Another week has come and flown by! So my first week of training dragged (drug?) on.. I thought it was so incredibly slow. good. but long. but this past week has gone real quick. I swear I was just here at the library emailing y'all! and again I did not make a good list of what I want to share.. so this might be another scatter brained day..
But to begin - the pep talk from Sister Boyle! "When the work is slow and you feel frustrated, just remember that our main goal in this short earth life is to get back to Heavenly Father. But the more celestial goal is to help bring our families, friends, and other home with us too. Keep the faith, work hard, and never lose sight of our earthly goal. It helps to keep everything in perspective. There is no greater work we could be doing! Pearly gates or bust!" Thank you Sister Boyle!
Isn't that the truth though? We truly are in a life saving business! and, as what was re brought to my knowledge this past week in a letter from Amy, we are literally children of the birthright and we have a responsibility to bring the message of the restored gospel to those around us! and you better not be slacking off fam! YOu have missionary work to do too! Remember D&C 4:3 - if you have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work!
And man have I needed that this past week. We have been working on finding new people to teach- We went through the area book and looked up all the past former investigators and potential investigators and have been contacting them and within a week we have been through all but 4 names. and they have not been interested.. bummer. So it gets discoutraging - but then you have these incredible moments that make all the knocking on doors and getting told no thanks or not really or I will never be a mormon or I have already found God worth it!
Last week we had a name on our list, Bryan, to go see. We tried by his house but he had a really stubborn gate that we could not figure out how to open - so we left. His house is right down the street from Bobbie who we are currently teaching. We had about 10 minutes before our appontment with her so we figured hey let us go try to work that gate open and see Bryan! after wiggling and pulling and some pushing we finally got it open! we rang the doorbell and immediatley were welcomed by the blasting of the vocal chords of monster size dogs! I swear they were going to bust the door down and break the windows! I was a bit terrified.. then we here a screen door open behind us and an older, unhappy looking gentleman asks who we are and what do we want. It was strange. and a bit disconcerting. So we try to tell him but then he shuts the door and tries to talk to us through the glass. It was rather uncomfortable. then he disappeared. Then he stuck his face in the window and held up a finger saying one minute. So we waited. and waited. and seriously debated whether we should stay. then behind us, from the garage, comes a younger guy who apologized for the actions of his father and starts chatting with us. This guy is Bryan and we start talking to him anout Christ and Heavenly Father and church and all that good stuff and he explains to us that he takes Christ with him wherever he goes and he hasn't been to church in a long time but really wants to get back so we invited him next week! and he said he would come! and we set up a return appointment for
Wednesday! yahoo! there is Bryan for you. after a long weekend of seeing a lot of front doors - his made it all worth it! Only I am a little nervous to go back with those dogs all there....
Our lesson with Bobbie was fantastic too! We have been working her toward baptism although she is feeling some anxiety - we taught on the power of the priesthood last week and invited her to have a priesthood blessing. and she accepted! She had had one in the past before she had a surgery done and she said it was the easiest surgery she had ever had! She said she woke up every morning waiting for the pain that never came! She already has a testimony of the priesthood power! Awesome! Last night she got a bleesing from a brother in the ward and it was so powerful! The spirit was in there so thick you could have cut it with a knife! only you couldn't have cut it because nothing could have broken the spirit that was felt! And her husband was there for it too! He never sits in on the lessons when we come. He always says it is girl time. But he was there last night and I am so happy he was! I really can see them in the temple together and I want it so badly for them!
Training is going really well. Sister Smith is really great and really excited about the work! I am learning a lot too - like I don't have enough experience to be training yet.. but I was told by a member the other night that what we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm! Yahoo! for enthusiasm! But to reallly see how it is going maybe you need to hear from her - she has a blog as well if you want to check it out - it is
asitoncewas.blogspot.com
We had dinner at a members home the other evening and she is very into all things natural like oils and such (you will appreciate this momma!) and I felt a scrape on my knee and wondered what it was from andher little 4 year old daughter says to me "oh you want some lavender on that? I have some in my bathroom I can get for you!" HOw perfect is that! I thought of you momma and smiled!
This week I set a goal to take one picture a day just becasue you remember things so much easier when a picture is involved and I know you would all like to see what I am doing.. and guess what! I took one picture! for the week! It was the end of the month and we walked a lot the last few days to make sure we wouldn't go over on miles..we calculated everything out and had 20 for the final day of the month and we were going to make it! in 17! so on the way home, we decided that a celebratory milkshake from Sonic was necessarry - it would only add 1.2 miles to our trip. And becasue I really wanted to celebrate I got an oreo one.. Then we get back to the apartment in 18.5 miles and I am so excited! yahoo! But then when we subtacted the first of the month odometer reading from the end of the month odometer reading we were one mile OVER!!! AHHH!! It was awful! I learned many lessons that night. First - Don't push your limits. You know where the line is. DOn't flirt with it. If I didn't think that oh this 1.2 miles will not make a difference we would have been under our allotted miles! Just go home! The line has been set for a reason. We need to stay as far from it as possible. If we are on the line - Satan has already won.
Second - DOn't be glutinous. I did not need that milkshake. I especially didn't need the wheat in that milshake. and becasue I wanted it- we went over on our miles.
Third - Don't waste time doing pointless things. We left our area 4 minutes early because we got out of our appointment and had the thought that 4 minutes was not enough time to go contact someone else. It was becasue of that extra 4 minutes, the long way home by way of sonic was justified. In that four minutes, we passed a gentleman walking his dogs who we should have talked to. That would have used those minutes then we would have needed to get home and not gone to sonic and not used those miles. Use your time wisely and ALWAYS be finding people to teach!
So what was supposed to be an overjoyed celabratory picture of meeting our miles for the month with my delicious celebratory shake to accompany it turned into a bummer of a picture with the evil cause behind being over miles by one.
And with that I close.. I love you all. Remember the lessons I learned this week. Learn from my experiences.
Love
Sister Stuart
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