A little something about curiosity

Large Plates 

Week 2 of Horizon West!

Good news! I made it through my second week in this area! It was an eventful week for sure. 

Pday was a little odd because it was our first one as a district, so we were all still trying to figure out peoples names and personalities and everything. We got invited over to a member's house and they are super wealthy, so their house was like a mini Fun Park. They had ping pong, air hockey, arcade games, foosball, and about a million other things. We went to their house for the first half of the day and just hung out and socialized. I really do like my new district. It still feels weird not to be in Buena Ventura, but there are some really awesome and really funny people in this group. Plus, Sister McMullin came with me from my last district to this one, so it's not all new:)

On Monday night we had a lesson with Carolina and Freiddy!! They were super kind and really grateful for the Book of Mormon that we gave them! They seem like they will learn and progress really well. For some reason they haven't been responding to our messages and we think its because their phone broke, so please pray that we find a way to get in contact with them again soon!

On Tuesday I went on an exchange with Sister Clough in the YSA area! Our zone is right by DisneyWorld, so a lot of the young single adults in the area are in the Disney college program. We had two member meals that day, so I got to meet some really awesome ysa! It would be fun to serve in YSA one day, but it would be hard to leave Spanish work to do so. Me & Sister Clough learned a lot and it was so fun getting to know her more! Also we got caught in a downpour and had to walk across Disney housing without shoes haha. 

A side note: I would not recommend that anyone do the Disney College Program. It sounds awful.

After exchanges were over, we got to work finding new people to teach! Our ward just announced that they are opening up a group that will attend a chapel in the south half of our area, so we are losing half of our members, and we lost most of our teaching pool. Neither of us have had to do a lot of finding recently, because we've always had decently large teaching pools, so it was definitely an adjustment! 

This week we met some really cute families that seem interested in our message. There was one day when we weren't sure where to find, so we decided to just walk from our apartment over to a busy area of town and talk to everyone we saw there. We ended up walking around and talking to people for almost 3 hours haha. We met some really awesome people, and unintentionally got a very good workout in haha. 

One of the people we taught on Wednesday was Stephanie!! She is so incredible! She had been given a Book of Mormon the last time she met with the missionaries (this was before I got to this area) and she read so much of it! She read all of the testimonies at the beginning and the introduction, etc. She said she really likes it and that it makes a lot of sense that our Heavenly Father would reveal His gospel to all of his children! Please pray for her, that she can continue to grow and progress and that she will be able to come to church soon.

On Friday we had an incredible mission devotional with President and Sister Schmeil. I love them so much. They've only been in the mission one month, but they're already doing so much good for the mission. 

They've been trying really hard to help all of us missionaries be more obedient, and we are seeing the blessings that have come from it! Heavenly Father is raining down blessings on the Florida Orlando Mission. We're all becoming more focused and more humble, and better missionaries. I'm so grateful for the Schmeils. 

Sunday was also so good!! The Horizon West ward has grown a lot since it was created a year ago, so they split it and opened a group in a different chapel. We were really afraid that our ward was going to become really small and kind of sad. We didn't know what to expect when we got to church on Sunday. We thought it was going to feel like a branch. But, when we got there on Sunday, we had a full house!! It was so incredible to see. 

One thing that was really powerful to see is how much the ward wants to work to bring more people to church now that half of the ward is gone. They all want to work really hard to reactivate those who haven't been to church in a long time, and they want to start bringing their friends to church and introducing them to the gospel! 

I'm excited to keep working in this area and in this ward. Lots of good things are going to happen.

Small Plates

A little something about curiosity 

This week I learned a little something about how the spirit speaks to me, and to a lot of the people we teach. I've been in the process of formulating this concept in my mind for a couple of weeks, actually. I'm still trying to conceptualize it, so I've been pondering about it a lot. I actually don't know what I'm about to write in the slightest, so hopefully this makes some sort of sense haha.

