This has been such a fast week!!
I'm so excited it's Christmas Time. Just ecstatic, truly. I love
the lights, I love the smell, I love the cold (ok, I hate the cold, but
it DOES add to the Christmas feel) I love all the people out here, it's
such a wonderful time to be a missionary.
Although, you'd think around Christmas time, people would be
especially receptive to a message about Jesus Christ- right? Haha
wrong! no one wants to talk to us, which makes the work go slower.
But life is still good.
Let's see... one of our investigators had a birthday this week! so we made him a cake! We thought it would be so simple....
We knew he didnt like chocolate cake, so we went to the store and
bought angel food cake! Who knew that there were special rules for
making angel food cake? we were making it at this one member's house
(the S's, I love them!) and we messed up the cake, so it
was like sunken and falling apart, and then we were gonna frost it, and
they informed us you dont frost angel food cake, you like pour
strawberries on it? Anyways, then they help us out and give us new
cake mix, and then this way nice frosting, and we brought it over to
him, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done, because we were
fasting, and it smelled sooooo good. Anyways, he liked it, and CAME TO
CHURCH! it was great, it was his first time, and it was fast and
testimony meeting, and everyone just gave wonderful testimonies, it was
the best one on my mission thus far.
On Friday nights, we have a standing dinner/lesson appointment with
the B's, and i love them so much. Their two kids we baptized last
transfer, and I'm just so so so happy with them, I definitely think they
were one of the main reasons I came to Firgrove. J is gonna go on a
mission when he's older I think :)
A favorite scripture for the week: 1 Nephi 3:5.
I am such a Laman sometimes. On a daily basis, I see miracles
happening all around me, and I feel I've seen the equivalent of angels
coming down to basically tell me what's up. And yet when I'm asked to
do things that are difficult and/or I just don't understand why, how
quickly do I think, "it is a hard thing you have required of us!"
But time and time again, as I follow through and try to be
obedient, I'm like oh... I guess Heavenly Father was right again,
haha. I'm such a slow learner.
Ok, I've been thinking about this a lot this
week. and my thoughts are fragmented, and don't make perfect sense, but
bear with me? I've been thinking of ordinances like baptism, and taking
the sacrament, and I've been thinking a lot about old testament
sacrifices and whatnot, and then the way we are taught in the temple,
and it's just been dawning on me: Heavenly Father has been trying to
teach us the most basic concepts since the world began, and he
reintroduces ordinances and his gospel time and time again. Countless
times, the saints have been asked to leave behind their possessions and
their home and go follow the Lord, and then they write about it in
scripture, and then we read about it, and we're like oh sweet, cool
story, and we learn NOTHING from it, so we have to learn the same
principles through our own trials, cuz we weren't wise enough to just
learn from the stories in the scriptures! We take the sacrament EVERY
week, and yet so often (for me at least) I've just eaten bread and
water, and didn't give it a second thought. And God gives us ordinances,
because the only way that we can take truth and make it a part of
ourselves is by DOING it time and time again until it sets in. And what
is he trying to teach us??? OBEDIENCE TO HIS GOSPEL!! That's all we
need to do! but we just can't get it straight :(
Just been on my mind a lot...
Merry Christmas World!
