6/5/17

So we just got our of the craziest zone conference of my mission. Elder Cordon was here. He's hilarious! He's probably the funniest general authority to visit this mission. He also as a cute accent. You probably know from general conference. 

He talked a lot about the natural man vs. the spiritual man. He talked about how natural man vs. spiritual man is the struggle of the soul, and you get to decide which one wins. He referred to how Moses was called as a prophet. He talked about how Moses is just one man and he has to go up against Egypt. Egypt was the main world power at the time. He compared it to if someone from South America being called to go up against the country of America. He talked about how Moses must have felt completely inadequate. Then he was like "ok now imagine you are God's human resources manager and you are in charge of hiring Moses. How do you do it?"

He shared Moses1:6 And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth; but there is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all.

7 And now, behold, this one thing I show unto thee, Moses, my son, for thou art in the world, and now I show it unto thee.

8 And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered. 

After God showed Moses literally everything he had ever created Egypt didn't seem as big anymore. So my main take away is that when we have an understanding of how powerful our Heavenly Father is we won't be afraid to do the tasks he puts us to. 

On another note: 

I got my trunky packet today. I have my plane tickets. I still don't understand what it means to come home. I will think "wow this is the last time I'll ______ on my mission" but then it doesn't make sense to me at all. I just feel like I'm going to be out forever. So it's probably going to hit me on the airplane. I can't imagine being alone for like 5 hours or however long it takes. I was picturing going through security and I got scared. 

I was super sick this week. Not really I just had a cold. I still have a cough. So my companions called the Elders to come over and give me a blessing and I kid you not I got rebuked. So I've had about 5 colds on my mission. I've always just gone out and worked with my cold because I want to be #diligent. I was getting the blessing and Elder asian Gunn goes "You should take it easy and not push yourself as hard as you previously have done." Sister Loveridge literally snorted because they had been struggling to keep me in the apartment. So God told me to take it easy which was the hardest thing ever. I spent a lot of time napping and writing in my journal for a few days. We also baked cookies and delivered them to our less actives. We also made about 500 jokes about working out, doing My Plan and maybe visiting some people if we want. It was funny. The sad thing is when you act like Laman on your mission everyone just roasts on you for the rest of eternity. 

So that was my week. My companions informed me that I have 22 days left on my mission. They started a countdown on the board because none of us feel like it's real life so we can make jokes about it still. So that's where I'm at right now. 

Quotes: 

"I'm allergic to bananas!" -Elder Beus

"What no you aren't." -Elder Hampton

"Have you ever seen me eat a banana?!" -Elder Beus

".... no actually I guess I haven't." -Elder Hampton

"Sister Atchley wanna play cards with us?" -Elder Williams

"No" -me 

"ok I'm dealing you and hand." -Elder asian Gunn

"Dang it guys! cards are my second least favorite kind of fun." -me 

"Every person I've ever met named Jennifer is CRAZY!" -Sister Loveridge all the time

"Y'all are lucky that's the first time since I've been a member of the church that someone has convinced me to play cards with them." -me 

"Dang." -Elder Williams

"It wasn't that hard." -Elder asian Gunn

"We're good because we play for an hour and a half every night... Maybe that's not something to be proud of." -Elder asian Gunn

"Honestly tic tac toe is the WORST" -me 

"I know. There are like 3 possible outcomes so once you've played 3 games you've had the full experience. oh look! ANOTHER CAT!" -Elder VanOrden

"We have something special." -Elder Center

"I'm cheating on him." -Elder Ball

"Before I started my weekly email I told myself I wasn't going to be sarcastic. I was anyway!" -Sister Bullard 

"What is this?" -Elder Nattress

"my collar bone." -Elder Cheever

"What's wrong with it?" -Elder Nattress

"I'm skinny." -Elder Cheever

"Help! My great grandpa doesn't exist" -Elder Beus

"I don't know what we can do to be a better zone." -Elder Blue

"We need to talk about sickles more." -me 

"I'LL SICKLE YOUR SICKLE!!" -Elder Howard

"That sounds inappropriate!" -me 

"Which one of you is sick?" -Brother Mauss

"Sister Atchley" -Sister Mitchell

"Well I didn't want to say anything but you look really sick." -Brother Mauss

"They asked me my gender at the blood drive!! Can you believe that!? What's next? They are going to be required to ask what kind of mammal I am??" -A lady

"Sister Loveridge I have a question." -Sister Mitchell

"What?" -Sister Loveridge

"How would you impersonate a shrimp?" -Sister Mitchell

"In my church we get tattoos because when you prick your body your skin is aware." -Sister Loveridge 

(We were playing great apostasy. I'll explain later)

"I love your wheeze." -Sister Mitchell

"I don't like my hair crunchy." -Elder Cheever 

"I do." -Elder Blue

"He's more of a crunchy guy and we're more smooth guys." -Elder Nattress 

"So are your whole family punks?"-me 

"Sister Atchley! Are you implying that I'm a punk?" -Elder Howard

"I found some rubbish!!!" -Elder Howard

"Why did you leave England" -Sister Mitchell

"Well it's miserable there isn't it? It's cloudy every day and rains a lot. The sun never comes out. It's miserable. You don't even get enough vitamin D." -Elder Howard

"I like listening to you complain." -me 

"So why did you live in New Zealand?" -Sister Mitchell

"Well that's the way moving to America works. We applied in 2002 and got accepted in 2012." -Elder Howard

"Why didn't you just illegally immigrate like everyone else?" -me 

"Don't we believe in obeying honoring and sustaining the law?" -Elder Howard

"My brother just got home from his mission 6 months ago." -Elder Howard

"Is he married?" -me 

"No! Why? Do you want to get married to him?" -Elder Howard

"No I'm just trying to get a realistic idea of how long it takes." -me 

"What do you know about Kelly!?" -Sister Loveridge
"She's a screaming liberal." -Brother Gordon

"Sister Atchley! You have no chill!" -Sister Mitchell

"Does the J in your name stand for Jennifer because you're being crazy right now." -me
"Yes!!! My name is JENNIFERNESSA!!" -Sister Loveridge

Here's a reading assignment:

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland_cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence/

“Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence”

JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

Love Y'all. 

See y'all in 22 days!