Monday, April 7, 2014

March 17th, 2014

This week was a whirwind! Highlights:

 

Elder Zwick, of the First Quorum of the 70 came and spoke with us this week! He did a mission tour and spent all of Thursday teaching us. I was privileged to go to a leadership meeting with him the next day as well, where he taught us in a smaller setting. He is a very charismatic man and it was great learning from him. My highlight though, would have to be the fact that he had a personal interview with me and my companion.

 

Interview:

Well we sat in a room with him for about twenty-five minutes where he asked us questions and experiences about our mission. He asked us about our experiences being STL's (Sister Training Leaders) then commented that he was going to call President Eyring later that week to tell him about what he found about STL's from interviewing us! Oh, man! No pressure. Luckily he told us after we answered all of the questions.

 

Well part way through the interview he said something about needing to be worthy, which of course I agreed with. You need to be worthy to serve an effective mission. But then a split second later, I realized, as his eyes did not leave mine, that he was not commenting about needing to be worthy, he was looking me in the eyes and asking me specifically, if I was completely worthy to serve a mission.

 

Realizing what was happening a half of second later, I just nodded that I was. Nothing crossed my mind but that I was. Then he turned to my companion and asked her the same question. She said yes. Those few seconds seemed an eternity. Well, this is a rather personal experience, but I am sharing it with y'all because it taught me a lesson.

 

In that moment, Elder Zwick, was acting in behalf of the Savior, when he asked me if I was worthy. Likewise, we are going to be asked by the Savior someday if we are worthy to not only serve him, but live with him. I always want to be able to say yes.

 

I am not perfect, or even close to it, but being on my mission, a lot of wordly influlences are eliminated. I don’t have too many distractions to take me away from the work, so it was easier, in some regards, to answer yes. How this relates to you: The less distractions you have, the less your mind is being taken away from the Savior. Sometimes we do things in life that seem important, but really aren’t. Or we watch something that seems harmless, yet it really is. So I invite you to see what distractions you have in your life that aren’t needed and cut them out.

 

While we may not all be interviewed by a member of the 70, our Bishop and Stake President act as a representative of the Lord when they interview us.

 

Funny Moment: The Lottery Ticket

Well, we were pulling up to someone’s street for an appointment, when a car drives by. I jokingly say that it is going to be Charles, the man we have an appointment with and of course it is him! So our appointment is driving away in the opposite direction of his home. Great.

 

Well just then, he then pulls over and tells us that he will be right back. He has to run to the gas station and do something with a lottery ticket. Charles, is a newly baptized member, who hasn’t been coming so frequently to church but wants to start to. ) So I open my mouth about to explain that we as a church, do not believe in gambling WHEN he say’s: “I just won $1000, I am going to go and tell them! I can’t retrieve it there, but I want to tell them.”

 

My mouth just closes as he drives away. Later that day we taught him. Haha, funny moments as a missionary. My companion suggested to let the Elders Quroum President teach that in a lesson on church on Sunday. One thing at a time.

 

Fort Jackson: Two more baptisms this week!

 

We have a couple more who will be baptized next week too! Because of all of our hard work on Ft. Jackson, we get to go to the Temple soon! I am so very excited to go. I love the Temple and miss it so much. This week one of the baptisms was Pvt. Shefield. He is a very nice young man who wants to follow Christ! I was able to teach him a lesson and invite him to be baptized. When I did, I accidently invited one of his friends, who was already a member of the church to be baptized as well, he graciously declined. All is well that ends well!
 
 Y'all have a wonderful week!
Love,

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