Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
Why is Elder Judd the best district leader of all time, you might ask? Not only does he tell us he loves us after every district council, but he also leaves little notes saying he loves us in random places, like at the bottom of our district council agenda or the bottom of our creative finding planning spreadsheet. What a guy.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
We had the craziest p-day ever. I feel like we've spent so much time lately running around and just trying to get everything together. Wild times.
Cathryn was baptized! It was a small baptism and super weird because it felt like we didn't have to do anything. The people attending this baptism have been waiting so long for this to happen, they prepared so hardcore. They definitely didn't need us there but it was nice to get to come because we're her missionaries haha! Cathryn has her eye on the prize--Sister Kakazu said Cathryn kept texting her while picking out a dress to wear to her baptism and asking if it was a temple dress. Haha! I love that! I am so happy for Cathryn, finally seeing her baptized like she has been waiting for for years. One of the best parts is that Sister Kakazu felt prompted to make a video of the missionaries that taught her over the years. Cathryn told us missionaries that she still remembers each one of those elders and sisters, so to not get discouraged, because we don't know the impact we have. I love her so much. What a sacred experience.
We had a great zone conference this week! Amazing calls to repentance came in so many ways. A big focus of our mission lately has been mission culture, because we have been receiving so many missionaries serving all over the world. Sister Allred and I gave the funniest roleplay of all time about having love and humility; we literally made President laugh so hard and the elders we live [in the same complex] with said it was the highlight of zone conference. We also talked about the principles of true repentance, how to increase our effectiveness of finding online, and the importance of actively and humbly seeking after revelation from our dear Heavenly Father. It was great; we have a lot of work to do!
What a lovely district council we had this week. I feel so blessed to be in such a great district with the most awesome missionaries. Elder Judd told us more about how to create an online finding plan, Sister Nault gave a training to prepare our friends for Sabbath worship experiences, and I had the privilege of giving a discipleship moment about having the faith to find, so I talked a lot about humility because that is the key to faith. I love my district.
We had a great Makeup with the Sisters this week with an awesome turnout! It was so fun with so many people participating.
We got to attend a Relief Society meeting in the ward which was nice to hear everyone's insights on some words from this year's general conference!
This week's Sunday night fireside was great! It was about essentialism and putting God first, by bestselling author Greg McKeown. It was a pretty interesting experience because he actually visited our mission at my third zone conference! I loved his insights on how to prioritize God and family and his shoutouts to Steven R. Covey of course, haha!
FRIENDS:
We had a first lesson with a guy named James who really just wanted to engage in a Bible bash. Haha. So, there's that.
Tomm is doing great! For one of our lessons he called us two hours early because he just wanted to talk to us. WE taught him the Restoration and it REALLY moved him. We read some from the Book of Mormon with him and he loved it, and he said he can tell we really have the Holy Spirit with us. We started introducing the gospel of Christ from there because he's really interested in having the Spirit with him, and we explained further the need for proper authority in baptism. He told us he's had a lot of people close to him die recently too--he said God's hanging out with all the people he used to hang out with haha! So we told him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and life after death too. Tomm is really interested in learning more; we love him.
This week with Craig was a roller coaster. I know I always say that but it keeps being true. our first phone call this week started pretty sad. He was saying a lot of things that he sayd frequently, but we could tell something was different; something was wrong. We asked Craig what he was saying. He said maybe we needed to take a break for awhile. That was obviously really devastating. But we talked with him and asked if he wanted us to share a lesson that day. He said yes. So we prayed and shortly after he said he felt so much better and he didn't actually want to stop talking to us. We had a great lesson about faith and he is eager to keep learning. Craig learned a lot about opposition in all things that day. We said God isn't the only one that wants him on His team--Satan wants Craig too. So he will work hard to discourage him when he does good things, but we will not be stopped! The next lesson we invited him to be baptized on the sixteenth of July. He has his reservations, but he said he will be wanting to do that. We know the Lord wants Craig baptized. We told him if he reads and prays every day, he will know the right thing to do.
Khiara and Sophia are so great! We read from Enos and talked more about how prayers can bring us closer to God. Khiara said her first prayer in the group and just cried so much. She had been having a bad day but meeting with us made her feel better. The next lesson was incredible. I want to preface this by saying that a few weeks ago, when Sister Nault and I were discussing baptismal dates for our friends, Sister Nault said the number twenty-two had been jumping out at her everywhere. We decided on August twenty-second for a baptismal date for our friend. This friend declined, but that day has stayed in the back of my mind ever since. I didn't know why, but it felt so important. It felt like someone was really supposed to get baptized on that day, but I couldn't figure out who. Well, in the middle of Khiara's Sabbath worship experience, the date August twenty-second was SCREAMING in my mind. I KNEW somebody was supposed to get baptized on that day. I started racking my brain; I was mentally scrolling through our friends list, trying to figure out who that day belonged to. Well, Sister Allred and I had planned a simple Come, Follow Me message for the worship lesson that day, from one of my favorite Book of Mormon stories. We read Alma 19:33-36. When we planned the lesson, our intention was to focus on repentance and the change of heart that occurs. Well, when we were in a lesson, we ALL noticed the obvious truth: these verses perfectly outlined the principles and ordinances of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. WE had a great discussion about how all of those things lead to the others. Khiara said she felt like it was time to tell us what she's been talking about with Sophia. She wants to join the Church! At that moment the dots finally connected in my mind: the August twenty-second baptismal date belonged to Khiara. I explained the spiritual experience I'd been having to her, and Khiara accepted the invitation to be baptized on that day! We are all so excited. What an incredible miracle.
To close, I wanted to yet again share some words I shared earlier this week, this time with my district, about the Sabbath day. Upon reading "Deep and Lasting Conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" by Elder Quentin L. Cook (check that one out) as a part of our mission's Preach My Gospel implementation calendar, I think the main takeaway from this talk was the spiritual emphasis on the Sabbath. Perhaps in the past we as members of the Church and then as missionaries for the Lord a focus was on merely getting to church, something very physical. I know I have had people we teach communicate similar sentiments to me in the past. Pretty sad. The Lord has forced us into a position to really take into consideration His new church meeting schedule. We have ONLY our home worship to sustain us on the Sabbath now. We have to really put in our effort to make the Sabbath a delight more than ever before. As missionaries, we are forced to teach our friends the beautiful doctrine and blessings of the Sabbath day. What a joy. As they learn the true principles behind the Sabbath, when the time does come when they can attend church, they will see why coming to church truly matters. Their joy will increase. I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time. WE could have been a missionary anytime, in any place, but we are right here right now. Thanks be to our God. I love Him.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day
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