March 10, 2014

Family!! This week has been really awesome! I have definitely had a change of heart and Heavenly Father has just been watching out for me so much and I'm so grateful for all the lessons I have been able to learn! On Monday after we emailed Sister Thompson took us out to lunch and then we went and grocery shopped. We didn't have permission to drive, so that night we decided to walk and visit some people that live pretty close to us. On our way over, we decided to write stuff in the snow like "Mormon.org" and "God loves you!" stuff like that. It was super fun and while we were writing one message we looked back and saw someone writing by what we had already written. we decided to check it out on our way back. We got to the persons house and they weren't there and by that time we needed to head home since it was kind of a long walk. So we discovered on our way back that the person had drawn an arrow and a "like" thumbs up sign from facebook next to the www.mormon.org that we wrote in the snow!! it was so awesome! I wish we could have talked to him, but it was kind of dark and we weren't sure if they were writing nice things or not haha. But i am sure that somehow, some way, some missionaries will find him! The whole walking thing was actually really good for our companionship too. I feel like we bonded a lot! Tuesday we had district meetings and then we went on exchange. Sister Phelps left the area and me and Sister Wilcox stayed and worked with Sister Hills. Exchanges are always a little strange but they were extra weird in a trio! Sister Hills is super amazing though! she showed us this book called "adjusting to missionary life." I got it at the beginning of my mission and truthfully haven't picked it up since then. but I'm so grateful Sister Hills showed it to us. it has this little self assessment you can do and it has all these topics you can read about and has solutions to many problems I have faced or will face on the mission! part of me thought "really!? Where was this last week!!" but i am thankful i have that resource now! After that bit of training we went and did facebook. Sister Hills didn't get to send an email home the day before due to the storm so we had about 1 and 1/2 hours of facebook time. after dinner we checked on James, whose records our ward just received. he wasn't home but when we were walking to the car, we saw this little girl who was selling hot chocolate. we went and bought some and had a really great conversation with her parents. she realized fairly quickly that we were Mormon and although she said she really wasn't interested, it was a really awesome visit and I know some seeds were planted! from there we went and visited Sister Bryk! she comes to church every so often and has done so for most of her life. she is SO AMAZING! it was a really powerful visit! we all shared our favorite scriptures with her and she was really moved by what we shared. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon every day this week. Well, first we asked her how her reading is going and she said she reads occasionally. so we asked her how often she thinks she can read it this week and she was like "every day!". it was so awesome!! we agreed to send her reminder texts every night. after that we went and saw some ward members. the mom is getting ready for surgery on Friday and even though she was really nervous, she has such a wonderful attitude about it! she had breast cancer in the past and they think they found a tumor on her uterus now so she's had a really rough go of it. her husband doesn't attend church much. she has all these problems of her own, but she is constantly serving other people! she's that lady who is always making meals for those in need and finding ways to help others! it blows my mind how amazing and Christlike she is when she is going through so much! she's such a great example! I have these moments on my mission where I just sit in amazement at the powerful and incredible people I get to meet out here! Wednesday was just as wonderful as Tuesday! we studied and then exchanged back. we were supposed to do some service for sister Everly that day but she was busy so we ate and then did some FB. after that we went and saw one of our ward members who doesn't get out to church much. we had a really great talk with her! normally she doesn't bring up the church at all but this time she brought it up over and over again so that was pretty cool! from there we visited sister ketch! we talked to her about repentance and how that is something we should do daily. we then had dinner with the relief society president. during our message, their oldest daughter who just turned 8 told us she isn't sure how to feel the spirit so we had a lesson on that !it was really sweet! we then tried to visit a few people with no luck. but we met a young guy named Emelio! he lives with his grandparents and is in a metal band. apparently his grandma is mormon. we told him we have facebook and asked if we could add him on there and he said yes! it was pretty awesome because if we didn't have FB, i don't think we could have connected with him ever. after that we went and had a lesson with a ward member. she has some struggles with smoking, but she has a really amazing testimony! she had a pretty rough day and we shared about the plan of salvation and i think that was pretty fitting for her. after that we had ward correlation which went awesome as always! Thursday was super