The Good Life

The Good Life   (I had to go find a Starbucks to post this from as my apt still doesn't have internet!!)

ALLLOOOOHHHA! Holly molly is it ever HOT out here! Oh my gosh I feel like melting on the sidewalk each time I go out side!

Before I get into the details of my week, I'd like to give a quick shout out to my wonderful Auntie Wendy for the super thoughtful gift you sent me for my birthday! I would be lying if I said I didn't squeal a little when I opened it ;) Also I want to let Auntie Sue know that I got the peanut butter balls! Thank you SO much for sending them out to me! I was so touched by how thoughtful that was and ate them all within 24 hours... oops hahahaha! I've also been thinking about Clare a lot over these past few weeks. I love her so much and I often look back on the days I spent with her. It is amazing how many lessons I've learned from that little girl :) She truly is a gift from God! I cant wait to spend more time with her when I get home and I'm always praying for her!

This is a brand new family that just moved into the ward. They are the Cunningham's and I LOVE them! We already have them fellowship our favorite part member family the Yips haha :) These are some of there kids Austin and Haley. Mom notice the rocket sticker on Austins shirt :)

As for my week I ended up spending a lot of time on my knees giving thanks to God for all of the blessings he is giving Sister Rogers and I. I didn't include this in my letter home last week, but not only were we dropped by Angela but we were also dropped by Laura and Heather. Needless to say I got a little stressed, but something my trainer Sister Williams told me, stood out in my mind. She said, "When people decide not meet with us anymore, that's just God's way of making room for those who are ready to receive the blessings of the gospel." I latched onto that and started to do some work. These are some of the blessings we have seen this week:

First off is SAMMY: So Sister Rogers and I are in the car heading over to our appointment with Sammy and I look over at sister Rogers and say,"We are going to invite Sammy to be baptized on July 28th tonight."

Sister Rogers stops what she is doing, analyzes my face to see if I'm kidding, decides I'm serious, takes a deep breath and says... "Awesome!" hahaha! Dear sweet Sister Rogers!

Our game plan with Sammy that night was to help him understand baptism. In the past when we have invited Sammy to be baptized he has come up with a host of reasons why not to be baptized. But tonight I just had this really good feeling that everything was going to be alright. So we started out the lesson reviewing what we had talked about before (the great apostasy) and good news, He Still Agrees With Us! haha. Then I opened up the scriptures to 3Nephi 11: 21-26. This is the part in the Book Of Mormon where Christ has come to visit the people in the Americas and is teaching them the proper way to be baptized. We begin to read through the verses and pause at the end of them to discuss each principle that Christ is teaching us. So far so good, Sammy is following along. Sister Rogers then says something profound, she mentions to Sammy that after he is baptized, he himself will be able to hold the priesthood.... BAMMM! We have Sammy's full attention haha. We talk a little more about this and the spirit just fills the room. There is no more debate, just this thirst to learn more. In the end we invited him to be baptized and he said YES! I challenged him to prepare for baptism for the 28th and he was more resistant. It took some talking through, but in the end he agreed to prepare himself for that date. We still have some work to do, Sammy still believes Joseph Smith was a Saint and not a prophet, and getting him out to church has been REALLY difficult, especially with his health problems, but the desire is beginning to grow within him!

The blessings didn't end here either. We have been really working with our members to share the gospel with their friends, but as any missionary can tell you, this isn't always the easiest task. It can be really scary sharing something so special to you with someone you really care about. Worries of offending people, not wanting to change a relationship etc.. always interfere with the actual sharing of the gospel. However this week we received 3 member referrals! 

