Monday, March 17, 2014

Long, but Good Week!

Hello Y'all! :)

This week has been full of miracles and a bunch of other things, with a lot of emotion, but it's all good!

Last Monday I don't know if I told y'all but we played Sand Volleyball as a district and Ultimate Frisbee! Gah! It was so fun! But I got sunburned! :( first sunburn of 2014. Has to happen sometime!

Started off the week with District Meeting on Tuesday (because of all the ice storms we had both DM and ZM this week!). I gave a training on "Teaching People, Not Lessons" focused on listening. I think it went well. I hope everyone else got things out of it. I know I did! I started by asking the question, what is the difference between Listening and Hearing? And ended with are we Hearing our investigators/companion/leaders/the spirit, or are we Listening to them? Think about it! It's a good concept!

It was Elder Peterson's (DL) last District Meeting, so he picked "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" to sing for the closing song. It was sad, but very spiritual.

Then I went on exchanges with the High Point Sister Training Leaders! They're great! Although one of them is getting transferred :( Anyway! I went to High Point with Sister Nelson. She's an amazing missionary! I really need to learn to talk with everyone better. There are so many people who don't have the gospel and they don't know what they're missing. And (you'll hear more about this) we succeed when we extend the invitation to them.

Wednesday was full of Miracles and Tender Mercies from The Lord. After I got back to Kernersville we had a meeting at the library with the Elders to talk about the Less-Active list. Especially those we know nothing about, so we split them up and went on our way. We each have over 50 names each. Crazy! But we're going to see miracles in Kernersville and see them come back to the fold.

After the meeting Sister Reading and I started walking home for dinner. It had been raining pretty much all day, but just lightly. As we started walking, out of no where, it started pouring. Like a Guam rainstorm, because about 10-15 mins later, it stopped! But anyway we were out walking in this storm, winds blowing crazily! So we start calling member to ask for rides home (we had to walk about another mile or 2). But no one answered! But then Brother and Sister Polous came and honked their horn and gave us a ride home! Thank goodness! We were soaked, but so grateful!
 
After dinner it was Sunny, but Windy!! But we needed to be out, so we biked to an area and started working, not finding much success and afraid we'd be stranded in the dark and wind, we started back home. The wind was so strong the stop lights were at a 45 degree angle! Or bigger! I wish I had thought of taking a picture then, but it might not have been safe. So we made it home safe with 30 mins left of the day.

Well here's the greatest miracle! While Sister Reading was in the bathroom I was thinking about our upstairs neighbor who has let us use her wi-fi. She loves the missionaries! So we decided to go and see her. Perfect timing! Dr. Mellow is so wonderful! She loves God and is looking for people who do too. We showed her "Mountains to Climb" from lds.org! It was perfect! She's been going through a hard time lately. (So she's not actually a Doctor yet, but she's working on her dissertation and will be done by the end of the year!). But it was so wonderful and she wants us to come back and see her again! And she said she'd come to church with us. (This Sunday was Stake Conference, so next Sunday she'll come!)

Friday we had Zone Meeting (after rescheduling it 3 times, we REALLY needed to have it, because somebody *cough*Satan*cough* didn't want us to have it). And it was so amazing! My District sang "Come, Come Ye Saints" and it sounded so amazing!

Because every theme for the church now is "Hastening the Work" the missionaries get to go the Saturday night session of Stake Conference, Wohoo! It is seriously the best session ever! And the youth get to go too! It's so great! I wish I could just send all my notes and thoughts to all y'all, but unfortunately I can't. So highlights! :) - Sustaining the Prophet means following him, following him means doing our part in Hastening The Work of The Lord. - Sharing the Gospel strengthens our own testimonies. - We can only invite people to change, we can't force them too. That is way we succeed when we invite. They, just like us, have their agency to do whatever they please.

For the Sunday session we had 30 mins of President Baughan speaking and then a broadcast with members of the 70 and Elder L. Tom Perry. That was amazing too. Something I found funny: Elder Paul V. Johnson (Johnston maybe?) said that the 2013 word of the year was "selfie". Really sad when you think about it. He talked about how the world today is focused on themselves. To spiritually grow we need to focus on others and serve. Why is the Temple such a revelatory place? Because you are giving service while inside.

Now the transfer news... Well because of Stake Conferences President Craven was finished getting everything together by Saturday nigh, so we didn't hear until Sunday morning. Well during companion study, Elder Peterson calls us on a 4 way call sigh the rest of the District. He talks to us for about 10 mins asking for guesses and what-not. Finally he says, "actually I'll just tell you when everyone gets to church today" Stake Conference starting in 40 mins from then. Well Sister Reading and I were not happy, but we dealed. So we went to church and 5 mins before conference started, he gathered us together and showed us his notes. They looked something like this:
- Elder Peterson - I'm going home!!!!

- Elder Lubke

- Elder Ibarra
- Elder Hughes
- Sister Wood

- Sister Rendon
- Sister Loosle
- Sister Reading


If you can't see the emoji's, it's a gun on Elders Lubke and Hughes and Sisters Wood and Reading. Well for background information- Elder Lubke is Elder Peterson's companion, Elder Hughes has only been out for 6 weeks, Elder Ibarra is his trainer, Sister Wood came to the area when I did, Sister Rendon's been here for 6 months, and Sister Reading's been here for 4 1/2 months. So the guns made no sense to any of us. So we couldn't figure it out.

So then he FINALLY tell us he's the only one leaving from the district! Which is good for the rest of us! So there you go! Sister Reading and I will be in Kernersville for another transfer together.

If you've actually been reading this whole thing, congrats and I thank you for being so diligent in reading my letters! But I still have more!

While studying Virtue, I've come to realize more that all of the Christlike Attributes are connected. Especially with virtue, because it all starts with our thoughts. As we work on one attribute we usually are strengthening another. It makes me think of what one of my choir teachers once said. That as you work on expanding your singing range, singing higher for me, it strengthens your lower range too and you can usually sing lower as you learn how to sing higher. Interesting concept.

Well that is all folks!

I love you all! So much!

Love,

Sister Loosle

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