Monday, November 23, 2020

Adventures in the CLAM: I'm Officially Old! (March 2, 2020-March 8, 2020)

Hey everyone!
Today's post is about my one year mark on the mission. I am getting super emo typing this out right now because it truly was the best time. I am so grateful and lucky that my companion, Sister Hopkins, was as excited about this as me and willing to celebrate it with me. I'm glad I got to be in a great area and a great zone with great friends. From this point on the mission was the best it had ever been. There are so many good memories ahead.
I am unendingly grateful for the beautiful opportunity I had to serve. I think about every single detail of my mission frequently, and to me it is simply astounding how every little piece was tailored to my exact need. I don't know what I expected out of my mission--missions are a hard thing to plan for, because you don't really know what's going to happen. But whatever I imagined, what I got was way better.
Enjoy!

 


Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
So, for those of you that love Starbucks but also love the Word of Wisdom, you might be wondering, what is the solution to this? Well this week I learned. If you want a Frappuccino. All you have to do. IS JUST ASK FOR IT WITHOUT COFFEE. And then you get the joy of having a Frappuccino and the joy of obeying the commandments of God. You're welcome, world.
I hope you're all happy for me knowing that I bought enough makeup wipes to last me the rest of my mission and a little bit after too. (There was a huge deal, I'm not just crazy.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
We had the privilege of going to the temple as a zone! It was a great day to be there with great friends.
I hit my one year! Wow let me tell you that was a joyous day. I got to see so many of my missionary friends due to zone interviews (more on that in a bit), I opened gifts from my family (who celebrated in Vegas on their own), and Sister Hopkins and I got an ice cream cake to celebrate. I honestly feel so grateful to be at this point in my mission, to have the opportunity to celebrate this special day at all. My mission has been such an awesome experience thus far. I value all of the wonderful opportunities I've had as a servant of the Lord and here in the CLAM. I'm just so glad I get to call myself a missionary and be a part of this great work, and so glad I have spent so much time here!
We had our zone interview! Wow, I just love getting to talk to President Cordon. He is such a great man and it never stops being amazing how much he cares about us. We also got a super great training about how to teach our friends about observing the Sabbath day in small pieces which was really helpful.
FRIENDS:
Arista and her parents do not feel good about her getting baptized so soon, which is totally understandable. They all want her to give it more time. So we read the Book of Mormon with her, 3 Nephi 9! A very underrated chapter. Arista is so awesome. She just loves the scriptures and the stories of Jesus.
We met with Fay! We talked about how God loves us and compared it to how she loves her son. We also taught her about the divine mission of Jesus Christ, and how our special relationships with the Father and the Son are why Jesus Christ came to earth.
Did some sweet Come, Follow Me studies with John this week.
We met with Helen! Helen does not know a lot about religion but was interested in learning, so we started teaching her about the message of the Restoration. Well since Helen doesn't know abuot religion, the next time we met we decided to teach her about who God is. It was at this time that Helen told us she did not believe in God. No matter what we said, she would not be swayed. So I guess there's that.
We did Come, Follow Me with Greg and Lucy! They are seriously the coolest people ever. I love them so much. We read 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the importance of the principles taught there.
We met with Craig and he is amazing. We told him about eternal families. He loves his family a ton and has a great relationship with them. I told him that my family supports me and thinks of me even though we are separated right now, and that is exactly how Heavenly Father feels about each of us. When we read a verse from 2 Nephi 2 to answer a questoin of his about why bad things happen to good people, he said, "Why does that make so much sense?" As we taught, he said, "You guys are 100% sure this is true." We said, "We are 1000% sure this is true." We told him to pray to know our message is true, and he said he wanted to know it as much as we did.
We met with MacKinon, Ian, and Kenny. We taught them about who God is and pretty much how much He loves them. We committed them to read from the Bible together as a family.
We met with Jack and Marsha. We tried figuring out why Marsha hadn't been baptized yet, and it pretty much came down to her not believing there is one true church. They both believe everything will work out when Jesus comes back to the earth, so that was pretty sad, but the work moves on.
Our poor Sophia is going through a really hard time. We pretty much just talked to her about it and read some words of ancient and modern prophets about her concerns. She felt a lot better knowing that Jesus Christ understood her situation. She is the strongest lady we know and we simply adore her. She got a priesthood blessing from Bishop the next day and she said it really helped her. I am so proud of how she has integrated herself into the ward so quickly and so well.
To conclude, I'd like to tell you guys about something I've added to my study to learn more about the Restoration of the gospel! In preparation for this iconic conference, I have decided to read Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith! I am excited to learn more about Joseph's teachings and I invite you all to consider how you can expand your study of the Restoration as well!
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

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