Week 34

3/20/17

We had Zone conference again this week! It feels like we just had Zone conference, but it's been a month since the last one. Time is flying by! It seemed like the Zone Conference was directed right at me this time. I really needed to hear what was taught. It gave me a little boost to keep pushing through, it wasn't really in the things people said, but the Spirit was giving me what I needed to know. My poor companion had a little break down afterwards because it is her last Zone Conference. Honestly, how do you console someone in that situation..? I don't know, I just sat there and listened..and then hugged her haha. It is really kind of funny because she really isn't trunky (basically wanting to pack her bags and go) but I get moments where I'm trunky for her. Like I say things like, "Oh my gosh! You haven't hugged your mom in 18 months!" Or, "Wow, you only go to church one more time as a missionary!" She thinks it's pretty funny...I lost my train of thought.

Anyway, it wasn't a bad week, but there isn't much to report. We found out that Rocio isn't actually married to her "husband." She always refers to him as her husband so we thought they were married, turns out that they bought the license, but never actually got married! So..we are going to have to work on that. It sounds like they will be happy to actually get married. Sadly, that means that we have to push Rocio's baptism so Sis. Hartvigsen won't get anymore baptisms on her mission.

We saw Kelly again this week. We love her so much! She crochets a lot, she has a Facebook business for it. She had a crocheted lamb and she gave it to us and said, "It may not be the Lamb of God, but it is the Lamb of Kelly" hahahaha! 

Javier is on date for April 8!! We weren't planning on doing it so soon, but he told us that he would be okay with getting baptized in three weeks, so we scheduled it hahaha. He is doing so great and the young men are wonderful at helping him and being his friend!

So miracle of the week. Nathan walks into the church building Thursday night when the Young Men presidency is having a meeting. He asks for the bishop and when they tell him he isn't there, he tells them that he would like the missionaries to come to his home to teach his family!! So we get a text about this Friday morning with his contact info so we obviously called him. He grew up in a Mormon household, but it sounds like he never got baptized. His wife and children don't really have religious background, but are interested in learning. So we are working on setting up a time to meet with them!! How crazy is that!?

I finally got to do a painting service project! First one of my mission! We have a member who owns a house in our ward and she needs to sell it so she asked us to come help her re paint. It was tons of fun!

We had four lessons yesterday so it was a crazy day. Everything was scheduled last minute so we were scrambling during church trying to make sure that everything worked out. We got them all worked into the schedule and they all went great. Johanna, one of the young women in the ward, is very good at sharing the gospel so we ended up teaching four people at once at her house yesterday. We don't know where it will go, but I'm really amazed at how brave she is when it comes to sharing her beliefs!

Long quote this week, but I really loved it!

To fully receive these gifts our Savior has so freely offered, we all must learn that suffering in and of itself does not teach or grant to us anything of lasting value unless we deliberately become involved in the process of learning from our afflictions through the exercise of faith. Evan A Schmutz

"These deficiencies just illustrated are those of omission. Once the telestial sins are left behind and henceforth avoided, the focus falls ever more on the sins of omission. These omissions signify a lack of qualifying fully for the celestial kingdom. Only greater consecration can correct these omissions, which have consequences just as real as do the sins of commission. Many of us thus have sufficient faith to avoid the major sins of commission, but not enough faith to sacrifice our distracting obsessions or to focus on our omissions." 

"So many of us are kept from eventual consecration because we mistakenly think that, somehow, by letting our will be swallowed up in the will of God, we lose our individuality (see Mosiah 15:7). What we are really worried about, of course, is not giving up self, but selfish things--like our roles, our time, our preeminence, and our possessions. No wonder we are instructed by the Savior to lose ourselves (see Luke 9:24). He is only asking us to lose the old self in order to find the new self. It is not a question of one’s losing identity but of finding his true identity! Ironically, so many people already lose themselves anyway in their consuming hobbies and preoccupations but with far, far lesser things.

"Consecration, likewise, is not shoulder-shrugging acceptance, but, instead, shoulder-squaring to better bear the yoke." Neal A. Maxwell

I love you all!! Keep sharing the gospel and loving everyone! Miracles are happening all around you!
Love,

Sister MacKay