Emily Burnham: Week 21 - Potato Couch and Dead... Tired

Transfer news: I'm staying in Brewton with Sister Palmer!!!

As I've been pondering over this week, the scripture that I put on my mission plaque stuck out to me: Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." I know I am called of God to do His work.

Monday:

We had another lesson with Ellen and Lola, where we were able to answer some questions and concerns. This was the most bold I've ever been in a lesson, keeping it on track and following up with the commitment we left. I had this feeling that we couldn't lose them, so every time the lesson would get off track, I brought it back. It was cool to see how bold you can be when you truly love them. However, Lola gave back her copy of The Book of Mormon and said she is too old to read and understand it, and isn't changing religions. We were still able to set a return appointment to come back with Rhoda and teach the Plan of Salvation to Ellen. That evening, we went over to the Wright's home. Johnny fixed up a violin for me! I had to tune it by ear using their keyboard, and then I was able to play some songs for them. It was a blast!

Tuesday:

At district meeting, I played the opening and closing hymns. Usually Sister Palmer plays, but since her hand was still swollen like a balloon from the wasp sting, I volunteered. And usually I hate playing in front of people! It's amazing to see the Lord working through me as I use my talents to bless others. He magnifies my talents so I can be of more service to Him--I truly an instrument in His hands :)

We contacted some referrals that afternoon and tracted into some homes. Well, we met some pretty strange people. One man kept cussing a lot and said he was interested in having multiple wives. Then we tracted into a Jehovah Witness lady who wouldn't give us referrals for people who needed a message of peace because "she was going to go visit them herself."

Wednesday:

This morning, Rhoda came with us to teach Ellen. When we got to the three kingdoms of glory, I shared an analogy I had come up with: Those in this life who love working out and training to run marathons get to enjoy the blessings of a fit body and can do a lot. This is like those in the Celestial Kingdom who have strong desires to serve God and do all they can to follow Christ. Then there are the people who work out occasionally to keep in decent shape, and sometimes become super motivated to work out and get healthy... but this lasts for a week and they are back to being lazy. This is like people in the Terrestrial Kingdom, who had desires to do good things, but didn't fully commit and follow through with it. Then there are the couch potatoes, who really don't care about exercising and sit around all day. They are fat and unfit, and can't do much with their body, but that was their desire. They are content with it because they didn't want to put forth the work and would rather laze around all day. This is like those in the Telestial Kingdom who live in their sins. Well, the analogy was great and all, but Sister Palmer informed me afterwards that I had said, "And then there are the potato couches" instead of couch potatoes. They all tried so hard not to laugh and I didn't even realize my mistake until she told me afterwards! Well, that was just the start to me mixing up all my words! Later that day at Diane's house, she told us she was so nervous for her surgery next Tuesday. I said we would see her next Thursday if she wasn't dead. Her eyes widened and she looked freaked out. I hastily added, "Tired! Dead tired!" Whoops...

We also met with a lady who had gotten out of jail a while back. She has a lot of tattoos and a tough exterior. She was freaked out that we knew her real name, Lora, because everyone else knows her as "Kid," which is her prison name. We didn't feel comfortable sharing who had given us her name as a referral, so we just said we had talked with a lot of people that day. So... then she asked if we knew her name because we had been down by the prison.

Thursday:

I've always hated road trips, but I think they are growing on me, just a bit. We drove three hours to another part of our mission for the day, and I stayed productive by gluing cards together for an object lesson with CJ that evening. They had different aspects of the gospel written on them, like faith and repentance, for us to build a card house. I taped them to the dashboard to keep them still, and when we stopped for lunch, we saw a man peering into our car at them. He had a preacher vibe about him and said he liked our cards because it reminded him of a bible verse. We are definitely sharing the gospel in strange ways!

Friday:

Sister Palmer is a runner, so she decided to teach me the correct way to run (because I've apparently been running incorrectly my whole life). Now I actually enjoy running a lot more! We visited a man, Ben, in a wheelchair who requested to meet with missionaries. He has a lot of potential! Then we returned back and taught Lora and some children who are staying with her. Sister Palmer taught me a cool way to teach the Restoration using the pamphlet. She had learned it from a talk she read. You show them the pictures on each page of the pamphlet and ask them what they see. Their response helps you determine how much they already know about God and Christ, prophets, the Priesthood, and so forth. It also gets them more involved.

Saturday:

General Conference was amazing. I had so many questions that were answered because I had prayed and prepared for this special day. I loved Elder Holland's talk about not beating ourselves up over our mistakes. We live in a fallen, telestial world and cannot be perfect right now. I'm kind of a perfectionist with super high expectations for myself, so this hit home. I'm now working on having more patience with myself. Between sessions, Rhoda and Johnny took us out for lunch. I got a salad at Subway, and one of the workers decorated it beautifully and said to post a picture of it on twitter with a #subway. Well, this is the closest I can get to social media!

Sunday:

One cool thing Sister Palmer and I applied during general conference was listening to each talk with our investigator's needs in mind. As we did so, revelation came for what they need, and we were able to write down their name next to the talk that would help them. It was cool to see that afterwards, we had written down the same person for the same talks. That evening, we stopped by a bible referral that we received a week ago, but hadn't been able to contact. She was home! And she came outside and asked what we were doing as we were in the car praying, so I quickly had to end the prayer, and we jumped out of the car. She invited us inside, and we taught her the Restoration. She is so prepared and willing to learn more. We walked through the pamphlet with her, asking her what she saw. I enjoyed watching her eyes light up as she made connections and was taught by the Spirit. We really are just guides for them to learn from the Spirit. Instruments in the hand of God :)

If you missed any of the sessions of general conference, I invite you to go online and watch them. It is such a privilege to hear from God's apostles and to receive answers to our questions and concerns. They really do speak for Christ!

Much love,

Sister Burnham