Monday
Coming on a mission
teaches you about a lot of skills you have. We had some other sister
missionaries over for a "crafting party," and apparently I am
becoming known as the "Master Crafter." We also had dinner and family
night with the Lucas family, whom I love so very much! We had such a fun time
laughing all night long, and it was just what I needed.
Tuesday
We worked on family
history today because I am training Sister Stites so that she will be able to
help ward members work on their family history. It has been a slow process for
me, but I am slowly catching onto the Spirit of Elijah. I think what has been
the driving factor for me is I want to know how my ancestors made it through
the hard times. When faced with discouragement, death, heartache, and seemingly
no hope, what were they thinking and how did they carry on? Because maybe that
can help me too. And as we learn more about them, and our hearts turn to them,
they will turn to us and help us in our afflictions. That evening, we had
dinner with the Willmore's, and they got us cute turtle souvenirs!
Wednesday
We were able to teach
Brother Harris about overcoming depression and negativity by reading through 2
Nephi 4. It was very intriguing to read through it with a new lens of
"diagnosing" him with depression and seeing how he overcame it with
the help of the Lord. We visited a few people and had dinner with a less-active
couple. On the way to dinner, I was so tired and not feeling well, but I said a
prayer and went forth anyway. Elder Busche has made this promise, and it truly
works: "Steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in
gratitude and love, toward your Savior and your Heavenly Father. This will help
you overcome fatigue, despair, and physical sickness." I've relied on this
promise often throughout my mission.
Thursday
We went to help some
members wash their car. They said we could wash our car with them, so we parked
it next to them under a pine tree. But ours looked spotless compared to theirs,
(granted, we had just washed it on Monday) so we just worked on their cars. We
scrubbed and washed for a few hours, and when we left, our car had some
pine-needles, leaves, and tree sap on it. So we left with it dirtier than
before, which I thought was so funny and ironic!Story time: We had dinner with a family, and the husband told us that when he first joined the military, he started doubting if there was a God. He had a grand idea to pray and ask God to stop blessing him, thinking that then he could tell if anything changed in his life and prove to himself if there was a God or not. Well, I will be the first to testify that God does answer prayers! So, what happened next? God answered his prayer. And within months of being perfectly healthy, this man got into a terrible accident and was paralyzed and had seizures all the time and tons of pain. Now he is on full disability. But he turned back to the Lord and has been repenting, and was able to go through the temple and be sealed to his wife and kids, and has seen how the Lord is slowly healing him and taking away lots of his pain. Be careful what you pray for, though!
Friday
The absolute best day
this transfer! Sister's Conference was amazing. Every single sister across the
entire mission gathered together in Bonifay. This meant that I got to see
Sister Strong again! She is one of my best friends, and I may or may not have
almost started crying when I saw her again. We had some very inspired trainings
on the importance of setting boundaries (something everyone should look into
and do). We also had a very interesting training entitled, "What is
flirting?" Yes, and President Smith led out the discussion. So that was
fun! Apparently a lot of sisters don't know when they are flirting with elders,
so yeah. There's that.
Saturday
We attended a baptism
this morning for Sarah. We have met with her a few times because she lives in
the Callaway Ward boundaries, but she has been attending a nearby ward with her
friends. However, her non-member family came to the baptism, and the grandma
seems very interested, so we are excited for the possibility to teach Sarah's
family! We were also blessed to be able to do service for a ward member. People
are finally taking us up on our offer to serve... I don't know why it can be so
hard to ask for help. We all love serving, but if nobody ever asked for help,
no one would have the opportunity to serve. Just as important as serving others
is humbling yourself enough to ask for the help you truly need! We were really
blessed because of the opportunity to serve for a few hours (and avoid the hot
sun).
Sunday
Heidi came to church
to support Sister Stites in giving a talk. She did wonderfully, by the way. The
whole ward loved the personal poem she shared and many were crying in the
audience. The last two hours were rather stressful.... So last Sunday some
senior missionaries asked if we could teach their primary class. My companion
agreed, and we shortly realized that we had also been asked to teach Young
Women's. The days kind of passed together in a blur and Saturday night, we
realized they both took place third hour, and it was too late to ask anyone
else to sub. God had a grand plan, and He inspired me with an idea... We are
all supposed to become as little children, and teach simply like kids, so why
not have the primary kids help us teach the Young Women about the importance of
family? Yup, we totally pulled it off with only minimal threats for the kids to
behave and be quiet ;). The young women absolutely loved interacting with the
kids and listening to them. We also had them teach the kids a short lesson
about being kind (which was what the kids were supposed to be learning about
that week. We told the young woman it was so they could have practice teaching
kids for when they are mother's one day. Way to kill two birds with one stone!)
It did get rowdy at the end, so we just ended a few minutes early, but they
never suspected a thing! They actually really enjoyed it. We also went to a
baptism for a little girl in the ward, and we had been asked to show a video
while she was back getting changed. Well, we realized when the baptism was just
starting that the old, dinosaur church TV wouldn't read the videos on my
flashdrive... Luckily I had brought my violin to church that day, so I swung
together a slide-show of pictures of Jesus while I played some music! Heavenly
Father sure loves for me to share my talents with all of those around me!
Funny moment of the
week:
We were calling a lady
to confirm a dinner appointment, but no one answered. My companion left a
message asking when was a good time and saying, "We love you, bye!" A
while later, we got a text back from the number saying, "We love you too
but you got the wrong number..."I am grateful for each and every day of my mission. There are good and bad days, but they are all worth it. Heavenly Father makes every wrong right and speaks peace to the soul in a way that no other source or person can. We can have a perfect brightness of hope that no matter the difficulty in the world surrounding us, God has a grand plan that will bring us eternal happiness and joy. Hope is an abiding trust that God will fulfill His promises to you. He has promised eternal life and exaltation for those who do their best and desire it. And when we receive exaltation, it will not be because we have earned it, or because we are worthy of it. It will be because our perfectly loving Father in Heaven desires to give it to us as a gift. We don't have to sit here and wonder if we will "make it" or be "good enough" for this gift of exaltation. All we have to do is accept it because we love Him too.
Much love,
Sister Burnham 
No comments:
Post a Comment