This whole week has been full of lots of crazy, crazy things.
Monday–We made a new investigator out of a lady who is 80-something years old, and told us she has been reading the Book of Mormon! Carolina is great!
Tuesday–We had a prompting to go tracting on an island that is way up on the very north edge of our area. We stopped by a former investigator that was in our area book. She told us that she was about to head out but felt like she should stay an extra 5 minutes, and then we knocked on her door! She told us she had been wondering why the missionaries hadn’t come by in so long, and needed a new Book of Mormon because she lost hers! What a great night!
Wednesday–Teresa, one of our new investigators, is now on date for baptism!!! We had an incredible lesson with her and she is now working toward the same baptismal date as Ali.
Thursday–We had a good chunk of our afternoon free, and for someone reason we couldn’t think of anything good to fill our time with. So, we just went to a lesson with Maricela (which was really great because she told us she wants to go to the temple) and then when we got out, we got a text with terrible news. We found out that the members’ daughter that I’ve talked about passed away so we rushed over to sing with them and comfort them. It was a really, really hard thing to do. But, I’m glad we were able to be there for them, and I’m glad our afternoon ended up being free so that we could go do that.
Friday–We visited two less-active families, which went really well. We also had spaghetti tacos for dinner (Yes, you read that right).
Saturday–This was one of the longest days of my LIFE. We went on exchanges with the STLs and they left me in our area, so that means I had to handle just about everything on my own. It was SO hard being the only Spanish speaker in the companionship, but it taught me to really rely on the Spirit as I’m teaching. In all reality, the Spirit is the teacher, and not us. And everything actually went pretty well. That being said, it’s not something I wish to do again anytime soon haha.
Sunday–It was a really long and hard day, but Carolina (the new investigator) came to church! After that, we had a really great dinner at the bishop’s house, and everyone geeked out about Harry Potter the whole time. I love being a geeky Mormon haha.
I love all of you, and hope your week is fantastic! I have been studying in Ether 12 a lot this week, and I would encourage all of you to study it because it’s just so good! I especially love verse 9, which says, “Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.” I think there are actually 2 gifts. 1) God offered His Son to us, so that we could be saved, and 2) His Son, Jesus Christ, offered his Atonement to us, so that we can repent and have hope. We must develop enough faith that we have a desire to repent and partake of the magnificent gift of the Atonement. And how do we develop that faith? Through studying the scriptures and obeying the commandments! It really is that simple, and I think we sometimes make it more difficult or complicated than it needs to be, which is called looking beyond the mark. That is something I have to constantly tell myself–“Don’t look beyond the mark!” I read some really great conference talks about that, and I especially loved “Valiant in the Testimony of Jesus,” by Elder Quentin L. Cook. He says, “We cannot afford to have our testimonies of the Father and the Son become confused and complicated by stumbling blocks.” I know that as we continue to focus on the small, simple, daily parts for the gospel, we can avoid these stumbling blocks and our faith will grow stronger! Just keep remembering to do the little things, and God will bless you.
Love,
Emma
I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures this week because of how crazy it was, but I found a few from right before transfers!
1. What I look like all day P-day (so many emails to send!). This picture is the only one that’s actually from this week haha.
2. The Halls! We eat with them every Friday and I LOVE them!!!
3. Zone Conference. Luckily you won’t have to play I Spy for too long, because short people always have to go in the front. 😑
4. Me. Dead. Nothing new haha. If you ever wonder where Alyssa gets her drama from, just remember that I’m her sister. 😂
5. Friendsss. We miss Elder Tenney!
