me. I know as we live righteously, God consecrates our afflictions for our gain!
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day
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