Saturday, October 5, 2013

Sept 9, 2013



Dear Family!                                                                                            
 It's for sure football season here. We're feeling a little whiplash because most of the members are Nebraska Husker fans, but we live in Iowa...and most of our investigators are Hawk-eye fans...so we're just not sure who we're supposed to be rooting for. I told Sister K we need to buy reversible shirts so whoever we go do service for we can flip the shirt to their team. haha :)   Priorities change during football season. 1. Football 2. God 3. Family/Work  Ah man. I may be in state but people here are REALLY into their football games. :) So many cancelled appts due to football games on t.v.
The first frost should be October...Not excited.

I'm glad Sister/N.  W.  got in touch with you. :) I love her! She is one of the world's greatest missionaries!
Well this week has been great. :) We had transfers obviously. I thought for sure I would be transferred, but grateful that everything stayed the same. Except now I don't have to be trained. Woo! This month our mission is focusing on "enduring to the end". We had a district mtg this past week that changed my life.  I just  have a couple quotes from my notes so sorry if this is jumbled. One of the Elders said that Enduring to the End is more like progressing to the end.  Because if we are not progressing then we are not enduring. Sometimes it seems like enduring is a trial. It shouldn't be looked at that way. It should be looked at as "enjoying the ride". He also said that Love helps us endure (progress). When we have a love for other people then we understand the love that Heavenly Father has for us.  Love is a motivating force. Another Elder spoke on Agency and Accountability. (this is my favorite). We talked about what we call the "Loser List", which is a list of things we all do to avoid responsibility.  Like, blame, ignore (selective memory), hide, justify, cover up, anger, procrastinate, rebel, blame others,lie, excuses, and give up.  I really like this because I do some of these things so now I know too correct it.  But when we use the loser list we lose some of our agency. 100% Agency=100% Accountability.  As soon as we put the blame on someone else we lose control over our agency.  Outside influences can't change who we've become because we are the only one's who decide who or what we are going to be. Our commitment was to identify a couple of things that are a little out of harmony with God. Take responsibility for them, and then use the Atonement. That has been really hard and I don't know if I have fully done this yet. I'm working on it. Which has brought an added measure of peace and the Spirit. But I would encourage everyone to do this as well.
We've taught a lot of first lessons this week so that has been really exciting. :) It's been really cool to watch our Book of Mormon box slowly dwindle. In a couple weeks we will have to order some more!! President wanted all of Le Mars to be filled with the Book of Mormon, and we're doing it. Eventually there will be a branch here. Get pumped! :)  Even though some people take the Book of Mormon to get us to go away, when we testify the Spirit is always so strong that there is no denying how special the Book of Mormon really is. :) But yeah. Missionary work is great.   Church was really powerful yesterday because the talk His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox was shared in sacrament meeting.  I've read the talk a bunch of times and still never fully understood Grace until yesterday at church. Thank you Spirit! :)  We are all saved by Grace. Christ payed the debt for us. We cannot pay Him back. We are not required to pay Him back. All that is required of us is to CHANGE.  Change is slow process, growth and development take time. Christ is not waiting for us at the finishing line, He is with us every step of the way. This was really comforting to me because I felt like I had been disappointing my Heavenly Father because I'm not the best missionary.  He's not disappointed! :) The only way He would be disappointed is if I didn't change.  Thankfully through the scriptures, praying, fasting, reading PMG, and relying on the Atonement I'm slowly growing into the person/missionary I want to be. :)  I have a testimony of Grace now.
Well, I love you all. Thanks for you prayers and support.

No comments:

Post a Comment