1. Brother Goodrich shared the gospel with his co-worker Monica who then expressed the desire to learn more. So Bro. Goodrich called us up and we ended up meeting with Monica just this week at the Goodrich's home. As we were getting to know Monica she expressed to us the desire to fill an emptiness in her heart. She has a nice house, a fiancée, a great  job that she loves, essentially she has it all, but she feels like there is a small part of her that is incomplete. We shared with her the plan of salvation, or God's plan of happiness for all of His children. As we explained to her that before we came to earth we all lived with God and were part of his family, you could just see this change in Monica. We continued to talk about how God loves us so much that He has provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and become pure and clean, through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ. We talked about how after this life we will be judged according to our works here on life and how if we remain faithful to the end, we can attain exaltation (living with God in a state of never ending happiness as a family.) This message brings peace and purpose to our lives and I could see Monica begin to change as she came to realize Gods plan for her. We have a meeting with her again today and I cant wait to see her!

2. Rebecca Choi gave us a referral for her friend Sam who actually recently came to Eddie Choi's (Rebeccas husband's) baptism. Apparently Sam has been asking questions about the church for a while, which is supper exciting! We get to meet with Sam on Wednesday :)

3. Sister Cabrera has a really good friend Marisol who has had a pretty tough life and for years Sis. Cabrera has felt that she needs to share the gospel with her, but hasn't been able to get the courage to ask her friend to meet with the missionaries- that is until last week! Woot Woot! We challenged Sis. Cabrera to extend the invitation to Marisol and her friend agreed!

These 3 referrals truly are a miracle. Up to this point on my mission I have never actually been able to scheduled an appointment with a member referral, let alone have the members actually put the effort in to make the appointment! It is just incredible...

I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of all His children. He loves each and everyone of us. He will always be there to support us all we have to do is Trust in him.

Also Elder Jerowsky, the people in Oakville love you haha (The Guveras and Nuscas)

So I really liked those 2 colours together, but i couldnt wear 2 shirts.... so sister rogers said she would wear one :D

Line of the Week:

11:45 pm Sister Rogers sits bolt up right in bed

Rogers: "Do we have to kneel to pray for our investigators?"

Me: "What the..."

Rogers gets out of bed and kneels down and starts to mumble something

Me: "....get back in bed Sis. Rogers, your dreaming."

Sister Rogers gets back in bed and goes to sleep hahaha!

Scripture of the Week: 2 nephi 2: 25

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

A Haiku for You:

He is there

Heavenly Father

perspective

 Sister Hall

please include this in my email home too

During our life we know that the Lord gives us challenges and opportunities to grow and stretch in various ways so that he can shape and mold us into what he wants us to become. During our mission experience that process is compressed and magnified significantly. We often refer to this process as the refiner’s fire. It is revealing to understand the origin of the term refiner’s fire.It originated with the process of refining silver. A refiner is a person who uses extreme heat or fire to separate the silver from the other material that pollutes the purity of the silver. This is done by heating the entire mix of materials so that it becomes a hot liquid mass. As the silver is heated the impurities float to the top and the master silver smith removes them. He then turns up the heat again to bring more impurities to the top. He continues this process until all the impurities have been removed. During this time he must always watch the silver, for if it is heated too much it will be destroyed. As we reflect on this process in our lives we see that the Savior is the great refiner. See Isa. 1:25;48:10;Zech. 13:9;Mal. 3:2–3.

Of this refining process Elder Dallin H. Oaks made the following observation, “So much of our lives are like the process of refining silver. Father Lehi promised his son Jacob that God would ‘consecrate [his] afflictions for [his] gain’ (2 Nephi 2:2). The Prophet Joseph was promised that ‘thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high’ (D&C 121:7–8). Most of us experience some measure of what the scriptures call ‘the furnace of affliction’ (Isaiah 48:10; 1 Nephi 20:10).Our needed conversions are often achieved more readily by suffering and adversity than by comfort and tranquillity. Through the justice and mercy of a loving Father in Heaven, the refinement and sanctification possible through such experiences can help us achieve what God desires us to become.”

From time to time as we experience stress, fatigue, and discouragement remember that we are in the refiner’s fire and that sometimes the master refiner has to turn up the heat to refine and purify us. Embrace that time so that he can remove the impurities from our lives and we can learn all that he has prepared to teach us.

This one is for Jill! Notice the hockey glove hahaha