Who Has Time for That? - October 27, 2014

Sisters Vanderhoff and Coleman

I have titled my email in honor of a less-active lady we were teaching. We showed her a video about Joseph Smith and I asked her how she felt about his experience, and she was like well, it's amazing, but who has time for that?! We were like uh... We think she meant who has time for everything he did, I don't know, she's kinda crazy :) She's so funny though, we laughed about it for a long time afterwards.

This week has been good! Things are still kind of slow, but we're really happy. Everybody is sick though. DDDDD is sick, so we haven't been able to see her this week, and her boyfriend moved back in. MMMMM is sick, and his mom is in the hospital. He told us that she has breast cancer and the other day he found her wandering around the parking lot early in the morning. They took her to the hospital and found out that the cancer has spread to her brain. So yeah, not good. He loves her more than anything in the world, it's so sad. He told us he's too worried about her to worry about himself right now, so we haven't been able to see him lately either. Poor guy.

Some members of our ward invited us to a race at their son's school, called the Family Fun Run. And it was fun! And this guy came up to us and told us that he knew missionaries before and felt bad that he had never gone to church, it was awesome!

Another ward member had us come over and do service for her neighbor. She was planting some flowers, we shoveled for her for hours. It was fun though, and we got to meet her and her husband. They're super awesome, and she asked a lot of questions about missionaries and about the church.

Tomorrow- oh my goodness, I'm so excited- we get to go to the beach!!!!! Here I am living in Florida, our apartment complex is right by the ocean, and I haven't been to the beach since I've been here! We're having a conference for all the sisters in the whole mission on a little island in St. Pete tomorrow, I can't wait! :)

Also, I wanted to share one of my favorite scripture stories that I didn't even really know about until my mission: the story of Enoch. I knew about Zion getting taken up into heaven and everything, but not about what happens before that. So in Moses 6 the Lord calls him to preach to the people, and in verse 31 he says "Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?" and the Lord tells him "Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good. Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you... thou shalt abide in me, and I in you: therefore walk with me." Then in the next chapter, verse 13 says: "And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him."

I LOVE that. It's so amazing how God makes our weaknesses into strengths. This story really inspires me because sometimes I feel the way Enoch did, but I know that through the Atonement I can become strong too. Maybe not making the earth tremble and the mountains flee strong, but still better than I was :) And there's my little spiel! (Kind of little.) The church is true, and God is wonderful :) Have a great week!