Hey :).
This week was sort of rough. It was like a whirlwind. At the beginning of the week, we do weekly planning, and at the end we set personal goals, and companionship goals. Sister Hunt and I both felt the need to set the personal goal of being positive and not having negative thoughts. Well... I will tell you something right now... whenever you set a goal, whether it is charity, patience, humility.... you will be blessed with many many opportunities to develop and achieve that goal. fact.
We were slammed with a lot of negative things.
***** and ***** got anit-ed ...by **** husband ***, who has been out of the picture for awhile and suddenly wants to come back... but only if they can go to the same church.... and won't even consider the "mormons." whaaaa? haha. Anyway. We met with her on Thursday and talked over some of her concerns. She brought up some anti stuff that she had read on the internet.. like Joseph Smith killing a man in carthage jail.. that one made me chuckle. Seriously people will write or say anything to demoralize and demean Joseph Smith and this church. It is such an evidence to me that The Church Is True.
Mom, I was thinking about what you said about wanting to do more missionary work. We work A LOT with the less actives and recent converts in the ward. seriously, sometimes I think this wad is barely holding on because of the amount of less actives. But we visit, or try to visit as many as we can. Yesterday was amazing. Sacrament meeting was PACKED! It made me SO happy because last Sunday was EMPTY! Most of the time, people come to church less and less because they don't feel noticed or important or wanted or comfortable. And those feelings might come because they have sinned or because they took something the wrong way or because they have poor self esteem, or whatever, but the fact is, they feel that way, and they need to be rescued. I used to get frustrated with less actives who felt like nobody cared about them at church, but what it comes down to is, though there are people who need more nourishment than others, everyone needs to feel loved. Maslow's Hierarchy of needs states that the need to feel loved and safe and wanted must happen before any sort of progression. Now isn't that interesting. When we visit less actives, we get to know them, an we develop a friendship with them first. of course we always share a spiritual thought. But the more and more that we see them and the more and more they come to love us, then we can be more bold with them.
There is a lady named **** that we have been working with since I got here. It used to be that we couldnt even get into her home. She would be home but she wouldnt answer her door. Well, we finally got into her home and did some service for her, and all of the sudden she answers our texts and calls and lets us come in to talk. Then we do more service. and always tell her we love her. This past Saturday we went to lunch with her. We felt we needed to be bold with her about church attendance. She seriously has such a strong testimony, and we can't understand what is keeping her from church. So we just asked. We talked about the importance of the sacrament. One that that is SO key when inviting less actives to church... we said sister ****... the ward needs you. she was like... what? why? We explained that people needed her testimony and her love. That the ward was getting smaller. less people were coming. We need her strength.
guess who showed up the church the next day.... Sister *****. Sat in the front row. stayed for the classes. We visited her later that night and talked about what she thought. She said it felt good to take the sacrament. She felt that every talk and lesson was talking directly to her. I think that is because her spirit was STARVING. seriously. She hadn't come to church since Easter, and then months before then. We talked to her about the temple (she used to work in the temple) and she said she wants to be ready and worthy for when the Carmel temple is dedicated. I think this temple is going to be such an amazing missionary opportunity. It already is.
Well I love you all. Thank you for your letters and your support. I love being a missionary. I love to study every morning and feel my testimony deepen and grow. I know this church is true. I know that Sister Hunt and I are led by the spirit as we live worthy of it. I am happy and healthy and loving life. I miss you all but know that I would be bored to tears in provo, doing no good. :)
Peace out you weirdos. I freakin love you so much. thanks for your prayers. I can feel them!
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