Hello everyone!!
Thank goodness it's pday because this week has just been nuts. We taught so many lessons. So many ups and downs. It feels like all of our investigators are struggling and we are trying to find new people to teach. Overall it's been a great week though long but good. I'm just so grateful for pdays. And holy cow it is August! How did that happen?! Also how am I already half way through my mission?! I'm so grateful for all that I have learned and how much I have grown.
Monday we saw Gaylon. Sister Schofield came with us. He was having a really hard time. We only saw him once last week cause he was having such a hard time. We are seeing him tonight though!! We then finally saw a less-active that we have been trying to see for forever. Her name is Peggy Mead.
Tuesday was a good and busy day. We saw Teri and she is doing a lot better. She has been coming to church just for sacrament which is good. We saw Sister Rivera and her daughters. They are really awesome and I like them lots. We saw the Tisdells and they came to church on Sunday! Well except Sonny. Sonny is getting really confused but he is always very entertaining.
We saw the Youngs. Holley is moving out but her dad and her son Quincy are staying there cause he is trying to adopt his grandson. I don't know it's all confusing. We saw the Bigalows and they are doing good.
Wednesday was good. We saw Cyndie, I just love her. We see her rig after we get ready every week so I'm always so tired in her lessons. We then saw Natasha. Sister Pulsipher came with us. We taught them the plan of salvation. It was really cute to watch the 7 yr old, Andrea, think as we taught it. You could tell she was thinking. I love teaching little kids! We saw Chelsea and she taught us a lesson. She is so awesome. We saw Sally. Her hand is hurting her a lot since the surgery. We go over every few days and change her bandages. Call me Doctor Nat. We had an apt with Dollie but she wasn't there. Her daughter and all of her friends were though. Dollie told her daughter Brittany to have us teach anyways so we did! Haha it was a lot of fun. They are all 16-20 and it was just fun. Some of them weren't members. The ones that were said they wanted to get back to church. There are sooo many less-actives here. We then had a really good lesson with Sheila. She told us more personal things and finally admitted to us that she still smokes!! Her house always smells like smoke and she would lie to us and say she doesn't. So she is going to wait to go through the temple in December. We then went craw dad fishing with 1st Ward yw. Haha it was so much fun. I sucked at it but I did catch one! It was so pretty I loved being outside. We then saw Daryl and he came to church on Sunday! Miracle!
Thursday ( h u m p d a y
) was good. We went out to lunch with bro Ayres. He is the best. We tried to see lots of people that day but no one was home!! I felt like I was in Scottsdale again. We went to the family history center for a bit, I found a family that I could seal their parents for. It's grandma Udell's grandma. So my great great grandma and her kids. We had a lesson with the Armijos but no one answered...we think they did that on purpose which is way sad. They never text us back. After kind of a hard long day of not seeing anyone we had a miracle! So the Ward council told us to go visit the Davis family. Their address wasn't in lds tools and so people tried to describe it to us. So we knocked on that door we thought it was for a couple weeks but no answer. So that night Sister Chausow said let's knock on the neighbors door and ask if they live there. I start walking towards a house with lights on and I guess later my comp told me this was not the house she was talking about going to. Anyways we knock and a women answers and is way nice and invites us in. We are like they have to be members...anyways luckily she introduces herself and says "I'm Jessica Davis but you already knew that." Internally were like no thanks for telling us!! Haha. But the Ward council says she needs her heart softened but she was way nice and we shared a message with her and some of her kids. She even invited us over for dinner tomorrow night and we are going to do some service for her cause she works at living hope. It's just cool cause God leads you to the people you need to see at the right time. It was such a tender mercy.
Friday morning we had a lesson with Haylie. She is so smart and is such a solid recent convert!! I love her. Her boyfriend Mark is leaving this week for his mission. Poor girl. We then helped paint the Pulsipher's fence red. They have a lot of teenagers so I felt like I was at home haha. I love that family. We had Ward correlation with the Shelton's, it had been so long since they were on a cruise to Alaska. Luckily dinner canceled cause we were just so tired. Some times it is just nice not having to socialize for an hour. Real talk. We had a lesson with the Eagar family. Love them! I love people that I can just be really bold with.
