"Sorry my e-mail was so short last time, but I have so many wonderful people e-mailing me individually that I spent most of my time last week trying to respond. Thank you so so much for doing so! Hearing news from home is like eating my favorite dessert and not feeling guilty about it! Haha, that was cheezy! I feel like missionaries are the biggest cheese balls in the world. But everyone loves us inspite of it all so it's pretty great!
So, this week has been wonderful and hard. The work here is difficult because this area, Parker, is pretty wealthy! There's not too many humble people here to teach. BUT, we were talking with a man the other day (the one I placed my first BOM with: he's not interested right now, but will be someday I'm sure of it!) and he said that although the people here may not need any service done as far as physical service goes, but all of them have internal struggles that they're really good at hiding. Whether it's health issues, family issues, divorces, financial issues, etc. I thought that was so interesting and that's the kind of service we as missionaries want to perform! To serve people's spiritual needs! So, we're still working hard to find people. A lot of our work here is with members and less-actives, which is also really cool. We're working with a lot of less-active families right now and it's such a blessing to serve and love them!
So our investigator, Megan, isn't progressing as we would hope. But last week we felt impressed to invite her to be baptized in November and she said she'd talk with her husband about it and let us know. We're doing some service with her this week and teaching her a lesson so we're hoping and praying that we will be able to express our love for her and the reasons why we're trying to committ her to baptism. She's been taught by missionaries on and off for the last 3 years and we're hoping to encourage her to be better at keeping her committments and finding out for herself if the BOM is true! Our lessons are difficult with her because her kids are crazy and loud and she has a really hard time paying attention or feeling the spirit. But, we've talked with some members who know here and we're coming up with a wonderful plan on how to better help her and teach her and get some members involved.
Also, this week our Sister Training Leaders have given us a 7-day walk with Christ challenge and I'm so excited to do it! After hearing President Monson talk about how we need to walk AS Christ walks, I feel that this week will be a huge testimony builder. I love Jesus Christ and I'm thrilled to try even harder every day to become more like Him. This area is difficult, but I know that as I work harder and strive to be more like Christ, we'll be blessed with more people to teach. And there have already been so many miracles! I've been trying to look for them each day and write them down in my journal at night. Yesterday was the first day everything went exactly as we planned!! It was so amazing I almost cried! That never happens in the mission field. And we were able to meet with 4 less-active families yesterday! Two of whom we've been trying to contact for a month now. One of them we watched a session of Conference with and ate lunch with them. The wife was so touched by President Eyring's talk and cried throughout it. It was so powerful! I absolutely love the people here, especially our amazing ward and the members. Our dinner calendars for this month and last month are almost completely full!!! That's a huge blessing (although I'm so sick of desserts!! Blah!)
So, my thought today for everyone is a compilation of what we heard in Conference. Please, if you have any doubts, look to sources that are trustworthy and honest. This church is a perfect church made up of imperfect people and we make mistakes all the time! But remember what is essential to your eternal salvation and exaltation and what is not. Remember that we are all beggars who need each other and Christ in our lives! Remember to stay in the raft and listen to and obey the rules! Remember to be bold and not worry about people getting offended. It is our duty to preach the gospel at all times and in all things and in all places and it is the most wonderful, fun duty we could ever perform! As my mission president so wisely said, "Don't let ANYONE suck the fun out of missionary work!"
God bless all of you and thank you for your prayers and love and support! I couldn't do any of this w/o you!"
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