exciting! because I am now an official ipad owner!!! yup you heard it right!! we spent most of the day in training. i am so excited to see how these will improve the work! there are a lot of awesome apps for us to use and it's just so exciting! we spent the afternoon finishing our studies. we had a really awesome companionship study and i felt like we were all on the same page for Teya's lesson that night. we had dinner with our ward mission leaders family. it was fun to talk to his kids and ask them about missionary work. it reminded me of when i was a teenager and the missionaries came over! we brought Maddie, his daughter to our lesson with Teya and it went WONDERFULLY!! we wanted to show her how the book of mormon will answer her questions. we wanted her to see how baptism would help her and why it was necessary. i feel like we definitely accomplished that! the spirit was so strong and Teya was more open with us than she has been in the past. we all testified of the power of the book of mormon and Maddie shared a very powerful testimony. she is the perfect person to bring to lessons with Teya! She pushes teya to be better! teya committed to read the book of mormon every day, so I'm really excited to see how it all turns out!! a lot of times lessons turn out way different than I expect them to. but the lesson with Teya tonight was exactly what we planned for and what needed to be taught! it was great! Friday was awesome! we studied and then began our weekly planning. we have to transfer all the information in our area book to the ipads so we spent a good chunk of time doing that. we finished weekly planning and set some really wonderful goals. Heavenly Father is so wonderful! he takes care of our problems when we do what He asks us to do!! thank goodness for Heavenly Father!! after doing FB we went home and ate and then were supposed to have a lesson with the Abbas but they weren't home. We ended up visiting some ward members. their son is a junior so we talked to him about practice teaching the missionary lessons with us and so we're going to start helping him with that! it's fun sharing with the members because they help this work so much! Saturday was great! after our morning studies we went and updated the area book and then used FB. we tried to visit a lady who peeked through her window and then didn't answer the door. then we visited a girl who was taught by the last sisters here and she's just going through a lot right now so she said she'd call when she's not busy. then we tried Ghana Elizabeth but she wasn't home! by then it was dinner time. we ate with Sister Thompson and it was wonderful as always! I've grown to really love and appreciate her so much recently! She is such an amazing example of someone who is always giving and thinking of others! she will be one of the first on my list of people for us to come back and visit after the mission! after a great visit with her we were able to see the Abbas'! i love them so much, especially Asra, the daughter! she has definitely shown me how powerful our words are! Sunday was so amazing! i learned so, so much! since I've been working on patience I decided to find a talk about it. i searched in the gospel library and found one by Joseph b. Wirthlin and it's called "patience, a key to happiness." it had so much amazing advice, not just for right now, but for after the mission too! the part that stuck out to me the most was about having patience with our Heavenly Father. he said "How incredible foolish to be impatient with him, the Father of our spirits, who knows everything and whose work and glory, through his Son, Jesus Christ, is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" Then he quoted Neal A. Maxwell who said "Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best--better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his. Either way we are questioning the reality of God's omniscience." Man that hit me like a ton of bricks! it was kind of a chastening, but i really needed it! when i have been impatient in the past (with my visa, companions, etc.) I have really been questioning Heavenly Father's plan for me! I know he has a perfect plan for me!!! So why do I get impatient? I'm not sure, but I am working on it! it was such an awesome talk and you guys should all read it..especially if you struggle with patience like I do! so after studies we went to church and a lot of the talks and lessons had to do with patience so I think Heavenly Father was really trying to drill this into my thick head! :) after church we studied and then had dinner with some members. They invited some non member friends over and we had an awesome time. it was very laid back. the members had asked us not to teach a lesson or anything because they didn't want their friends to feel pressured. but it was cool because the friends ended up asking all about our missions and so we ended up being able to teach! after that we had ward correlation! we have the best ward mission leader! he always helps us see how we can improve and encourages us at the same time! today we get to go to Arlington cemetery which will be AWESOME! sister Thompson is taking us, go figure! I'm so grateful for all your prayers. they really do help! this is the last full week before transfers, so we will see what happens! I've been here 3 transfers now so I'm guessing I'll get the boot, but you never know! i hope your weeks are amazing! thanks for being you! Love, Sister Pehrson