Saturday we went to DQ and they still have cotton candy blizzards, praise. Anyways we went to see the Johnson family and had a lesson with them. It was my first time teaching them. They were a bit awk at first but then we got to know them better and it was fine. Megan went to girls camp and is definitely the driving force for their family. They went to church on Sunday!! We then saw Sister Markley and she seems to be doing a lot better. We had a lesson with Brylee but no one was home... So then we went to see her mom (who is crazy) and we went to talk to her so she would even let Brylee get baptized. Basically she feels Brylee is too young and isn't ready. Idk it was just awk but I was confident and tried to share the gospel with them. They don't understand it at all and think you can't mess up at all after baptism and I was trying to explain repentance. Anyways basically Brylee won't be getting baptized anytime soon but we can still teach her. We then went to Nutrioso for a bbq. It was very cute. They had little shops and a band playing country music. We tried to talk to as many people as we could. We then went to try to see some less-actives but we went to the wrong house but that house ended up being a PMF house. She is a member but doesn't go to church because she is very sick with MS. It is very sad. We got to know them and shared a message. We then had our lesson with a referral from Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the seventy! We got a call from him on Tuesday about her. He has a cabin near here and Martha cleans it. Anyways Martha's husband passed away recently and Elder Andersen gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish and said some things. Well we taught her the plan of salvation and it was really good. She and her two kids were there. I started talking and she just started crying. She is very prepared. It was hard cause she understands but sometimes has a hard time putting her words together in English. So we might have to pass her off to the other sisters cause Sister Kamalu speaks Spanish. It was just a beautiful lesson and she committed to baptism! I already love her a lot!
Sunday was a crazy day. Oh man. So we were asked to give talks in Third Ward. And we wrote them that morning cause that's the only time we had time to! We gave the talks, they had us speak on missionary work...haha go figure. Then we had to run to 1st Ward (different building) and caught the last half of sacrament meeting. And then we had to go back to 3rd Ward and taught sharing time in primary and then we had to go back to 1st Ward and teach their sharing time. Haha it was just nuts, and some people got mad cause they had brought us cookies and they couldn't find us, oh brother. But we have soooo many cookies in our freezer it is ridiculous. We can't hand them out fast enough. We saw Dave jr and had a fun object lesson with them haha. He is such a child. We then went to third ward's bishop youth discussion. We had dinner at the Nelsons who are less-actives. But are becoming active! So that's cool to see!! We then saw Dave and Haley. They are both working on reading their scriptures more.
Every Monday morning we do yoga, yes free yoga! It's the best. It reminds me of Wednesday night yoga at byui. Ah miss that.
This week I have been studying grace. The talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox is SO good. You should all read it. But it helped me understand it more. I think I have a hard time understanding grace because I don't fully understand the atonement. I don't know what quote I want to share because they are all so good. He says "Jesus doesn't make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us." The atonement is done, he paid our debt in full. He talks about how grace isn't about being saved, it is more about becoming like the Savior. We can live more abundantly be us self grace. He says "grace is not a booster engine that kicks you once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source." I love that. We can feel the enabling power, grace all the time in our life. He says "the miracle of the atonement is not just that we can go home but that - miraculously we can feel at home there". I love that. If we aren't worthy we are not going to want to live on God's presence because we won't be comfortable. Let us have God's grace transform us into something greater than we can imagine.
I was also on lds.org and read an article called "The Gift of Being Broken" by Ariel Szuch. It is really good. She says "our brokenness brings us to Christ. It is by bringing our broken hearts to Him that we are made whole." Being broken isn't a bad thing. It is a gift. When we have holes in our hearts, it is then that we have room for the Savior to fill our hearts. And then we recognize the need for a Savior.
I love my mission and my Savior. Have a blessed week!
Xoxo,
Sista fisha
Thank goodness it's pday because this week has just been nuts. We taught so many lessons. So many ups and downs. It feels like all of our investigators are struggling and we are trying to find new people to teach. Overall it's been a great week though long but good. I'm just so grateful for pdays. And holy cow it is August! How did that happen?! Also how am I already half way through my mission?! I'm so grateful for all that I have learned and how much I have grown.
Monday we saw Gaylon. Sister Schofield came with us. He was having a really hard time. We only saw him once last week cause he was having such a hard time. We are seeing him tonight though!! We then finally saw a less-active that we have been trying to see for forever. Her name is Peggy Mead.
Tuesday was a good and busy day. We saw Teri and she is doing a lot better. She has been coming to church just for sacrament which is good. We saw Sister Rivera and her daughters. They are really awesome and I like them lots. We saw the Tisdells and they came to church on Sunday! Well except Sonny. Sonny is getting really confused but he is always very entertaining.
We saw the Youngs. Holley is moving out but her dad and her son Quincy are staying there cause he is trying to adopt his grandson. I don't know it's all confusing. We saw the Bigalows and they are doing good.
Wednesday was good. We saw Cyndie, I just love her. We see her rig after we get ready every week so I'm always so tired in her lessons. We then saw Natasha. Sister Pulsipher came with us. We taught them the plan of salvation. It was really cute to watch the 7 yr old, Andrea, think as we taught it. You could tell she was thinking. I love teaching little kids! We saw Chelsea and she taught us a lesson. She is so awesome. We saw Sally. Her hand is hurting her a lot since the surgery. We go over every few days and change her bandages. Call me Doctor Nat. We had an apt with Dollie but she wasn't there. Her daughter and all of her friends were though. Dollie told her daughter Brittany to have us teach anyways so we did! Haha it was a lot of fun. They are all 16-20 and it was just fun. Some of them weren't members. The ones that were said they wanted to get back to church. There are sooo many less-actives here. We then had a really good lesson with Sheila. She told us more personal things and finally admitted to us that she still smokes!! Her house always smells like smoke and she would lie to us and say she doesn't. So she is going to wait to go through the temple in December. We then went craw dad fishing with 1st Ward yw. Haha it was so much fun. I sucked at it but I did catch one! It was so pretty I loved being outside. We then saw Daryl and he came to church on Sunday! Miracle!
