Sunday, May 29, 2016

I sang for an apostle...on my birthday

So this week has seriously just flown by! It doesn't seem possible at all that I have already been here for two whole weeks: seen ten of my friends go out to their fields of service and welcomed thirty more into our zone and will be saying goodbye in just four more days to go serve in England. But for the short of it, that's what's happened.

Friday was great. Our teachers are definitely teaching us by the spirit. It has been so crazy how we'll go over something in class and then in our investigator visits, they'll ask a question and we're like "OH we just studied that! Here's a scripture to answer your question..." Friday we specifically talked about making the distinction that the "church" isn't true, but the "gospel" is. Basically, the people aren't what make it true, but the fact we have the whole restored gospel is. So we talked about not saying "our church" but saying "our gospel" when talking to investigators. We taught Sydney for the last time on Friday and saying good-bye was so hard! But we got a picture with her, so I'll send that :) She is seriously the best!

Saturday was pretty awesome as well! We studied literally all day. Our morning TRC investigator was out of town, so we got to observe other missionaries teaching their investigators. It was awesome because we were sitting next to our teacher, Sister Mitchell, and were able to role play how we would answer some of the questions that investigator had and asking faith-building questions. It really helped because then we went to teach our other investigator later and had the most spiritual lesson. Sister Horne and I really relied on the Spirit and I think we got our rhythm back. 

Sunday was Sunday! We had our leadership meetings in the morning and then went to a special "Sister's Conference" that was spectacular! We sang a new version of "As Sisters In Zion" that was written by Janice Kapp Perry. It is so great, I just have to share the lyrics with you!

“The Sisters of Zion”

The sisters of Zion are called to God’s labor,
We willingly serve Him with spirit and might.
We go to the nations with truth everlasting,
We teach of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank Thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us,
We trust in his words and our purpose is clear.
The angels of heaven are walking beside us,
We’ll share our glad message with all who will hear.

We go forth enlisted with Helaman’s army
In numbers much greater than ever before.
With power and spirit we’ll faithfully witness
The heavens have spoken and truth is restored!
I just loved that song! It really brought a great spirit having all the sisters at the MTC singing it! The rest of our conference was on faith and believing on His power. "We have been called to and sent to finish the race no matter how hard or difficult it gets in the end, we weren't just called to start and give up" We had our temple walk, taught relief society, sacrament meeting, choir, and devotional. Our devotional was from Brother Littlefield who works with the Missionary pre-service Department (so he helps assign all our calls) and he talked about our purpose some more. He talked about how to be the most effective we can. One thing he mentioned that really stuck out to me was that we always need to follow up because we're fighting for their eternal salvation, but Satan is too. And whoever wins is whoever puts forth the most effort. That really put things into perspective!
We got our new TRC investigators on Monday. Sister Horne and I are teaching Lisa and Emi. Lisa is from California and seemed really interested to learn! and Emi is the cutest thing ever! She is from Japan and is so eager to learn! She mentioned that she's been meeting with missionaries for awhile and believes in her mind that it is true, but has a hard time understanding the concept of believing in her heart. 
Tuesday was my birthday!! I started out dumpster diving because we were doing service again and we were in charge of the trash cans. Well then we went to throw them in the dumpster and the sign saying "no trash-only cardboard" was on the ground and who wants to look at the ground by a dumpster? that's just gross! So I had to jump up there and pull it out. Luckily there was a lot of cardboard in there so I didn't have to crawl all the way in...then we had to walk further down to another dumpster because the "trash only" one was full. All in all, it was an eventful morning! It was a weird day though because Lisa went to her son's graduation, so we didn't get to teach her and then with devotional, we didn't have an afternoon TRC visit with Emi either. So we didn't teach anyone on Tuesday. We did sing in the choir again and this time it was broadcast-ed to all the MTC's because Elder Renlund came and spoke to us! He spoke on the power of the Atonement and it was an amazing talk! Fun fact: He's the 100th apostle since the Restoration! After devotional, we had a testimony meeting as a district and then the branch presidency snuck in some treats since it was my birthday and then another elder in our district has his birthday on Sunday. Then I got called to the information desk. My amazing parents sent me flowers for my birthday! They are absolutely beautiful and smell amazing! It was really funny because when I picked them up, the man who gave them to me even commented on how nice they smell. SO you know they smell nice!
Wednesday was busy! We taught Lisa and Emi again and had such amazing experiences with them. We've definitely been humbled in our efforts to plan and prepare and things have been going so much better since we have! We had some of our most spiritual lessons yesterday and they were amazing! Then we got to welcome two new districts into our zone! Sister Horne and I, along with Elders Osborn and Deadman, gave them the rundown on MTC rules and then gave them a tour of the MTC. We had 13 sisters join us and 8 elders. Isn't that amazing! 
So today is P-Day which means I'm pretty much doing the same thing I did last week: laundry, emails, and a temple visit! Then we teach Emi again. We are so excited! oh also, we think something is wrong with our picture uploading capabilities because none of us can get anything to attach. We're going to try another computer lab later, so hopefully pictures will come!
I love you all and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!! I fly out on Monday Evening and will be in England by Tuesday night (it's a long flight). and am so excited to find those the Lord has prepared and is trusting me to find. 
Until next time,
Sister Hope

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