TEAR OF JOY

EARS OF JOY. LITERALLY TWO MINUTES AGO SISTER KORMAN (WHO IS NEXT TO ME BECAUSE OUR COMPANIONS ARE AT THE TEMPLE TOGETHER) JUST OPENED AN EMAIL FROM KAITANA SAYING THAT SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just embraces each other with tears of JOY. May 24th Kaitana (Hanover, Dartmouth student, my USU roommate's BEST FRIEND) will be baptized in Utah. The Lord answers prayers of all kinds, just in His timing.

Two of my FAVORITE parts of the day: studies in the morning, and prayer in the evening. I know I say this every week, but I am growing in my knowledge of the Gospel more than ever. Heavenly Father has a LOT He wants me to know. This week was indeed a sacred, and special week.

Monday night we went over to the mission home to spend the night for the meeting the following day. President and I talked for an hour then he gave me a blessing. Surely, I will remember this for the rest of my life. The direction, counsel, and comfort given was from Heavenly Father through the mouth of a loving mission president.

We followed the Stokers from meeting to meeting throughout the week and were spiritually FED.

Some snipits of knowledge I gained this week through studies and meetings:

Elijah and Moses were transfigured because they needed bodies to pass on the keys to the Apostles in the Mount of Transfiguration

Spirituality is victory over self

Mercy allows us to progress

Love is action, not emotion

I am becoming the kind of person who could raise sons like the 2,000 warriors

Happiness is a state of being, not just spurs of feeling

To be happy, we must seek the will of the Father

You should be working when you are praying, LABOR, CRY

Using your spiritual gifts brings satisfaction and happiness

The Gospel is the way to use the most of our time on earth

Givers receive more happiness than he receiver

Giving and living the Gospel makes you feel ALIVE

Revelation comes in small and simple ways, you are LEAD to the water and can choose to drink it - the Lord makes us learn something

Applying the Atonement means we are PULLING weight WITH the Lord, we pull equally. "YOKED."

If anything I have learned that when you serve, you are completely alive. You are in the realest of realities, if that makes sense. You are living this life to its fullest capacity, the way it was designed to be, when you are giving and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I went through my college spiritual journal for the first time and found GOLD. Here's some of the stuff I found in it:

Courage is the conquering of fear. Love is the conquering of selfishness.

Acknowledgement--> Admiration --> Adoration --> EMULATION of Christ. We will know Him because we will be like Him.

Today I read 3 Nephi 27:10-the end. Some thoughts: Christ wants us to emulate Him, in fact, He is commanding us to sanctify ourselves that we may be even as He is! Repentance is the way to shoot us forward in progression. We must EMULATE. The ability to become like He is is through earnest prayer and diligently carrying out His plans. It is to treat others with LOVE. 

Sean finished the Book of Mormon. He is making baby steps towards prayer. He doesn't come from a Christian background and the concept that God has a body is hard for him to grasp. He really has a hard time praying! We drew a triangle with him, us, and God and explained that this is all about his connection with God, we can help him there. He saw Gene's baptism and wanted to know what he was thinking while it was happening. He wants to know what he's getting into, naturally! He's making steps. We gave him a date of May 31st to work towards!! Never in my life did I imagine myself teaching a drag queen who is totally prepared. He knows this is God and is working towards him. Funny thing is his countenance has totally and completely changed. He is brighter, physically BRIGHTER. We see the fruits of repentance working and it is wonderful. 

In our little proselyting time we did some finding and went back to some of the homes Sister Turley and I had tracted into. One FAMILY agreed that we could come and teach a lesson and that they were "open to change." I'm stoked. 

What else happened.......

A LOT.

Shannon Gish from COLORADO WILLOW CREEK WARD came and spoke to us at the sisters conference, that was crazy small worldy.

Most all of our finding has gone to the elders, we are having a hard time finding those that LIVE IN OUR AREA. No one we teach lives in it... three active members are in our boundaries. We will continue though. 

Sister Collins is at the temple today. She's DARLING. Really is coming into her own shoes realizing what works for her and what doesn't. She's so amazing. Seriously I have a pretrained missionary!!!

 The Young's and Sean!!

We got to be together when we found out about Kaitana :)

​JSM with the Bedford sisters!!

KNEEL

Scripture memorization for every day last week:

Matt26:39

Isaiah 53:3-5

Alma 7:11-12

D&C 19:16-19

Hymn #193

Alma 5:14

Matt 28:1-6

This week we're memorizing most of 3 Nephi 11. I can't wait.

