Monday, March 10, 2014

This week

It's been a really good week. I've learned a lot. So much has happened
It's hard to wrap my head around how much happens each week. It's hard to write about it. This email is going to be pretty weak, sorry!

MONDAY! We had a lesson with a father and son. I always love teaching families. That's what it's all about. To see a parent try to help their kid increase in their faith and have the children turn their hearts to their parents. It's touching. The lesson went well. Then we went to the Mag's house for a lesson about the commandments with Robert. As I bore testimony of my love for the commandments Sister Mag's mom told me I should write down my feelings, and how I’ve changed. It's crazy. I really can say that I've had a change of heart. Not that I was a bad person before, but my actions AND my motives are different. I've seen and felt that in myself. It's hard to describe. I've come this far and I can keep going, the Atonement does more than clean us, it can change our hearts.

TUESDAY! Last night we started an exchange with Freedom Park and I was with Elder Wihongi, a super cool elder from New Zealand. He's fairly new and has a lot of fire to get the work done. We went out with Rigdon and a lot of our talking was about the temple. Rigdon went on Friday and so he was worried and excited and had a lot of questions. We taught Sister Thayer's grandkids again, Jacob and Niko and we taught them the importance of receiving revelation. We of course didn’t call it that, but that was the outcome of the lesson. We always teach them super simply with object lessons. I love teaching like that because it's how I learn best too! Hahaha. It's funny to see the kids so disengaged until you let them use their hands and their minds and then they love it and want to learn more. Rigdon is such a good kid. He's taught me so much from his good example and his love for everyone we come in contact with. We taught a lesson that night in half English and half Spanish. It didn't go over so well. It was just confusing for me, E.Wihongi and both the investigators. They felt the Spirit but they didn't understand fully. We visited the Rosser’s.  We saw Sassidy and Lisa. (Deshon's sister and mom). Sassidy's daughter, Promise, had surgery and they were so happy that she's okay.

WEDNESDAY! We had to clean our apartment and do all this preparation stuff because they were fumigating our building. We had to take everything out of all the closets and cabinets. It took a heck of a long time because there is tons and tons of stuff stored in our place. We took out a priest and talked with him a lot about his goals and helped him set new ones. We talked to a lot of people and it was interesting to see how the Lord had prepared them. One woman told us that she'd been curious about our church for a long time and wanted to know more about it. Whenever I doubt if the elect are in my area I always run into people like that, usually in Spanish, but that's just because of the area. We had dinner with Sister Gammon, she's so awesome. She is consecrated and I want to be more like her.

THURSDAY! They did the spray stuff and then it took us forever to clean up the mess and everything. We visited the clan. Jasmine was in hysterics and we talked to her about her goals and her baby and she calmed down. I wish there was anything we could do to help but she needs to act for herself. We visited Sister Marx and Vicki. Total juxtaposition. We taught Jacob and Niko, and Jacob shared an experience he had at school where he was struggling on a test and he prayed and asked for help and he got 100% on it. He was so happy, he told us, "There is a God! I know there is!" It was super cool. We had dinner with a private investigator. We taught Suzie the Word of Wisdom. It was a good lesson, I love teaching that to people because it really puts their faith and testimony to the test. And it strengthens both as people live it. 

FRIDAY!  We taught Deshon. It went well, he promised us he'd read and come to church. He didn't end up coming, which made me sad. The highlight of the day was going to the temple with Rigdon. It was awesome. I've worked and prayed so hard for this young man for so long and to see him in the temple, I teared up a little bit. I'm so proud of him and the growth he's been through. It's wonderful to be a part of people's lives as they make promises to Heavenly Father. There's nothing more satisfying in life.

SATURDAY! We had ZTM, for the first time in a long while I didn't have to prepare it. It was really good. I learned a lot and had a good time. It's interesting to see the different styles of teaching and training of different missionaries. We again taught the T's. and it was a good lesson. They're sharp kids. Young and don't know everything, but they have testimonies and that's humbling. We had dinner with Sister Johnson. She told us more about her cancer, since we gave her a blessing.  It was pretty cool. She said that the doctors couldn't figure out why it stopped spreading so suddenly. They asked us to give her another one. I love giving blessings. It's the coolest. Right up there with teaching the Restoration it's like my favorite thing in the world to do. 

SUNDAY! Okay. I have no time so I'll make a list. 
Robert passed the sacrament. Awesome.
Vicki spoke in sacrament meeting. Powerful.
Sassidy and Amazing came to church. Unexpected.
Rigdon got his patriarchal blessing. He texted us and told us all about it, he was so excited.
It was a good, good day. 

Sorry this email hasn't been so great. It's been super busy over here.
But things are great. I really love life. I'm thankful to be a missionary.
I love you all so much.
Sam

No comments:

Post a Comment