natalie ann: week 56: gratitude changes attitude

Monday, November 21st, 2016

Helloooo.

It's me again. It's been a crazyyyy week. We lost one of our wards :( first ward (or show low creek ward). Saddest thing ever. I get too attached to people I guess, I just love all the people I have met on my mission. So now we are in Paloma Ward, so we are in show low stake now and show low zone. So our whole stake is elders except us... boo hoo. I'm sending this late cause we have a rerverse pday kind of thing. We had a pmg workshop. This morning the jex's (a senior couple) wanted to go to lowes and take a picture by the joy sign, haha they are so funny. Our investigator Zach works there and driving up we were thinking wouldn't it be funny if we see Zach...we pull up we see him walking into work, WITH A COFFEE CUP! we get out of the car yelling and we steal his cup and throw it away lol. He was like "it's hot chocolate!" It was so funny.

Monday we had a referral for this blue trailer. So we went by and it ended up being members, recent converts. The elders teach them but one of their kids isn't a member. He is 15 & isn't interested. We had a little lesson with them. We had a lesson with Clarise and Sister Willis came with us. She didn't read so we read the Book of Mormon with her. She is really excited to read it! I asked her to be baptized and she said yes! Her husband wasn't in the lesson though. Her kids love it. We gave them all Book of mormons and Jesus stickers. We then had a lesson with Zach. He is having a hard time keeping commitments, we talked about obedience. Brother Macgregor came with us to fellowship Zach, he is a convert so it was good.

Tuesday we were walking to Sal & Teresa's (taco Tuesday) for lunch with Brother Duncan. And we hear Mark yelling at us. Anyways it was perfect cause Mark then comes eat with us and Brother Duncan had his son who is YSA age so he was getting him excited about YSA. We had a funny TTI, we were at a less-actives door seeing if they wanted to come back to church and meet with us and he said no so we asked for a referral and of course he was like "I stick to myself, I don't know anyone" and then I turn around and see this teenage boy walking, I ask the less-active if he thinks he would be interested? The boy sees us from like 30 ft away and we yell hi! He says hi and then I say "wait we have something to tell you!" And then quickly say bye to the less-active and talk to the boy on the street. He said he has had missionaries over before! They are Spanish so we referred them to Spanish missionaries. Pretty cool though, talking to everyone you see works! Brother Ellsworth, the guy that referred us to Howard Fisher wanted to meet with us before our set lesson that night with Howard. We said okay. We talk to him and he wants to teach the lesson this time and then hand it over to us...oh dear. He said he did it with the elders investigators and that he promised Howard he would do it. We asked the elders how it was and they said it was cool and true doctrine so we said alright. Really strange though, cause we are the ones used to teaching. We have a lesson with Howard at bro Ellsworth's house. And he taught his "modified" plan of salvation. It was cool but REALLY deep doctrine and he talked so fast and I was just dying in the corner. He talks about heavenly mother and just lots of stuff that I'm sure confused Howard. And some of it was really questionable doctrine...ugh but yeah haha. We talked to Howard about it later and he was like yeah that was too much for me.

Wednesday we had district meeting (our last) but at that time we didn't know it was our last. Our district leader bought us pizza. Yes. We then saw Sister Valade who is a less-active and her granddaughter Brittany. She isn't a member. We invited her to start reading the Book of Mormon. Random story...we were contacting a referral and we were about to pray and we look over and there is this guy barfing EVERYWHERE. LOL. Were are like what's happening! And then after it all he just goes back to smoking his cig. People are so weird. We then had a great lesson with Deanna. She is at 2 Nephi 18! Like none of my investigators have ever gotten that far! I asked her to be baptized if she knew it was true, she said yes but she will have to think about it. We then had a correlation with Brother Rubert (new ward mission leader) in Show Low Creek Ward and he is awesome! We were so excited!! The next day we found out we weren't in the ward anymore. Our lives are awesome.

