A few highlights from the conference:
Sister Foster
told us a story about her toddler granddaughter who loved taking baths but hated
having shampoo put in her hair. When her mother would try to wash her hair, the
little girl would instinctively put her head down and the soap would run into
her eyes and sting them. Her mother just wanted to teach her to put her head
back so that the soap would run harmlessly down her back. When trials come, we
tend to let our heads droop with fear, sorrow, and exhaustion. We dwell on our
troubles, and intensify the sting. When we instead fall to our knees and look
up to God in faith and hope and prayer, our pain can be washed away, and life
will look brighter and cleaner.
Elder Foster
shared this scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 98 which I found very
powerful:
1 Verily I say unto
you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore,
and in everything give thanks;
2 Waiting patiently
on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth,
and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed
that they shall be granted.
3 Therefore, he
giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be
fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together
for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord
Righteous prayers
are covenants with the Father! He will answer them if we wait patiently. I've
always known that, but to have it presented in that way was a revelation.
Glenda is actually
an investigator of ours! She's super awesome. She was taught the first lesson
then dropped, but after her husband passed away the missionaries did a lot of
service for her and the members she knew reached out to her a ton. She stopped
going to her church for three weeks and none of the people there tried to
contact her, so she came to ours and really liked it. She's still teetering on
the edge of continuing to learn or not, but we're praying for her and keeping in
contact.
My mailing address
is 606 Easy St. Apt. I (like eye) 97415.
Violations are when
tiwi dings you. Brittany just sent an e-mail with an admirable description of
tiwi's vileness, so I will refrain from going into detail.
I drove to the
conference and I did a decent job, but the road we traveled is extremely windy
through rugged cliffs and redwoods beside roaring rivers... and I thought we
were gonna die. So at the conference we got permission for Elder Mock to drive
back (Elder Mock is 23, and has a drag racing background, so I felt a lot safer
with him driving back).
There is a wonderful
little ward here in Brookings! We have an extremely high inactivity rate, but
our little chapel is actually pretty snugly full. There's a ton of older
people, but we also have an amazingly big youth group! There's more youth here
than in Corvallis! And they are amazing. The priests are always helping us
out, and they all are constantly inviting friends to come to church and stuff.
This is the most missionary oriented ward I've been in so far, and I absolutely
love it. We keep hearing about potential investigators the members are setting
up to meet with us, and we can't wait to teach them all. Maya and Renee cam to
Sacrament Meeting! Maya stayed all three hours, but Renee left. She has
troubles with anxiety and large crowds, but we're teaching them today at 4:00.
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