Hello hello!
This week went by far too quickly. Someone said that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days, but I would like to adjust that slightly. The weeks do feel like days, but mostly the days feel like a few minutes. Wake up, go teach, and then it's time for bed again. It's crazy!
Monday we had the best zone conference EVER. I sent the picture they took of all of us. Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the seventy came with his wife and they taught us all day. We met with sister Jensen at 7:30 in the morning and had a great discussion about the importance of not being a perfectionist. I learned that being a worthy servant of the Lord is not synonymous with being perfect. As long as we are constantly striving to improve and continuing in diligence (endurance!) then we are doing what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Elder Jensen gave us a whole bunch of really amazing advice. Mostly he talked about Faith and the different levels of faith that we go through. The first level is just having a particle of faith (Alma 32: 27). This type of faith is where desire begins. Then, the next level is much faith (Mosiah 27:14). This is where our desires turn to priorities. (You can apply this to anything really. If you have a desire to do missionary work, then you can exercise your particle of faith. That desire then becomes something that you continuously look for *priority!*) Then, your faith becomes exceeding faith (Mosiah 4:3). Exceeding faith is when you make the choice to do missionary work. Then, you can move to exceedingly great faith (Moroni 10: 11) This type of faith is when your choice becomes an action and you successfully fulfill what began as a desire to do missionary work. That gift of exceedingly great faith from God then becomes an unshakeable faith (2 Nephi 31: 19 or Jacob 4:6) This is when our faith becomes solidified and becomes knowledge (D&C 93:1) Then we can start the process all over again with a difference principle.
I don't know if that really makes sense, but it does in Sister Johnson's brain. I also learned from Elder Jensen that even though we may have great faith, it doesn't mean we can override an individual's agency. Agency is a great gift, but it feels an awful lot like a curse on the mission. I really am thankful we do have the ability to choose though.
Tuesday was booked with appointments, but then half of them cancelled. We still had some really good lessons with a lady named Jean. She is Methodist and she is friends with a member who lives in the Bahamas. (crazy, right? The church is everywhere!) Then, we had a lesson with Matthew. Matthew is in a predicament of sorts currently. We followed up with his baptismal date and he said he is more than willing to work towards the date (he has incredible faith), but he will need some more time. He said he just feels confused about everything so we moved his date back a few more weeks. His family did not take the news as well as he thought they would and he's really struggling. He's truely amazing though. He told us he wants to pay tithing on the money he earns from playing in the band. He also asked us if he was stealing if he took part of a stoplight that had fallen down in the hurricane. He had been keeping it in the back of his trunk. We told him he should be fine. He said it just looked cool so he took it. I thought it was kind of funny.
Wednesday we did preparation day. We found the greatest grocery store ever! It's called Aldi's and it's generic foods, etc for super cheap. I bought all the essentials for about half of what wallyworld costs. The only problem was that they don't accept credit cards. Thank heavens for ATM machines! We met with Brittany that evening and she is also really struggling. She said she doesn't feel peace hardly at all in her life and that she feels like she is being constantly bombarded by Satan when she even tries to pray. We read part of Joseph Smith story about how he was almost overtaken by Satan and how she can relate that story to her life. Then, we talked about the importance of praying out loud and of praying in their family. They said they would make a greater effort to pray everynight as a family. We also talked about the importance of reading daily from the BOM. It really does work miracles. Kia and Chevaughn are living proof of that. Our family is proof of that. It's like superglue!
Thursday was crazy busy again. We met with Nicole and Johanna and finished up the first lesson. Nicole is very receptive to the spirit. She said that the Joseph Smith story really touched her heart. She is really a fantastic lady. Then we met with Tabitha and finished up the Plan of Salvation. We also ate lunch with Tabitha. Tabitha is Italian apparently. So, we had a real "Italian Feast" She made this ravioli with pumpkin and cheese in it. It was SO good. We had margarita pizza and pasta with pesto. I think I got my fill of carbs for the day there. It was divine! Tabitha understands the Plan really well so we are super excited! She also said she would come to the Pig Pickin' on Saturday.
Saturday was the day of the Pig Pickin' and Tabitha did come! She was late, but she brought her whole family...including her husband who doesn't want anything to do with any kind of religion. It was awesome. The pork barbeque was good. Southern folks really like their sweets. More than half the table was dessert items. The pork was good though. We were able to contact a zillion referrals that day too!
Sunday Tabitha was supposed to come to church, but her little boy was sick all night so she didn't get to bed until 6 AM. Max came to church unexpectedly thanks to bold Sis. McCoy. Then, we had choir practice afterwards until about 6. All in all, we were at the church for about 10 hours yesterday. Both wards had their primary programs which were really good and the branch's whole meeting was on eternal marriage. I have a testimony of singles wards fulfilling their purpose. Our branch has shrunk almost 1/3 thanks to people getting hitched right and left. Hooray eternal families!
Well, I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week. As always, thank you for you continuing support. The church is true!
Love, Sister J
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