Thursday is the day we find out. We get a call from our zone leader and we're just like NOOOOO. so many tears were shed and so much yelling. We went to DQ to get icecream. I love the members there so much. The hardest part is that I won't get to teach Howard and his family though. Like I honestly felt like I was supposed to meet them. It just hurts a lot that we can't teach them anymore. It's crazy how fast you come to love someone. We met with the elders who are taking over our area and they are bums and weren't even taking notes. Were like come on care a little bit more about the area we are so sad to leave. Ah it was just ask and then we had a meeting with the elders that used to be in Paloma and they are like yeah the ward sucks at missionary work and telling us all these awful things. We're like great thanks for telling us. They did find two families to teach recently so that's good. While we were contacting this potential and talking to this guy we hear yelling and this guy beating his girl and the guy we're talking to is like "one moment" goes to his car and gets a gun and walks over there looking all tough, we're like what's going on....kind of scary but it was all good. We then had a lesson with Zach, he really just needs to get married or keep the law of chastity. Anddd word of wisdom. But Channa was saying how she doesn't want to get married right now and that she won't marry Zach until he is baptized...so we need to figure it out, we asked them to talk to bishop. Zach agreed but Channa didn't.

Friday we had sisters conference with all the sisters in the mountains. President Robinson & his wife came. It was really good, our theme was trust in the Lord. I needed the conference a lot cause of everything that was going on. It just didn't make sense at all why it needed to happen. And I might not find out for a while why it did happen. I gave the spiritual thought. I talked about how much God trusts us. We have this opportunity to do the most important work on earth because he does trust us. He knows us more than we know ourselves. We are here now because we were elected to be here now. "Faith and trust in the Lord require us to acknowledge that His wisdom is superior to our own. We must also acknowledge that His plan provides the greatest potential for spiritual development and learning." - Elder Bassett. Heavenly Father hasn't done anything to make me not trust Him, He always has a plan, and that plan is harder but always better than I have for myself. I'm grateful for a Father that does trust me, when he gives me hard things to do it's kind of like a compliment because he knows how strong I am. He knows how strong we all are, we have always been his most trustworthy children. The theme was from Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I love that. In order for Him to direct us, we have to be going. I know that His path is always the right path. Later that night we had a hand off lesson for Howard. Oh my goodness is was so good, it was weird teaching with an elder but holy cow that family is so prepared I'm so sad I can't teach them. Howard and his mom, Maria read the restoration over and over again. Maria said it all just made sense. How cool. They loved the lesson. We set a date for January 9th! When we said the first vision Howard started crying. The spirit was so sweet. And I guess they went to church again and it was Maria's first time and she loved it! She said she felt at home. She told the Pattersons that she wants to be as happy as Sister Fisher...best compliment ever! This gospel does make me so happy! I love sharing it with others! I'm just grateful I got to play a small part in their conversion. Ahh love that fam.

Saturday was randomly like the hottest day ever. We pretty much were in Paloma all day seeing people so we just walked the neighborhood. The members in Paloma are really nice and SO excited to have sisters. I guess a little while back the members didn't trust the elders at all so sisters is probably what this ward needs. We had an awesome lesson with Clarise on the plan of salvation. We got her husband to join for a little bit and he said the closing prayer! We had ward correlation with our new ward, our ward mission leader's name is Brother Moore. He is pretty cool. We are going to get the work going.

Sunday was a little crazy, we didn't even have time to go to show low ward. We are now in two different buildings. We did go to ward council is show low ward though. We had pec in Paloma Ward. It was a pretty good meeting. We had our first lesson with Paige, she is a nonmember married to Mike who is a less-active. They are a cute young couple with two little kids. Paige has no religious background so we are stating from the basics. We taught about God and how the gospel blesses families. We brought Sister Macgregor and she was the MOST perfect member!! Paige might even come to church on sunday! We ate dinner with Paloma Ward with recent converts. Their name is the Ramirez family, they are awesome!! Most solid converts ever. They have four boys. She made us reallyyyy good tacos and I ate 8...mainly cause I wanted to beat the elders record...who says sisters can't eat a lot. That's one thing I have learned on my mission, how to eat. But yeah I love that family so much already. They gave us a referral for a new move in across the street. Ends up being a pmf! The guys (nonmembers) name is Chris Fisher. I just keep meeting people with my same last name. But he said we can come back! We then had a lesson with the Lamdins (less-actives). And the husband isn't a member! (Sad that I get excited about that lol).

Ah but yeah it's been a crazy week. I don't know why we are in Paloma Ward but I'm just gonna keep working hard! I have too many things to be grateful for this season.

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" -1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

I love this scripture. It reminded me of a quote.

"When you pray, are you really praying or just saying prayers? When you pray, do you really, truly want that “not my will, but thine, be done”? - Elder Uceda

We need to be thankful in our circumstances. What if we had only the things we thanked for yesterday? The things we take for granted, others are praying for.

"live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you" - Alma 34:38

I have so much to be grateful for and I could make a big list but I won't. I'm just so grateful to serve my Lord.

Have a happy thanksgiving!