We were able to teach Stewart and his wife/ex wife (Valerie) the plan of salvation this week! Since we are completely out of miles, we couldn't make it to Randolph where he lives so we called him up and offered to give him the lesson over the phone. He doesn't have his license so he relies on Valerie to drive him around but she wasn't supposed to be home that day to drive him anywhere. When we called him and told him about having the lesson over the phone, he said that Valerie's plans fell through so she would be able to drive him to the church building which is just a few minutes away from us. MIRACLE.
That just shows how devoted he is to learning about the gospel. He easily could have accepted the lesson simply over the phone but he grabbed Valerie and drove the 30 minutes to the church building just to hear our lesson. A few days earlier at church we gave him a triple combination so that he could read the Doctrine & Covenants. When we met with him for our lesson he had all sorts of bookmarks in there and he was so excited to tell us what he's learned. And you should've seen him when he talked about the Articles of Faith! It was like he found some sort of hidden treasure or something..he just couldn't believe it. But he's still on for his baptismal date of November 28th and he's still saying sober.
Sister daughtey and I were asked to speak at young women's about missionary work which was quite intimidating but it turned out to be a lot of fun :) we started off telling them about what we do and how we decided to serve a mission. I also told them about my first couple of weeks and months and how incredibly difficult they were emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally.
In my set-apart blessing, it talks about the power that prayer has on the difficult days of my mission. "Those days that are difficult for you, and those days that you miss those you love, you will kneel in prayer. The Lord blesses you that you will be able to know and feel the prayers from those you love so very much. In those moments you will arise and go about the work with increased light and understanding that prayers really do make all the difference. You will then be able to teach others about the power of prayer."
I shared that with them after telling them the experience I had in Maine when I was having SUCH a hard time. I remember just thinking about people at home and how much more difficult a mission is than I had thought. Then a thought came to my mind to read my set-apart blessing and that's the section of the blessing my eyes went to first. I immediately got down on my knees and prayed. I prayed so hard to have the strength and focus to continue this mission the best that I can and I instantly was comforted. I felt so strongly all those prayers that are being said in my behalf at home.
I remember my mind erasing all those thoughts about home and the people at home I was having and they were replaced with the love of the people here in New England and for the missionary work I have to look forward to. Priesthood blessings are such an incredible gift to us and I'm so thankful for all the blessings I've received because they ALL make such a difference. After I cried through that story, they started asking us questions about funny stories, awkward stories, etc. that we've encountered since being out here which was super fun :)
I've been putting Christmas lights up at the JSM!!!! It's going to look SO GOOD when it's all done. Hopefully I stay here another transfer so I can see the annual light presentation the day after thanksgiving. They have a live nativity and everything...I don't remember if I mentioned that in a past email so I'm sorry if I have. I'm so excited for it!
We were able to go to a relief society activity this past week too which was great. I love the women in this ward! The theme was South Royalton Airlines so we all had our boarding passes (they passed them out at church the Sunday prior) and we sat in the set-up of an airplane. There were supposed to be 3 stewardesses but one decided not to show up....guess who had to take her place? ME *screams* so I had to go around and be a part of the presentation or whatever it was. Maybe I found my true calling in life, who knows!
The whole theme was about visiting teaching and the importance of it...so I hope all y'all have been keeping up with that! Great blessings come from faithful diligence. Just saying'. We serve at the Red Door Church in our area every week which is pretty interesting..they really love us for some reason although they've tried inviting us to anti-mormon programs and stuff. We talked to President Stoker about it but he said as long as they love us and accept our service, it's okay for us to be there because we are positively representing our religion. We help them make dinner and serve it to the people that come to their Community Dinner every Friday night. It's different, but it's a cool experience.
My whole family is on a cruise this week. Ha. Hahaha. Haha. *tries not to think about it*
"DEEP CLEAN HALLOWEEN! DEEP CLEAN HALLOWEEN! DEEP CLEAN HALLOWEEN!" Sister daughtey and sister watson chant as they spend their entire Halloween trapped in their apartment cleaning. We aren't allowed out past 5:00 on Halloween night so they have all the missionaries deep clean their entire apartments all day. hope everyone had fun though! I miss haunted houses and scary movies and trick or treating...#mishprobs
I hit my four month mark yesterday! It's crazy to think that 4 months ago I was in the MTC being whiplashed by the spirit and now here I am in my second area with my second companion having the time of my life. I'm so lucky and I'm so blessed and I'm so happy and I'm so excited for what the next year will bring!
Another personal spiritual experience happened yesterday too. I bore my testimony on my knowledge of Heavenly Father knowing each and every one of us personally and individually. The night before, I was having a rough night and the negatives of everything were weighing out more than the positives. I decided to pick up a paperback Book of Mormon that was laying around in our apartment and I tried to do the "flip to a random page/verse and have a life changing experience" kind of thing. I prayed so hard that I'd flip to a page that would make me feel better.
The verse I turned to was 3 Nephi 12:12 which says, "For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven.." It doesn't sound very profound, but it hit me so hard in that moment. I needed to BE HAPPY. I needed to be exceedingly glad and I needed to find that great joy that is in missionary work. Then, the next day I'm sitting in fast/testimony meeting and every...single....testimony was focused on missionary work and the joys of it and the blessings from it. All of them. So as I sat there crying in my seat, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of love coming directly from God. He knew I was struggling and He knew what I needed to hear.
So I got up to the front and faced my fear of crying and speaking at the same time. It was tragic but after sacrament meeting I had all the moms in the ward coming up to me comforting me giving me "mom hugs" because they said I pulled out their motherly instincts as they sat watching me cry up there. So mom, I'm being taken care of...don't worry ;) it was so sweet...I had two senior missionaries that were old women come up to me crying because they were so thankful for my testimony and how they know what I'm going through etc. I felt so much love from every single person that day. I LOVE THIS WARD.
Anyway, I hope that everyone had a faaaantastic week!
Rainstorms!
I was designated the Photographer for brother sypher at a dinner party for his son. Soooo this is what happened when he gave me his phone to use :)
Our Halloween costumes #deepcleanhalloween #fierce
Went on splits again this week but this time it was with sister Farr. She goes back home to centerville this week! I'm gonna miss her and sister edwards SO MUCH.
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