How Great Shall Be Your Joy

How Great Shall Be Your Joy

I must admit, this week I have been spoiled.

First off, I have been taking the advice from my sister training leader and we are dropping some of our investigators. Its hard, but I know that it is necessary. I have a little analogy actually about this that I'd love to share with you all. So you know how if someone likes you, and you are absolutely oblivious to it even though everyone around you can see how much this person likes you, well its the same with investigators. As missionaries all you can see is this investigator dressed all in white but everyone else can see that they are just not ready. Lol that made me chuckle thinking about it.

I got spiritually round house kicked in the face this week at our zone conference! Oh my, President Scott is just so inspired and SO funny! He talked about comfort zones and how we all have the tendency of wanting to stay in our comfort zones, but when we do that we stop progressing.... and as we know, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of progression. President went on to say that at certain points in our mission we start to plateau; we begin to get comfortable with the lessons... "Oh you have a question about faith? Let me take you to Alma 32!" Or, "Today I want to talk with you about how you can find answers to your prayers. Let me bring you to a passage in Enos!" We get into those routines and we stop relying on the Lord for help. Thats when things start to get dangerous. The Spirit sure did his job that day, because I got the message loud and clear haha. I have started to get very comfortable with missionary work and I have noticed myself relying less and less on God and becoming more complacent. I've decided to shape up and as dad would say, "pull up my socks and get back to work"! I'm working on finding different scriptures to use and am working on coming up with little personal goals for myself like using a scripture to answer someones question on the street etc.... Since doing this I feel SO much better! I didn't even realize that I had been missing something in my life until I made the changes. 

This principle of course goes beyond mission life to ever day life. President Monson says we change every day. It is up to use to be sure that we change in a way that helps us to progress in our journey back home!

So this week my dear Samantha was scheduled to be baptized. Sister Rogers and I are sitting in sacrament (about 10 min into it) and we realize Sam isn't here.... Rogers and I exchange nervous glances and decided to go out and give her a call. We are pacing up and down the hall. The phone rings and she doesnt pick up. We call again and I hear a voice on the other end. Turns out Sam forgot her tithing so she made Jordan, her son, drive back home so she could get it. 

Words really do not do justice to how I felt watching Sam take that first step back to returning to live with her Father in Heaven, but a few hours after the service I reflected on the days events and this image of God and all his angels rejoicing for Sam entered my mind and I felt a joy that I have never experienced before. All the doors that get slammed in our face, all the people that tell me I'm brain washed, none of it matters :)

Line of the Week: 

Grace is Sam's 4 year old daughter

Grace 5 min before the baptism: "Where is the lake mom?"
Grace seconds before the ordinance is performed: "Look, it's a jacuzzi! Why is mom in the jacuzzi?"

Scripture of the week: Alma 26: 37

"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

A Haiku For You: 

narrow gate

leading back to home

straight path

Sister Hall