Septiembre 26

Howdy, howdy, howdy.....

This past week has been peachy! SO much to report!

This past week I have felt the personal hand of the Lord teaching me and increasing my understanding. Maybe I'll just cut and paste something about that from the email I wrote President....

I've definitely felt the Lord's tutelage this week. He knows me and what I still hold back on and He has gently but firmly taught me what I need to focus on and improve and strive to understand more fully. The foremost of these things he has been teaching me is just what it means to serve with ALL of my heart, might, mind and strength as well as to practice patience and love whenever and wherever and with whomever. I've always striven to do this--naturally I'm not perfect so I didn't always succeed--and also at times I could control my actions and my smile but inside I was boiling. But now the Lord is teaching me to have it carry all the way inside, make sure my motivations are the best ones instead of just good ones, etc. I'm so grateful for the Lord's personalized teaching.
I realized last night as I bore testimony to two members that nothing is more exhausting than making sure you have the constant companionship--STRONG companionship and guidance--of the Spirit. To be on your already dry, cracked-skin knees and plead for the Spirit and then make sure your actions throughout the day do not detract from the faith of that prayer. But it's so worth it. That's when the miracles can flow. And, as Joseph Smith said, that's when the angels cannot be restrained from being our associates.

Sister T and I are doing great. I just love her. We're like night and day different but it's good. And we've had quite a few people comment on how we're super different but somehow it works really well.

Last week we had Zone Conference! It was so good. It was in Manhattan, KS so we had driven the night before and spent the night in good old Junction City. They're doing ZCs differently now--much more fast-paced and much more training-oriented than devotional-ish. And it's always awesome being around other missionaries, meeting new ones and catching up with old ones. Sis. T went around and secretly told everyone it was my birthday and had everyone sign a card and sing to me. She's a sweetheart.

As for B, he's good! He didn't come to church yesterday, though. He farms and when the wind doesn't blow you have to take advantage of it and spray. And the wind didn't blow yesterday. Grr. But we had our bishopric and EQ presidency reorganized yesterday. Gooood people. I'm excited to work with them. Did I mention I LOVE the ward members? They're awesome-possum.
M and T.... kind of fell off the radar. I don't know if she left him or what happened but we can't get a hold of them.
We're trying our best to build our teaching pool and to help our investigators progress as much as they can. R is still quitting smoking but still on for baptism.

Sidenote, this month's edition of the Ensign is INSPIRED. Oh. My. Heck. We want to give it to everyone we see but at the same time we don't because we only have one copy and we want to keep it!

We've had a hard time getting new investigators this week. We taught at least 5 new people, but the return appt has just been hard. They all say, "Oh yeah! Just come by whenever. I dunno my schedule...." But we got one last night! Yay. A.
We visited with a former Catholic nun last week.... that was cool. I love Catholics. I have absolutely no idea where the emphasis on Saints comes from... but this lady was truly striving to do her best to live as the Lord would.

To answer you, Mom, when Sis. T and I speak English to each other we understand each other for the most part, haha, but definitely not 100%. Sis. T fakes that she understands a lot haha. I know how it is though and I recognize it because I now know what it's like to learn and try to speak another language. But she does really well.

Well, thank you so much for your love and support. Thank you for remembering my birthday.

I hope everything is going wonderfully for all of you.
Work, weather, kids, fall, church, friends......