Sept 30, 2013

Hello!! I'm excited to finally sit down and write you a thought out email! Not a  a rushed letter! :) 

Well this week has been great! I love being a missionary. A LOT! Well at the beginning of the week I decided that I wanted to greater develop the Christlike Attribute patience. So that day was when my email randomly stopped working. God broke my email! Also I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food. Everyday this week I've had someone basically force feed me Mexican food. Then we went and did a service project at a members house which was gathering firewood and the other Sisters were having a hard time getting dirty, so the working went a lot slower.  Then when we mowed the lawn for the C's because they were having a stressful week, the lawn was covered in leaves so we had to bag it. And the bag on the mower is SO SMALL. So we would go up and down a small strip (The fence at home to the garage) and have to turn it off and bag it. Hour and a half.  I know these seem like small things that probably wouldn't matter, but God knew that they would try a little bits of my patience. But I can now say I do have greater patience which is awesome. :)

We also had exchanges this week. They were so FUN! Our Sister Trainer leader is so great. She built us up rather than chastised. By doing that she helped me figure out something about myself. I've often wondered what drives me. Why do I do what I do? I didn't know! Well turns out it's love. Love motivates me. When I feel love I feel motivated or inspired to be better. So rather than chastising me she loved me and then that motivated me personally to become even better! Same can be applied to my Savior. When I feel my Savior's love, often known as the Spirit, I've been able to spark whatever is inside me to do what's right. :) No fear the internal dilemma for Sister Curfew was answered.

Another cool experience I had this week was with Sister D. She was my temp companion for exchanges. She's amazing. Well while we were doing the service project of gathering firewood we decided since we were in a grove of trees we might as well be like Joseph Smith and pray! So we did. It was incredible. I couldn't focus when I was praying with my eyes closed so I prayed with my eyes open. :) Words can't describe how I felt just talking with my Heavenly Father, within nature. It almost felt like I was in the temple for a couple of seconds. Since we haven't been able to go to the temple and I've been missing it a lot it was comforting to feel the "temple feeling" for a couple minutes without being there. :)

Afterwards we were talking to Sister W the member who owns the land. (Her husband is our ward mission leader, coolest man EVER!!) She said the land is the reason why she chose this home. (They live in the Boonies of Iowa.) She was like I just feel like this land in consecrated and sanctified, and I don't know why. I just know that it's really special. :) It truly is. 

Another experience. A couple of weeks ago Sister K and I were walking down the street and felt a prompting to go talk to this guy who was sitting on his steps smoking.  We didn't get a chance to follow that prompting but we wrote down his address and went back to his house this week. We met his wife B. Her grandma is actually a member and she was like you know I'm curious to know what she believes so we gave her a Book of Mormon and are going back to teach her today actually. Hopefully it will go well. :) I love being reassured by Holy Ghost that the Lord knows exactly who is prepared and who isn't. He leads us to people. Thank heavens! :)
We've also had a lot people hating on Joseph Smith this week. It's sad. A lot of less actives doubt their testimony of Jospeh Smith because they don't have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of religion. Without it everything falls apart. If you get the chance read Ch 5 in PMG. :) So cool. :)

Well I'm out a time.

Love you!

-Sister Curfew

P.S. We also went to the zoo/trail center with a Less Active family and their investigator children. The traiil center is AWESOME! :)