Thursday ( h u m p d a y
Friday morning we had a lesson with Haylie. She is so smart and is such a solid recent convert!! I love her. Her boyfriend Mark is leaving this week for his mission. Poor girl. We then helped paint the Pulsipher's fence red. They have a lot of teenagers so I felt like I was at home haha. I love that family. We had Ward correlation with the Shelton's, it had been so long since they were on a cruise to Alaska. Luckily dinner canceled cause we were just so tired. Some times it is just nice not having to socialize for an hour. Real talk. We had a lesson with the Eagar family. Love them! I love people that I can just be really bold with.
Saturday we went to DQ and they still have cotton candy blizzards, praise. Anyways we went to see the Johnson family and had a lesson with them. It was my first time teaching them. They were a bit awk at first but then we got to know them better and it was fine. Megan went to girls camp and is definitely the driving force for their family. They went to church on Sunday!! We then saw Sister Markley and she seems to be doing a lot better. We had a lesson with Brylee but no one was home... So then we went to see her mom (who is crazy) and we went to talk to her so she would even let Brylee get baptized. Basically she feels Brylee is too young and isn't ready. Idk it was just awk but I was confident and tried to share the gospel with them. They don't understand it at all and think you can't mess up at all after baptism and I was trying to explain repentance. Anyways basically Brylee won't be getting baptized anytime soon but we can still teach her. We then went to Nutrioso for a bbq. It was very cute. They had little shops and a band playing country music. We tried to talk to as many people as we could. We then went to try to see some less-actives but we went to the wrong house but that house ended up being a PMF house. She is a member but doesn't go to church because she is very sick with MS. It is very sad. We got to know them and shared a message. We then had our lesson with a referral from Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the seventy! We got a call from him on Tuesday about her. He has a cabin near here and Martha cleans it. Anyways Martha's husband passed away recently and Elder Andersen gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish and said some things. Well we taught her the plan of salvation and it was really good. She and her two kids were there. I started talking and she just started crying. She is very prepared. It was hard cause she understands but sometimes has a hard time putting her words together in English. So we might have to pass her off to the other sisters cause Sister Kamalu speaks Spanish. It was just a beautiful lesson and she committed to baptism! I already love her a lot!
Sunday was a crazy day. Oh man. So we were asked to give talks in Third Ward. And we wrote them that morning cause that's the only time we had time to! We gave the talks, they had us speak on missionary work...haha go figure. Then we had to run to 1st Ward (different building) and caught the last half of sacrament meeting. And then we had to go back to 3rd Ward and taught sharing time in primary and then we had to go back to 1st Ward and teach their sharing time. Haha it was just nuts, and some people got mad cause they had brought us cookies and they couldn't find us, oh brother. But we have soooo many cookies in our freezer it is ridiculous. We can't hand them out fast enough. We saw Dave jr and had a fun object lesson with them haha. He is such a child. We then went to third ward's bishop youth discussion. We had dinner at the Nelsons who are less-actives. But are becoming active! So that's cool to see!! We then saw Dave and Haley. They are both working on reading their scriptures more.
Every Monday morning we do yoga, yes free yoga! It's the best. It reminds me of Wednesday night yoga at byui. Ah miss that.
This week I have been studying grace. The talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox is SO good. You should all read it. But it helped me understand it more. I think I have a hard time understanding grace because I don't fully understand the atonement. I don't know what quote I want to share because they are all so good. He says "Jesus doesn't make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us." The atonement is done, he paid our debt in full. He talks about how grace isn't about being saved, it is more about becoming like the Savior. We can live more abundantly be us self grace. He says "grace is not a booster engine that kicks you once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source." I love that. We can feel the enabling power, grace all the time in our life. He says "the miracle of the atonement is not just that we can go home but that - miraculously we can feel at home there". I love that. If we aren't worthy we are not going to want to live on God's presence because we won't be comfortable. Let us have God's grace transform us into something greater than we can imagine.
I was also on lds.org and read an article called "The Gift of Being Broken" by Ariel Szuch. It is really good. She says "our brokenness brings us to Christ. It is by bringing our broken hearts to Him that we are made whole." Being broken isn't a bad thing. It is a gift. When we have holes in our hearts, it is then that we have room for the Savior to fill our hearts. And then we recognize the need for a Savior.
I love my mission and my Savior. Have a blessed week!
Xoxo,
Sista fisha
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| Craw dad fishing |
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| mid-mission crisis |
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| nutrioso, arizona |
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