Monday, September 22, 2014

Press Forward

Just me this morning!
Our planting corn "Joseph Smith Style" service day!




Oh my family that I love so much! I love you. So much. I am so glad you all got to go to the temple and feel the spirit and enjoy the dedication!! The day you were all in the dedication we were having Stake Conference here in Ayacucho and President Douglas and a Setenta Elder Solis were here. It was a super spiritual meeting, and there was a really great turnout :)

Well. This week was a week filled with the spirit for me as well :) On Tuesday, I was super stressed and I just felt weird. We had a lot of things to do with some new planning tools and also with just general working with the ward.  I had to do part of a training on the work of salvation program and I was just frazzled. I finally listened to the prompting to ask for a priesthood blessing from my district leader Elder Flores. After explaining for 5 minutes that I really did only have 2 names to the amazement of the elders and also our mission leader, he gave me a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood. I had a super duper clear flashback in the middle of it to when dad gave me a blessing the night before I left. I know that the priesthood is a real power and I am so grateful for it. Also, that night our mission leader, Luis, who was in there when I asked for the blessing, called us and brought us a cake. He told me that eating was the only way to solve stress in the mission. I love him. Hahahah I am so grateful for him and people like his family and these ward members who care so much about the missionaries.

We have this new investigator with a baptismal date named Mery and she is amazing. This week, we talked about the Restoration and watched the short version of the Restoration and when it was over we asked her what she was feeling or thinking. She just said,  "Well I believe it" , and that when she prays, she knows that it is true. The spirit was so powerful. The message of the Restoration opens hearts and minds and touches spirits deeper than anything else.

We also had a lesson with another family this week and watched the full Restoration video, the newer one that is narrated by a convert, and not by Lucy Mack Smith. There is a scene in it when Alvin, Hyrum, and Joseph are all together just being boys and it of course made me think of my 3 brothers and I just love them so much. I admire them, just as I admire the Smith brothers. I think they are so amazing. I am so thankful to have 3 brothers that are so good and so perfect. Well, from 4000 miles away I think they are perfect :) hahahaha no promises after.... just kidding! So kidding.

Speaking of Joseph Smith, we went full Joseph Smith movie in service on Thursday. We planted corn with pickaxes and a stick. It was so fun! And hard work. I am so thankful for parents that taught me to work hard and love the Lord, just like Joseph Smith.

So one night this week we were leaving the chapel at like 8:50 and really needed a taxi, but they are sometimes a little more rare at night. Worried we would be late, I didn't really know what to do. All of a sudden I thought of my parents and how if they were here, they would send me a taxi. And then I was like, well why would my Heavenly Father not do the same? I said a prayer in my head and literally a taxi honked at us before I could even finish. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who literally answers prayers when we ask in faith, and for parents that are so amazing that it makes it easy to trust in my heavenly parents as well. 

We had a zone meeting with President this weekend and it was just what I needed! It always answers the questions I have been having and helps me to be a better missionary. I love President Douglas. He reminds me of Dad :)

Stake Conference was pretty great too! They talked a lot about missionary work and how the members could really be involved. Also, they handed out coloring pages for the kids and I totally had a nostalgia flashback to being a kid in Yucca Valley and coloring those. Hahahaha 

After the conference, our ward council went out and visited people! They actually did stuff! They came with us to meet some investigators and they are all seriously so funny. It was a really fun night and it made me so happy to see them really working :)

I want to finish just saying I think I am in love. With the Book of Mormon. It is so amazing. I am stunned every week with how much more I love to read it and learn and feel the Spirit that comes with it. I finished 3 Nefi in Spanish today and two of my favorite scriptures are in there: Chapter 17 verse 5 and Chapter 19 verse 25. I love the Book of Mormon, and I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love this work, I love this people, I love my family and I love this Gospel.


I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Lauren

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