One word to describe this week: solitary. Also maybe a little slow...

WHEN WE FORGET ABOUT OURSELVES OUR SOUL IS ENLARGED. Epiphany. Let that be my Psalm of the week.

Sister Collins and I really do GREAT together. She had to opportunity to go on exchanges and just SHINED. Those missionaries fresh out of the MTC know just what they're doing. They are a blessing to their trainers. They each receive a LOT of revelation for their areas and it's the trainers job to direct it and make it happen! We did many "small and simple things" trying to further the work of the Lord. I love Sister Collins. She is just what I need right now, and her support is invaluable. We overcome similar things, and need each other to continue to do so.

Sometimes you have to do the right thing and hand people over to the elders. We are handing Kalisa over, which will hopefully help him progress towards his date. the members we take agree with us that that's probably the best thing to do.

PATTY she's got a closet full of questions to take to her priest this week. Wish us luck. The pre-existence took her for a spin! She's reading the Book of Mormon though, we just gotta get her praying to know if it's true with real intent. Toughie. Miracles can happen! I've seen them plenty of times!

SEAN: he's PLOWING through the Book of Mormon. We got the clearance from President to go ahead and set a date with him. This Friday is hopefully the lesson we'll be able to do that in. He's already almost through Alma - he started last Sunday. 

I read 3 Nephi 19 yesterday and again this morning. I am humbled every time I read it. Christ directs everything to the Father. EVERYTHING. He commands the multitude to KNEEL. While reading I couldn't help but think again, how important is it that we kneel when we pray? It's a sign of humility. You are closing off from the world and are opening your heart and mind to Him. The position of prayer itself is releasing yourself from the heart. Truly, this is a work of heart. How grateful I am for the ability to show others my love, especially Heavenly Father. My relationship with Him never ceases to grow. The Holy Ghost is the greatest gift, it is what the people MOST DESIRED to have when Christ came. Think of the comfort John 14 should have brought the Apostles.

Exchanges with Sister Korman, that was maybe one of the best days of my mission!! We had SO MUCH to catch up on. We laid in bed talking for the longest time. The elders got in the car for service and we couldn't stop. There was SO MUCH. What was maybe the most wonderful part of the exchange was teaching JoAnne with her. I forget the incredible unity and power we had when we taught together. I've taught well with my other companions, but it was nothing like this. We both agreed that our two transfers together were some of the most powerful ones on our missions. It reminded me of what I want to happen in all companionships. We are deeply connected life-long friends who understand each other. It was humbling to be with her for her last transfer on the mission. We did a LOT of reflecting. She's an incredible missionary. She just looks exhausted and I love it! I love her and am so grateful for the impact she's made in my life. You really do grow to love your companions SO MUCH. It's fun to see her progress. We talked again about the realization we both had of confidence. She shared with me something wonderful about myself, she said "you compliment others and your confidence builds in yourself. You can't help but be confident because you build everyone up around you." We helped each other identify strengths that maybe we didn't say beforehand. Oh how much I adore her. She's headed to Hanover for exchanges with Sister Turley on Tuesday!

The exterminator took care of our bedbugs :) we were walking back to our apartment and it was like walking into hell with the heaters blowing and papers flying and the loud noise. It was 130 degrees in there. The bedbugs had been there long before I got to the area - NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR. 

Did I mention JoAnne is starting the temple prep class this Sunday so she can go with Sister Turley and I for her endowments?!?!?

I wish you could all know President Stoker. A while back I prayed that we would have a closer relationship, then I got transferred to Manchester. He's always there whenever you need him. We get to spend the night at the mission home with the other sisters that just came out. STOKED FOR THE STOKERS!

 Ahhg I adore her. She's an answer to many prayers and is JUST what I needed at this time in my mission! The Lord knows us well. 

Easter Sunday! The Spencer's invited us all over for dinner! We had an Easter eggs hunt.

 Sister Korman!! This next week we have meetings EVERY DAY. Tomorrow is new missionary and trainers meeting, Wednesday is sisters conference (where i get to see ALL my favorite companions ALL AT THE SAME TIME), Thursday is zone conference, and Friday we plan. Really, we are not doing missionary work this week and it's WEIRD. We also get to see the Stokers almost every day this week except for Friday.

My favorite photo of Christ coming to the Americas, slapped onto Sister Collins' new scripture box!