Aug 11, 2014

Cute Sisters!!  (Coleman and Rowland)

This week has been so good! Probably the best one yet. Not because things are going great, we honestly keep having less and less investigators, so I don't know what it is. But I'm just so happy. Well, I guess I do know what it is, being a missionary is just incredible. There's nothing like it. And I'm really, truly starting to love it. I love being here. I love the people here. And most of all, I love giving all I have to serve the Lord. How could that not make someone happy? :)

We have definitely seen some miracles this week. On Saturday, we were planning to teach the Law of Chastity to one of our investigators, Danielle. We were super nervous because she lived with her boyfriend and we didn't know how she would take it. They've lived together for like 2 1/2 years, and they have a daughter together. But the night before we taught her, they broke up and she kicked him out of the house. It was so awesome :) Like out of all of the days that could have happened. So the lesson went really well! She is so prepared, and she loves everything that we tell her. She just soaks it all in, and she's always so grateful to us. She was also able to finally come to church on Sunday. Something has gone wrong every other week, and she really wanted to come. But everything finally worked out, she made it, and she loved it. Everyone in our ward was so nice and welcoming to her, we were so grateful for that. I really do love our ward. Her kids loved primary and nursery too. They are the cutest, she has a 6-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. They already made a ton of friends, and I can totally picture all of them as being members, and the gospel will make them so happy. Danielle's baptism is set for next week, we're so excited! We're teaching the Word of Wisdom tonight though, and we're kind of worried again because we know that she drinks and smokes. But we also know that God will find away and if she'll let it (I really really hope she will), He'll make it happen.

Car inspection at Zone Conference.  

Another little miracle, they gave us more miles so we'll hardly ever have to bike anymore! They email out the list of everyone's miles every month, but I don't think anyone ever really checks it because it's always the same. But I always do because I was so hopefully that they would miraculously give us more, because I HATE biking. And they did! It went from 900 to 1200, which is what pretty much everyone else has. Sister Rowland thought it was a mistake and wanted to keep it at 900 just to be safe, but I was not willing to do that. Yeah, I'm terrible. I texted the elder in charge of miles and he said that they realized it didn't make sense for us to have such few miles because our area is pretty big. We were like uh, yeah! :) It's really not safe either, we almost get hit by a car like every day. Not to mention heat stroke and biking in the rain. So yeah, needless to say, I am pretty happy to say goodbye to biking :)

We had zone conference this week, it was really good. We learned a lot and I got to see my MTC companion and a lot of other missionaries that I know. And it's just great to be around lots of other missionaries, it's a good reminder that we're not in this alone. We also went on exchanges again this week, but for real this time. It was really fun, I got to be in a trio since the Sister Training Leaders are in a trio, and one of them is a sister I knew in the MTC. I went to their area, which is in Wesley Chapel. It's probably like 40ish minutes away from us. I just love all the missionaries here, they're seriously amazing. I don't feel like I can ever be like them but I know that all I can do is my best, and I'm okay with that :)

Zone Conference

Oh one more awesome thing that happened this week: Sister Rowland and I were playing a game where we would count all the shopping carts that we saw in weird places (this place is so ghetto, but I love it) and when we got to 20, we would get to go to Twisty Treat, which is this awesome ice cream place they have in Florida. We were at like 11, but the other day we saw all the rest of them, it was awesome. We got to Twisty Treat and we were one short, but I said we should just keep walking and we saw 2 more! I don't know if I can count this as a miracle, but it was a pretty big tender mercy to us, we had been walking a lot and it was HOT. Like always. But yeah, that was our shopping cart adventure :) Now we've moved on to counting couches outside.

I think that's about it! I'm getting better at talking more (which is so hard for me, I seriously hate talking). I'm really starting to feel myself grow and change, and it's so incredible. I love this gospel and I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father more than ever before. I can't explain it, but everything that I've been taught all my life just makes sense now. I always believed it and I thought I understood most of it, but I think only now am I truly beginning to understand. Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is change. It's another one of those things that I've heard all my life, but I finally get it now. The gospel, life, a mission, everything, is all about change. The ability for us to change every day and become better, to become, little by little, more like Christ. Seriously, how amazing is that, that we can become like him. That it's okay when we mess up, that we can always we come back and try again and keep progressing and keep getting better. That it doesn't matter how inadequate or imperfect we are. We can always be better, we can always change. I'm so grateful for the chance to change. Okay, I'm done now, but I just love that and had to share it :) Have a great week!