I can't believe it's already week 5 of the transfer. This transfer has gone by so fast. I realized this week as I was pondering a Christlike attribute to focus on next transfer that I only have two more Christlike attributes to choose on my mission. Someone in our ward told us that it goes by faster if you finish strong. It's like a weird dilemma. If you work hard because you love your mission and you love the Lord, your mission goes by faster, but if you don't work because you don't want your mission to go by fast then you don't love your mission and really it's hard either way. That means the only logical thing to do is work hard and have the Lord be pleased with you.
This week was pretty stacked as far as filling the spiritual cup. We had our temple trip. It was amazing. I learned I have to go to Utah after the mission. When I tried to ask further questions the Lord told me to not worry about it and get back to work. #OneStepEnoughForMe....
I've been learning a lot lately about taking the one step. I've received revelation several times this week about how I only need to set one goal at a time and work to achieve it until the Lord tells me a new goal. One step at a time. I realized that this is all it takes to be consecrated. You don't have to be some unrealistic ideal or anything you just have to be faithful in trying your best to do the things the Lord tells you to do when he tells you to do them. Sometimes he asks you to do really hard things. Bishop Flora was getting a little flustered in ward council about how nobody wants to commit to responsibilities, even if they are active members. He said that being uncomfortable is the point. Then he said "When things get hard how quickly do we rely on the Lord?" It struck me because the point he was trying to make is that we all think that the Lord want's us to only rely on him when our challenge is so big that it is about to swallow us. We think that we need to rely on the Lord only when something is so beyond our ability that we will fail if we don't call out.
Something that just came to me is the story of Peter walking on the water.
Matthew 14:30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him
We read this a lot like "so when your trials are so big you can call on the Lord and he will always save you."That's not false, and the story does communicate this, but if we read the whole thing it's a slightly different message I think.
Matthew 14: 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
The Lord tells Peter to be not afraid. At first Peter Literally walked on the water. He didn't think it was hard at first. The only reason that Peter started to be overwhelmed in the first place was because he was afraid because he stopped relying on the Lord. So how quickly do you rely on the Lord when something becomes difficult?
Here are a few promises from a Lord that does not sound like he wants us to wait until we are almost overwhelmed to ask him for help:
D&C112:10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.
D&C88:62 And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts, with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall call upon me while I am near—
63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Proverbs 8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Elder Tad R Callister came to our mission this week. He was so good! He talked about the atonement and the fall. It was so awesome. My mind was blown like a million times. I wish I could even attempt to say what he said. It would probably take longer time than I have to email though. Sad. Ask me about it when I get home.
Matthew 14: 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
The Lord tells Peter to be not afraid. At first Peter Literally walked on the water. He didn't think it was hard at first. The only reason that Peter started to be overwhelmed in the first place was because he was afraid because he stopped relying on the Lord. So how quickly do you rely on the Lord when something becomes difficult?
Here are a few promises from a Lord that does not sound like he wants us to wait until we are almost overwhelmed to ask him for help:
D&C112:10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.
D&C88:62 And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts, with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall call upon me while I am near—
63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Proverbs 8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Elder Tad R Callister came to our mission this week. He was so good! He talked about the atonement and the fall. It was so awesome. My mind was blown like a million times. I wish I could even attempt to say what he said. It would probably take longer time than I have to email though. Sad. Ask me about it when I get home.
We had two lessons with Amanda. One was a lesson and the other was a church tour / pass off lesson. The thing about Amanda is that she speaks only Cantonese and English. The Chinese sisters speak Cantonese, but the ward is only Mandarin. She was like "oh no I speak English better than Mandarin." So the sisters are teaching her and she is coming to church with us. Random. She's so hilarious and awesome though.
Also our church tour was kinda ghetto because they were fumigating the priesthood room to get the priesthood smell out so we couldn't look at the font, AND there was a blood drive going on so we couldn't look at the basketball court. She was excited to learn in her own language though.
We taught our investigator Rita this week. The lesson was going super weird and awkwardly until we were like "Rita do you believe you can come to know God better?" She was like "Well... I think so but I would have to be willing to commit to actually do something." We were like yeah that's true here are the things you need to do. She started out by committing to say prayers with questions in them, something she has never done before, and reading her bible more often. She is really prepared. She said "I don't know I haven't been asking for guidance in my prayers but maybe God heard me... or saw that I was thinking about being more religious and then the next thing I know two missionaries are calling me on my phone." She also explained to US why she thinks prayer, church attendance, and scripture study are probably important to her progress.
This week was basically really awesome. I love this ward and I love my mission. I had my first argument with Sister Gage. Except not really we didn't even argue we just got kinda saucy during planning for like 15 minutes because we were saying the same thing but in different ways and then got over it and were best friends again.
"We were having the spirit of contention." -Sister Gage
"Satan was there ok." -me
"Planning with Satan." -Sister Gage.
Ok side note that I'm a bit (a lot) salty about lately:
I hear probably every single week a comment/joke in relief society about how husbands are dopey and they leave their socks all over and what would they do without us probably just die and if you want to know how the church really feels about women just look at how the church would run without the relief society etc etc. I can only think of one single time in relief society when the women expressed their love and appreciation and admiration for their husbands and it was in response to a direct question about the topic. I just think that's such a shame considering how your husband is the only person besides your Heavenly Father that you are commanded to love with all your heart. Ironic considering that we are the gender that's supposed to be know for our ability to love and to nurture.
The Elders said "I wish you could come to Elders Quorum and see how hard we are on ourselves. Honestly every week it's like we could really be doing a little better guys."
