Look Ahead & Believe

Sooooo this was like the best week thus far. #Hallelu

Philly was fun! Rode a creepy ghetto train so that was interesting..haha

After we went to Philly we went to Sister William's house. She's the cutest lady ever. She's from legit AFRICA! and made us African food. Peanut Butter soup and Fufu! It was good! Fufu has the consistency of straight up GUM so me being funny dangled it above my mouth and it dropped and got stuck in my hair!..I had African gum in my hair!! niiiiiiiiice.

So I'm in like a very weird transition stage. I want to be a good missionary and really give all my energy and thoughts to the people here and serve the Lord, but at the same time I've been thinking about my family and friends and what they're all doing and what I'd be doing if I wasn't serving a mission right now...

I read Mat 6:24 "Ye cannot serve two masters..." And made the choice right there to be doing missionary work full heartily.

I told my comps how I wanted to be better at this and Sister Menlove gave me the PERFECT talk for this. Everyone should read it!

"Remember Lot's Wife" by Jeffery R Holland

Lot and his family were commanded to leave their home and city and to not look back. Lot's wife did and was turned into a pillar of salt...

"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays however good those yesterdays may have been. The pas is to be learned from, but not lived in. When we have learned what we need to learn and ave brought back with us the best that we have experienced, then look ahead we remember faith is always pointed toward the future" Lot's wife didn't have faith! She doubted the Lords ability to give her something better than she already had.

I cannot serve my mission 100% if I'm looking back. I need to look ahead & believe the Lord will help me through my mission.

I feel like I've been humbled so much by being here! Not gonna lie, when I was in the MTC I thought I had this missionary thing down pretty well. I was teaching with the Spirit, lessons were going so well, I felt like I was good at teaching others the gospel. AND THEN I GET OUT HERE! and I realized how LITTLE I knew. The MTC is great...but the real mission field is a lot different! And a whole lot more REAL. I've realized how I can't do this alone, and that I am literally NOTHING without Jesus Christ and His Atonement and having the Spirit with me constantly. I need the Holy Ghost with me in every lesson and I need to be doing everything I can everday to allow that to happen. How can I do that if I am looking back? I can't. I need to start looking ahead and focus all of my time & thoughts & energy toward the work. Have the faith to move forward. Let the past go and look forward.

I think I had some pride build up while I was at the MTC, but I've definitely been humbled the crap out of while I've been here...hahahaha I'm not joking.

#HumbledTheCrapOutOf

Friday October 4th was my 1 month mark! HOLLAHHHH! That was the best day ever. Because I finally started to actually love being here and being a missionary. Last week we were looking through our finder-binder ( a binder that has contact info for less actives and members) and we came across a name that stuck out to all of us. Francis Cortese. We meant to stop by but we were really busy all that week with other people, but Friday 2 of our appts cancelled on us! I was so bummed..but we decided to stop by and see Francis. Hahahahaha and she's the coolest funniest lady ever. She's a doll. She was born in Puerto Rico! We shared what we've learned so far being missionaries. It was a really cool lesson because we all felt the spirit so strong. Afterwards I said I prayer in my heart expressing my gratitude for her! It's crazy how quick you can LOVE someone and really sincerely care for them. I know that's just how Heavenly Father feels for each of us. After that experience

My attitude/thoughts/prayers have been changing day by day since being here serving the Lord. I'm slowly but surely learning to forget about myself because serving a mission literally has NOTHING to do with me. It's all about the person and helping them come unto Christ. I can't force them, all I can do it create an environment for the Spirit to be there so they can be touched. My words and voice goes to their minds, while the Spirit can pierce their hearts...and that's where true conversion happens! It's all about the Spirit they feel.

General Conference was this weekend. Sooo good. Okay confession...I never fully watched GC in my life until a year ago. I never really enjoyed it so I wouldn't really watch it, and it seemed like there was so many better things to do than to watch... I picked a good time to start watching it because it changed my life!! A year ago they announced the age change, and here I am a sister missionary! haha coooooool. anyways I really liked this session. It seemed to go by so fast! They hit on so many important topics

Here's what I got from it:

"Look ahead and believe"

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"

"Patiently endure"

They talked a TON about missionary work and how the members need to help us out! haha my family better be doing missionary work at home! Share the gospel, don't be afraid to talk to someone about Christ and the restoration. Pray for missionary opportunities!

For the 2nd session of GC we went over to VAI SIKAHEMA'S house to eat lunch and watch a session with him and his family! If you don't know who he is..google him!! (; hahaha he's a pro football player

such a sweet and fun family! we were cracking up watching GC with him because he kept rewinding it when mo-tab was singing and pointing out all of the funny faces the people were making hahahaha

Lolz of the week:

So we were in the car and Sister Menlove is telling a story she overheard in he library to us about how some guy got jumped and only suffered a mild concussion.

Me: "Uhhh I don't want to sound dumb but what does the word jumped mean?"

Sis Howard & Menlove: "You don't know what the word jumped means?? Hahahhahahahaha

Me: "Guys I'm white, of course I don't know what that word means..."

They're just dying of laughter now....hahaha I'm so naive...I never know what's going on! haha btw it means to get robbed/attacked

Oh Sis Howard just told us there's a tornado watch today...hahahaa YOLO.