Dear Family and Friends: Warning, this is a long one! Proably longest letter of my whole mission!
This was one of the best weeks of my whole mission! Miracle after miracle after miracle!
Highlights: Baptisms! Destiny (15) and Infiniti (16) Brown were both baptized this week! It was amazing to see them take this step in their life! (see pictures)
Busy Work: This week, Sister Stanley and I taught more lessons in one week than I have my in any singluar week before. We were so blessed!
Funny Moment: During a lesson we were demostrating how some gets baptized, so that Destiny and Infiniti would not be nervous. Well I practiced with Sister Garlick, who was visiting for the day. I was the one baptizing and she was the one being baptized. Well we were practicing and as she bent down....I dropped her! Right on the hard floor in the middle of the lesson. I felt so bad, I didn't think she was going to bend! It was hilarious. Turned out to be a blessing, it was just what we needed to lighten the mood!
Insights: Yesterday, we taught a lesson on enduring to the end, which simply means contiuning to live a Christ like life every day, even after you are baptized. It means maitainese and repairs. We are all like homes. Homes comes in many different shapes and sizes and are built differently, but regardless of what type of home we have, must must maintain it. I may have a lot of windows in my house but you may have a lot of trees in your yard. Overtime I may have to dust off the windows so that light can more fully come through to lighten and illuminate my house, but you may have to cut back some tress. Just as homes are different, so are we. We all have different areas on which we need to improve.
So my invitation to ya'll is to have you do a self-assesment of your home and see what needs fixing.
Will yall do that? Will you take a self evaluation and see what you can fix? I know that as you do this you will feel better as you follow God's teachings more.
Spanish Miracle: I taught another lesson in spanish! I was so excited for this lesson; I practiced all week long! Well, we got there and the man would not listen to what I had to say, he kept chaning the subject, or acted like he couldnt hear me. So I started to ask him more questions. I found out that both of his parents had previously passed on and that he was hurting inside. I changed the lesson from talking about who God is and the Book of Mormon to talking about Eternal life and God's plan for us. Everything changed. The mood, his attention, the Spirit, everthing!
Moral of the Story: I learned that people don't want to talk about what is important to you, they want to talk about what is important to them. If you listen well enough, you will find that. Then you can truly touch them and make them your friends. I loved that lesson, he sure made me work for it! Miracle! Also, I taught it in spanish! I have been practing during my lunch hour. Heavenly Father helped me out a lot because of my extra effort!
Story Time: A story I heard at church: "A Tail of Happiness” told by Wayne Dyer, a self-help author and motivational speaker:
"An old wise cat and a small kitten were in an alleyway. The old cat saw the kitten chasing its tail and asked, “Why are you chasing your tail?” To it the kitten replied, ‘I’ve been attending cat philosophy school and have learned that the most important thing for a cat is happiness, and that happiness is located in my tail. Therefore, I am chasing it and when I catch it, I shall have happiness forever.’
“Laughing, the wise cat replied, ‘My son, I wasn’t lucky enough to go to cat philosophy school, but I’ve gone through life. I too have realized that the most important thing for a cat is happiness, and indeed that it is located in my tail. The difference I’ve found through is that whenever I chase after it, it keeps running away from me, but when I go about my business and live my life, it just seems to follow after me wherever I go.”
I loved this becuase I think this happens to us so much in life. We often say, "Oh, I will be happy when I buy that house" or when "I lose ten pounds" but that's not the point. We need to set goals for the future, but we also need to learn to find happiness in the day. I belive that that is true happiness, being able to be happy regardless of where you are.
Well, as ya'll can tell, I am am very happy here and love my mission!
Ok, seriously last thing: Background. We almost always sit in the same spot at church. Well I have on a couple of occasions, I have had people who are looking into the church (investigators) tell me that the speaker at church was "glowing" and had this "aura or light" around them. I just took this as a great sign that they felt the Spirit.
Well a couple times now, when I have been sitting in the 3 row, middle of the bench, I have noticed that same thing. It turns out that if you sit in the right spot, you can see the lights flickering and the speaker truly does look out of this world. No way, I am going to tell my investigators that! I am going to let them attribute that to the Spirit, because it is a combination to both. Hooray for faulty lights!
Love,
Sister Susan Anderson
110 Oak Park Dr #B
Irmo, SC 29063
No comments:
Post a Comment