Here's some quotes:
"I have the belt my dad beat me with! I wear it as a trophy!" -Elder Gunn
"What!?" -Sister Hunter
"My dad got beat with the belt then he beat me and my brother with the same belt and all four of us have worn it!" -Elder Gunn
"Now you have to beat your kids with it. Keep up the tradition." -Elder Gee
"I'm not fast with it like my dad is. He's fast. I'm not fast." -Elder Gunn
"Well I mean... neither are your kids when they're young...." -Me
"Dude Elder Pack is judging you so hardcore right now." -Sister Gage
"Yeah that happens a lot everyone thinks I'm weird." -me
"Miles didn't think you were weird!" -Elder Gunn
"Yeah this kid at our dinner was hitting on Sister Atchley really hard. He was really bold. He said he had two girlfriends." -Elder Williams
"Three now!" -Elder Gunn
"I didn't birth my mom though!" -Elder Gee
"It happened to her 6 times though!" -Sister Gage
"Well some people get married 6 times and I'm pretty sure they remember most of them." -Elder Gee
"I made protein shakes with whole milk and weight gainer protein and I still didn't gain weight." -Elder Keith
"He was slaying when he had long hair too. The problem is he started slaying the other dudes so we had to cut it." -Brother Affleck about son
"You're the most hick person I know" -Sister Gage
"I'm not that hick! I'm city folk! My parents sell insurance!" -Elder Gunn
"He's not even the hickest person in this mission." -me
"Who is it?" -Sister Gage
"Center" -me and Elder Gunn in unison
"Come on honey you're like Adolf Hitler for missionaries" -Brother Affleck
"You're a mean robot." -Sister Gage
"You blame everything on Robitussin" -Sister Gage
"Did you get a chance to read from the book of Mormon?" -Sister Gage
"yeah I read in the middle it's easy to understand! Earthquake everything!" -Amanda
"You can't love anybody! Don't love stranger! You only love mother father boyfriend and the cat and the dog!" -Amanda
"You have lost tons of weight! your face is slim and everything!" -Sister Clark
"Uhh probably just because my hair is pulled back." -me
"yeah right! Nice try!" -Sister Clark
"Did you ask President for job leads?" -Sister Seegmiller
"No I trust Heavenly Father to take care of me temporally what I need is boyfriend leads." -me
"Sister Gage put these life savers down Elder William's shirt." -Elder Famboroug
"Mamma Atchley is fixin to confiscate these right now and y'all can be reverent." -me
"Sister Atchley can I have those lifesavers?" -Elder Mann
"Yeah here you go. Redistribution of confiscated goods. I'm like Robin Hood. I steal from the annoying and give to the slightly less annoying." -me
"That's high praise coming from her." -Elder Mann
"Did you know Sister Atchley is a stud with the scriptures? She knows every scripture" -Elder Lemon
"Sorry Sister Clark I need to stop your progress. I wanted to pay my regards before my companion and I leave. Sister Atchley I wanted to ask if you had anything for me to study?" -Elder Chain
"Oh gosh I don't know what are you trying to accomplish?" -me
"Nothing I just wanted to know if you thought that I could benefit by studying anything in particular. You know a lot." -Elder Chain
"Now this is so interesting you're the second person that has come up and said that to her in the last 60 seconds!" -Sister Clark
"Just try to be really nice to him." -Elder Williams
"I usually get along with people that no one else gets along with." -me
"That's good." -Elder Williams
"Wait! She said she likes me though! ):" -Elder Gunn
"There isn't a song in the hymn book about weasels!"-Sister Gage
"So uh.. DVD player." -us
"Shoot..." -Elders
"When do you want it?" -us
"I feel like they can tell when it's you texting because you're very... short." -Sister Gage
"WHAT'S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!" -Me
"I like orange juice with my meals it's more festive." -Brother Astle
"And the acronym for the ward mission plan is .... PuhHuhGuhBuh." -Brother Storm
"Every time I see you I think of this vine where this guy is running through the store and he's like oh no they're gonna get me and the camera pans around and he's being chased by an army of midgets." -Elder Gunn
"Oh Sister Atchley! You wanna hear a joke!?" -Elder Gunn
"Um.. yes!" -me
"What's funnier than seeing someone kick a midget in the face?... ... ... ... nothing!" -Elder Gunn
Here's a reading assignment:
We'll Ascend Together
Sister Burton
Don't talk trash about your spouse in 3rd hour
Have a comp inventory with your eternal companion
Help each other out.
There was some sick fog
WE GOT THE GOLDEN PLUNGER FOR A PERFECTLY CLEAN APARTMENT AND MY COMPANION IS NOT EVEN A NEAT FREAK
Zone Leader Elder Rosenow
Yarr I be a pirate.
I don't know but this sign is super hilarious every time I see it.
Our candle light dinner with a tall glass of Robitussin.
The sky was pretty sick the other day.
No one should have to draw their own spirit animal.
Zombies and stuff.
I have the happiest companion
#Seriousness
#TheOpposite
#TheDopestWardshare
Elder Thompson went home and was replaced with Elder Lemon #SoRandom
"pretend like we don't like eachother." -me
Literally can't
Every day of this companionship
Whatever's going on here
I said we needed a selfie
This is what I actually meant.
Elder Will-I-Ams drew everyone's spirit animal. It was so awesome. He drew his own though and I don't think that's right
So there's this..................
Been working on my stache
This is my spirit animal. Multiple cats
There wasn't a single picture where we all looked good out of fifteen. How does this happen?
The STLs
"I have never taken a picture this weird before and I am an Elder!" -Elder Gunn
Zone Leader Elder Jones the piñata
She was trying to block my selfie
Missionaries in their natural habitat
This was like 5 minutes before he wrecked his ankle and had to go to the ER
Zone Leader Elder Jones looks just like that piñata
For your consideration.
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