Hello All!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes last week. Loved them. This has been a pretty busy week. Weve done a lot of tracting and service hours. There was a lot of drama this week and tornadoes have been going all around Kentucky but not our area so we are safe.
Justin and Becca are officially married! but are wanting to be baptized together so they set the date back till the 27th of March. Kind of happy and sad at the same time with that. Means I may miss them going through the temple by a few weeks if I go home when I am supposed to go home..... But I am so excited for them to start this journey FINALLY.
Also some really cool news. WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!! I am soooo excited. A less active lady that we just love has started coming back to church. We got permission from pres to take her to the temple this Saturday because her first time through she got super overwhelmed and scared and no one would help her understand things so she said she would never go back and went inactive. But she is super excited to go again with us and has even went and found a family name to bring and ordered new temple clothes and everything. She calls us almost everyday and is just sooo excited to go back because we told her we can do it with her and answer some of her questions. It is so exciting to see her so happy and coming back to church.
Also had a really great district meeting this week. Our new district leader has really stepped up to the plate and we had a great discussion this week on faith and conversion. One of the elders made a comment about how faith begins on how we talk to ourselves. And it was really cool how he explained it. Basically our success and how strong our faith is depends on where our thoughts and attitudes are. If we tell ourselves that we cant do things, that its too hard, that trials are never going to end, that we will never find someone to teach, that our investigators will never get baptized, that we are not good enough and that we never will be, We are right. Because we are letting doubts and fears replace our faith. Discouragement weakens faith. So no more negative self talk. Be happy and look for tender mercies and more importantly expect them. Because if we believe we will get them, they will come. When we change our thinking it invites us to act in faith, and when we act in faith it invites the spirit to be a driving force in our lives. Isnt that cool?!
Another little tidbit I have pondered this week as I have studied is the importance of personal conversion. Conversion is our goal. We want to baptize people who are converted to this gospel, and in the process become more deeply converted ourselves. But we were asked the question "Well why does God send us to teach the gospel, instead of having heavenly messengers and visitations?" Our message is the greatest message since angels have announced the birth of Christ, and it is being taught by 18-20 something year olds with little to no experience. Well one of the insights I gained this week is that it is because conversion is a personal journey. Laman and Lemuel saw heavenly messengers and Gods power just as much as did Nephi and Sam. But those things really had nothing to do with true conversion or gaining a testimony. Nephi gained a testimony and conversion because he sought Christ individually and personally. And that is why we are here as a missionary. Our job is to help people seek Christ. Individually and personally. To help them KNOW him. And if they truly know him it naturally pushes them to want to change and follow him. Conversion is a process that should be happening every single day of our lives. And all we have to do is live our lives in a way that the Holy Ghost is invited into our lives daily. We do this by keeping the commandments. We pray, we read, we go to church, we repent, and we endure. We keep the faith.
Just some good spiritual goodies to chew on this week. Keep the faith, Seek him, and NO negative talk!
I love you all!
Adding a little bit of her personal family letter.
This week has been pretty interesting. Tuesday was the last day for miles so we were told we had to use all of them. So we drove out to this giant amish bakery/store and got a doughnut. They were heavenly. They have all sorts of stuff and lots of amish food. There are little stores like that all over here I just love it.
I almost chewed a member out Wednesday. I am grateful for patience and the restraining power of the spirit because I was about ready to call out some people on their crap and throw down. But I didnt. We had this big meeting where we were going through the less active list and compiling information so we see who in the ward knows them, if they have any info on them etc. Well there were over 400 names we were trying to go through so Sister * was trying to keep us moving because everyone here just wants to sit and talk about the same person forever sharing stories and all that. Well Sister *. The girl who was going to marry that guy she met online thats like 20 years younger than her, but didnt, and has been a little nasty ever since. She got all angry and huffy that Sister * was taking charge and trying to help and so she stormed out and started to trash talk sister * super loud so everyone could hear. It took everything in me not to go out and call her out and tell her she was being ridiculous. But I stayed in my seat. Ridiculous. She has gotten really weird and not very nice lately. She got released from being Relief Society president and stuff so idk if it has something to do with that or what.
We have had some crazy tornadoes going through upper Kentucky. We were fine just some heavy rains but Paoli got hit bad. They were without power and things got destroyed. But they are all safe.
I felt so awful for the girl we are teaching Shauna. She kind of broke down a little and asked why God took her baby and why she cant have any more while the bad people get them and get good things. She said she was angry at God and that everything was so unfair. Made my heart ache for her. She is going to be a really slow investigator and we have to figure out how to help her gain a relationship with God again. I got to bear cool testimony of the atonement and how everything will be made right and how she will still be able to raise her baby. But yeah its hard. Tiffany also broke down this week and sobbed and said she couldnt do it anymore. She is the single mom with 3 little kids and the one boy is an absolute terror. Shes trying to do it all on her own and I know its crazy hard for her. We spent a few hours cleaning her house and made lunch for the boys since she was having such a hard time. She is much better now though.
Also, I almost got kidnapped this week. Well kind of. Sister Hafen thought we were getting kidnapped. But she is paranoid and gets freaked out alot. She wouldnt even be able to handle a camping trip Im telling you. But yeahhhhh anyway. So we got a referral from some elders for this guy who lives way out in the sticks in the far corner of our area. So he sets up a time to meet when its getting dark. Its this run down old trailer house in the boonies. So we pull up and there are 2 big men outside. We ask if one of them is Larry and they say no and "Wait one minute" Go inside and then one of the guy tells us to come in. So we walk in and there are hospital beds in the living room and the one guy starts heading down the hallway and we are told to follow him down this small narrow hallway and around the corner into a back room. Then the other guy behind us basically starts pushing us in that direction. So sister Hafen started freaking out and thought we were going to get kidnapped. But I was strangely calm and knew that I would have gotten a lot bigger warning from the Holy Ghost if this was going to be bad. So I was uneasy but not afraid. Turned out just fine. The guy was a Pentecostal bible bashing jerk. So we talked a little bit and then got the heck out of there. The trailer was really gross too. I watched mice run across the floor the whole time. Never going back and Im going to kill the elders who told us to go there.
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