It's about curiosity.

This all started back in that impromptu lesson in a brunch cafe. We were talking to this man about how the spirit speaks to him and he told us he didn't know if it did speak to him. We explained that it isn't a literal voice for most people. It can speak to us through thoughts, or feelings, or chills, etc. He said he wasn't sure if he had ever felt the spirit before. We could feel the spirit during the conversation, which means we knew the spirit was there, so we decided to ask him how he was feeling at that moment. He just kind of shrugged. 

We tried to help him recognize the spirit. "Are you happy right now?" He shrugged. "Okay, how about peace? Do you feel at peace?" He shrugged again. "Are any thoughts coming to your mind?" He shrugged. 

I didn't know how to help him recognize the spirit. It's not easy to do, even for me as a missionary. But then it occurred to me. 

"Are you feeling curious right now?"

He said yes.

"That's the spirit working in you."

How? Well, picture this:

(First, you should know I like cake. A lot.)

Now just imagine, there is a freshly baked cake sitting on the counter at home. I tell myself, "I don't need a whole slice. That's too much. I'll just take a fork out of the drawer and have a bite." So, that's what I do. I take a bite. And it's SO GOOD. What do you think I'm going to do next?

I'm going to want more. So I'll take another bite, and another. And before I know it, half the cake will be gone. 

That's kind of how the spirit works for me too, and the same is true of a lot of the people we are teaching. 

It's not like someone is going to hear us say the words, "Book of Mormon" and they're just going to decide right then and there that they believe the whole book is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc. They aren't going to want a whole slice of the cake. They don't know if they even want any of the cake at all. 

But then they take a bite. They hear a little more of our message. They read a page. The curiosity hits. Their appetite grows stronger. They read another. The curiosity grows stronger. And before they know it, they have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's kingdom on the earth today. Half the cake is gone. 

That's what I mean when I say curiosity is a sign of the spirit. Because the spirit only testifies of truth, right? And if someone has gotten a taste of the truth, and the spirit confirms that it's true and good (whether they recognize it or not), they're going to want more. They're going to feel curious. 

I've seen this a lot in myself lately. We teach the Plan of Salvation a lot, but there are definitely a lot of things I don't understand about it. We're teaching a friend right now, Hernan, who has a lot of good questions about it. His questions have struck me with curiosity. 

And there's a difference between curiosity and doubt. Curiosity is taking a bite of the cake, and wanting more because you're sure the other bites you eat will also be good. Doubt is taking a bite of the cake, finding out there's more cake, and being afraid to take another bite because you don't want to be surprised if it doesn't taste good. 

It's the same thing here, in my situation. I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation. But then Hernan's questions helped me see that there is more cake to discover. Instead of doubting that the rest of the cake will be any good, I got to studying, knowing that what I was going to find was going to be good, because it comes from God.

That's exactly what happened. I learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation that I didn't know before. And everything I learned helped strengthen my testimony that the Plan of Salvation is real and it was created by my Loving Heavenly Father.

The point I'm trying to make here is that curiosity and doubt are similar, but wildly different at the same time. And we have to choose which one we want to feel. We have to choose with which emotion we want to react when questions pop up. 

May we always choose curiosity. May we let our previous love for the gospel fuel us to learn more. There is always something more to learn. And it's so much better to approach a question with curiosity instead of doubt. Because curiosity is a sign of faith. It's like saying "Heavenly Father, I believe in the things I have already been taught and understand. I can tell there is more to know, and I want to know it. Help me to find the truth and knowledge I know exists, but that I do not yet have." 

That is the best way to answer your questions, particularly the questions of your soul. Find your answers through faith, believing God will show you the things you do not yet understand. Let that curiosity drive you towards a greater understanding of God's love and His plan for you. I can promise you that, although not every question has an answer in this life, the answers you do find through faithful curiosity will bless you more than any answer you could find through doubtful scrutiny of the gospel.