What a crazy week and what a crazy past couple of days!! It sounds like you are all experiencing really severe and cold weather! I hope you are all safe and that you're staying warm!
We got hit with the storm, but it wasn't as bad here as it was in other parts of the mission. We got snow and freezing rain, but we never lost power, which was a blessing. Gratefully I didn't have to drive in the snow and ice at all and we got home from church before the roads got too bad. They text us yesterday afternoon and told us not to drive anywhere unless we had to. We had a dinner appointment scheduled and it was too late to cancel, so we decided to walk there! It was actually a really fun adventure and very peaceful because not many people were out. Ironically, the sidewalk was actually more icy than the streets, so we ended up walking in the middle of the street!
How are you all doing? How is life for all of you? I appreciate your letters and e-mails so much, and I am so grateful for all of you! Like Mom said, you are one of the greatest gifts that Heavenly Father has given me!
I thought I'd split this e-mail into different sections, so if one section looks boring, skip to the next one!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
Having and developing Nephi like faith!!! Nephi's faith was not conditional on the situation or on the commandment that he was given from the Lord. On the other hand, Laman and Lemuel's faith WAS conditional on their circumstances and on what the Lord required them to do. Like Nephi, I have been thinking a lot about serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and soul, no matter the conditions. It doesn't matter if I'm tired, hungry, if it's cold etc. - I want to give the Lord everything, always, no matter what. This has really helped me this week, and I feel that it's helped me to work so much harder and to stay more focused. Also, Nephi knew that God could work miracles and he believed in this whole heartedly. Even though God has worked many miracles in the past, I think I sometimes doubt that He can work miracles now. I tell people constantly that God can work miracles, but then I myself doubt this. I don't want to be like that! God is the same yesterday, today and forever and I know that He can work miracles today! We need to have the faith that He will work miracles, and to not limit Him by our own unbelief or lack of faith.
I read something this morning in the talk, "Wilt thou be made whole?" where Corrie Ten Bloom says that Christ not only asks us to love our enemies. He gives us the love to love them with. I didn't quote that right at all, but I know that's true with any commandment He gives us. He provides the way for us to develop the Christlike attributes that He commands us to have.
I just love this gospel and I love my Savior so much! I know that He is real and that He lives!
THE PEOPLE:
Robert...is on date for baptism on December 28th!!! Ironically, we put him on date, while sitting in a Starbucks, but nonetheless, he is on date! We had breakfast with him on Saturday morning, and then the little diner got really crowded, so we decided to go over to the Starbucks next door and continue our lesson. We taught him about repentance and baptism and he brought up his concern about paying tithing. He said that he thought he'd need to work up to 10%, and he didn't know if he could pay it all at the start. We talked about how the commandment is from God, and we know that He will provide him a way to pay the full 10%. We both shared our personal experiences with paying tithing, and how the Lord always provides a way and how He is a God of miracles. (Btw, did you know that I received the revelation to serve a mission while in tithing settlement last December?) It was a good lesson all in all, and he came to church again yesterday. We are going to the Temple Lights with him next Monday the 16th, to see Jenny Oaks Baker!
Keren...is leading me to lots of studying, pondering and prayer! I strive to do this for all our investigators, but I just don't know what she needs. I feel like she'll make a lot of progress, then go back a couple of steps, forward, back and it continues. I just want so much to know what she needs to know that this is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I feel somewhat stuck with her and I don't know what to do. I know that God knows her heart though and knows what she needs - I just pray to be inspired to know what she needs. We saw her a lot this past week and she came to our Cowboy Christmas, ward Christmas party! We are seeing her a lot this upcoming week, and are hopefully going to the Festival of Lights with her on Saturday! I love her so much and want her to know that this is true!
Jan...thinks that we are giving her scabbies!! Jan and her husband broke out with something called scabbies, for the 3rd time since August! She is adamant that we are passing it to her, for she says that we are the only people that she interacts with. She says that if you have a healthy immune system, you won't know you have it because your immune system fights it. She and her husband have really poor immune systems. Apparently, scabbies is little 8 legged mite that crawls under your skin and lays eggs (I hope you weren't eating anything when you read that!). It causes you to break out in a horrible rash and leaves you with a lot of little scratches, or tunnels (for the bugs to get deeper into your skin of course). She says that her doctor says we are carriers of it, and that we got it from the nursing home we frequently go to. We called the doctor over the northeast missions, and he did some research on it, and said that you have to react to actually have it and spread it. We talked to her for a long time last night, and she went off on all the reasons of why this was not true, and how absurd this was and told us again, everything her doctors said. We called our mission president's wife, and she said she would call missionary medical about it. I just don't know who or what to believe and Jan won't let us see her again unless we get treated for it. It is just a crazy situation!
THE EVENTS:
-Snow and freezing rain! We weren't allowed to drive anywhere yesterday, so we trekked it outside in our boots and gear! It was seriously so much fun (I promise I am not being sarcastic). I felt like a real missionary, and I was pretty tired by the end of the day, which I love. So at first, they said we couldn't go out at all, so we were in our apartment after the dinner apt contacting and planning and I hated it. I am finding that I don't like to stay in like I used to. I feel like on a mission, you need to go out on many occasions when you really would want to stay inside, curled up in a blanket. You go out anyway though, because it truly is about what the Lord wants. I have found that as I have gone out every night or time that I wasn't very excited to go out and work, it is now becoming what I want to do too. I feel like His will is becoming my will, more and more. I was really happy about this realization last night!
-Ward Christmas Party! The theme was Cowboy Christmas and it was amazing! They went all out and decorated the gym with homemade wanted posters of people from the ward, and just did so much great stuff. Keren and her husband Bobby came which was great! They served barbecue beef instead of barbecued pork, so Keren could eat it, which was double great!!
-We sang Christmas songs with a man at the nursing home who doesn't really talk much, and it was so good!! As soon as we started singing, he joined with us and he knew all the songs. It was so cute and he was so happy by the time we were done!
-Christmas program in church!! This was also amazing! Our ward is having a Christmas program almost every week in December and I am so excited. We had people of different ages speak about their views of Christmas and then the ward choir sang some numbers. I just felt so close to my Savior, and it is hard to describe how I felt in words.
-Christmas Caroling...round 2! We didn't have as large of a group this time, but it was still fun! At one point, everyone left but me and my companion and singing is not our forte at all! I kept thinking, that only on a mission would this probably ever happen so I sung my heart out, on pitch or not.
That is all I can remember at this current moment, but it was a pretty great week!! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!
Merry Christmas!!
Love,
Sister Chelsea Marie Akin
No comments:
Post a Comment