9/9/2013

Hey y'all!

Let's see.....where to begin.

Quotes Taken Out of Context

"I'm just imagining your face wrapped in plastic wrap."

Lessons from Elder Bednar About the Stupid Traditions in the Church that He Wishes People Would Stop Doing

Taking ridiculous amounts of notes in meetings. He told us quite forcefully not to write down everything he says because it's a stupid waste of time. Finally, someone who agrees with me. Just write down the jewels that the Spirit teaches you. Otherwise he could just send you an email with everything he was going to say. :)

Okie Dokie. Let's see. This week I learned how to gut a deer in record time. I'm not sure why the ward family history specialist thought I would need to know that, but she went ahead and taught me anyway.

I've also been sick (shocker, right?), and therefore my sinuses, along with my ears, are plugged up with mucous. It makes it a little difficult to hear. Unfortunately, that led to me completely ignoring my mission president this week. I walked by him and apparently he said "Good morning Sister Peart, how are you?" And I walked right passed him. Sister Keenan was behind me and he said "I guess she didn't hear me?" Sister Keenan informed him that my ears are, in fact, filled with mucous, so it's likely that I didn't hear him. Awkward.

Ok, so this story is from last week, but I forgot to tell it. We have an investigator named Kim, who is awesome. I wrote the story in my journal, so rather than trying to come up with thoughts in my mucous-sodden head, I'm going to copy it out of there:

"We were having a lesson with Kim outside; sitting in the shade at a little table with some mismatched folding chairs. Cute. Spirit-filled. And then her dad comes out of the house with this can of scented air-freshener. He looks at us, waits for our full attention and says" 'This is called aromatherapy!" He then proceeds to dance around us while spraying this air-freshener. Because it's me, and I'm the one who is sensitive to smells, of course I'm the one who gets treated to a full-on mist in the face. Twice. Her dad is a little bit crazy. Please also be aware that her dad decked out the little folding table with a lace doily, and had a strange instrumental iris song on repeat the entire time. He's cute. He tries to make the place fancy for us, and it's precious. I'd prefer we didn't participate in the aromatherapy though.

So this week y'all get treated to a little bit of spirituality. :D

We had our mission conference this weekend with ELDER BEDNAR! It was awesome. I feel a little over-dramatic in saying it, but it's true: it changed my life. I read over my notes afterward and I realized that it wasn't anything that he said. All my notes I took were "no duh" things. The amazing thing was how I felt when we were there. It was a weird combination, because I felt totally comfortable with him, but then not. You could tell that he was just a man, but a chosen man. So yeah. It was amazing. When you shake his hand his eyes stare into your soul. It was a leeeetle disconcerting. But still cool.

So after that I feel like I've been walking around in this intense spiritual high, and I've been trying to do everything I can to stay that spiritually in tune. Because we came home from that mission conference and had miracle after miracle after miracle. We were expecting that it would probably be a bit of a bust day, since we only had a few hours, BUT. It was the best day of the week! Crazy how that works.

THEN, we had dinner with this member yesterday. And the Spirit was NOT there. The food was delicious (probably the best meal I've had in weeks), but the whole time all I could think was "When can we leave, when can we leave, when can we leave..." After we left we had to take a few minutes to feel like we could talk to someone again. It was weird. I was like "Oh no, I'm turning into one of those freak missionaries!" But immediately after that I was like "I don't even care let's say a prayer so the Spirit will come back!" So we did. And it did. And then we went into our lesson with Annessa and she finally admitted that she thinks she could be baptized by the end of September. I haven't talked much about Annessa, so you probably don't realize HOW BIG OF A DEAL THIS IS, but trust me. It is a huge deal. When I came into the area she was supposed to get baptized towards the beginning of July. 

This is time for a plug about the power of the Book of Mormon. It is amazing. If I could have taken a camera with me to our meetings with Annessa, I would show you my first lesson with her, and the one we had yesterday and you wouldn't even be able to tell they were the same girl. This 18 year old girl has changed so much since then that it makes my head hurt to think about it. And it's all because we started reading the Book of Mormon with her, and emphasizing why it was so important. We had already taught her all the lessons, but she was NOT ready to be baptized and we didn't know what to do. I kept thinking about the Book of Mormon, but she was already reading it and it was her goal to finish it before she got baptized. But we went ahead and started reading it with her anyway, and we did an activity that really struck her with the importance of the Book of Mormon. Since then she's been reading on her own, wanting to go to church, and doing those things we've been teaching her on her OWN! It's amazing. And I know I'm utterly failing in describing HOW BIG OF A DEAL THIS IS, but trust me. It's a miracle.

So yeah. I'll end with one last funny story:

I was working at the Visitor's Center in St. George on Friday night, and this guy came in. Another sister and I were heading to a closet, but as we walked by the door he walks in and goes "Hey lovely ladies!" The other sister looks at him and says (deliciously disdainfully) "Oh heavens", and we continue to walk away. As we do we here him walking up to the other sisters at the desk saying "Are there any heartbreakers here tonight?" Apparently he was meeting a lady here that he had met online, and it was to be there first date. The lady walks in and it's a lady from my area! I was like "Oh. My. Goodness. We need to save her." We didn't get to save her, but I shamelessly watched this awkward date unfold (we don't get tv, so we get whatever drama we can), and finally I went up and talked for her a bit. I really want to go to her ward next Sunday and ask her how it went after they left.

Anywho. Gotta get going. Have a good week!

Sister Peart