"It's easy to turn to God"

Sister Stone and Sister McMullan

Large Plates

Another fun, fun week! Miracles are everywhere.

We had a long week, but it was so awesome! When I say it was a long week, I don't mean that it dragged on forever and that I didn't have fun. It sometimes just feels like I'm in a fever dream of sorts because something we did yesterday felt like it happened years ago, and something I did years ago feels like only yesterday. Mission time does that to you. I love it though because more than anything its teaching me to live in the moment. 

Anyway now that the random epiphany I decided to have is over, here's a run down of what I was up to this week! 

Pday was loads of fun. I can never fully express how grateful I am to be living here. Sometimes even just doing simple things in our complex makes me feel like I'm in a resort haha. We started off pday by playing beach volleyball in the sand court at our complex. Also we all brought cereal and shared it with each other and it was a grand old time. Then we got all showered up and went on the Sunrail train to downtown Orlando! I love Winter Park. It's so beautiful and it makes me feel like I'm in a movie. I also convinced some of my missionary friends to eat some of the flowers that were there cause like a decade ago one of my primary teachers told me they were edible. In case you're wondering, I do actually think they are yummy (and also yes mom, that's where your flowers in the front yard went about 10 years ago ). We just walked around and looked at a bunch of super pricey stores and talked amongst each other. We ended the day with some ice cream!

We really tried to make the most out of that pday because it was Sister Stone's birthday, and because Elder Jensen got emergency transferred to the beach to fill the place of an Elder to went to his original assignment in Ethiopia. Ice cream was so fun and so bittersweet. We all went around and said what we loved about Sister Stone, and then about Elder Jensen. Wow. I love them both so much more than words can express. Sister Stone is such an incredible example to me, and although I haven't been serving around her for very long, I have already learned so much from her. And Elder Jensen. Man I love that kid. He's the closest thing I've found to family out here. He's like my big brother! I missed him this week but I'm sure he's having so much fun by the beach! Missions are so fun but so hard because you meet such incredible people and then in the blink of an eye they're gone. But that's life!

Tuesday was good! We had a zoom call with Sister Ashcraft and all the other sisters in the mission and it was so good! We talked about comparison and how the enemy tries to take us down by tempting us to take ourselves down. I love Sister Ashcraft so much and I'm going to miss her so much when her & President leave:(

We also went over & saw our friend Brenda on Tuesday! We've been praying for her to have a desire to read in the Book of Mormon and learn more about it and you guys! This lesson was such a miracle! She told us she had read the chapter we recommended to her and she said she honestly didn't understand a lot of what she read, so she read it again, and was still a little confused. But she felt good about it because she felt peace the whole time she was reading!! We didn't know if she was ever going to progress because every time we go over there she kind of just tells us about what's going on in her life & we help her feel better. But she's now actively interested in learning and applying the words of the Book of Mormon in her own life!

The next day we started off with District Council. I think I already mentioned this, but weve kind if changed the structure of District Council and it has been so good! We reviewed some past goals and compared them with how well we actually did and we surpassed our goals! Yay!

We also met with Rocío and Victoria a couple times this week. Hermano Martinez came with us one of the times and he bore really powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the church and invited them to pray to know which church they should be a part of. They did it and they feel really good about the Church, but they also really like their old church. So, right now they're going to keep participating in both until they recieve a more sure answer. From this point forward we're just doing the best we can to get them to read the Book of Mormon and to foster a better relationship with the spirit. I'm super excited to keep teaching them and helping them progress.  I love them to pieces. 

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of weekly planning, but this week was really refreshing! We had a bit of a dry patch for finding and teaching, and our motivation was going down. But this week in weekly planning we set some solid goals for having more spirit-led missionary work. We wanted to fall in love with every moment of the day again. And let me tell you. This weekend was incredible. 

One of the highlights was our friend Kaitlyn! I talked about her last week because I had a good feeling about her and wow was that feeling right! She's so sweet and so ready to learn and grow. Sister Ashcraft came with us to a lesson with her and it was so great! Kaitlyn loves the Book of Mormon and shared what she has been learning with a bunch of her family, who also live in our complex, like she does. She told us her dad was investigating the church about a year ago and loved what he learned and loves the Book if Mormon! She said she wants to get her whole family together so we can come teach all of them. She wanted to get her husband and 2 kids to church, but couldn't make it happen this week because there was too much going on. Instead of leaving it for another week, though, she came alone, with the determination to bring them all next week! Sister Ashcraft sat by me and her for Sacrament meeting and the ward totally welcomed her in!

Another highlight of this weekend is we figured out how to get Victoria excited about reading the Book of Mormon. She loves reading and reads multiple books a week, but she hasn't been motivated to read the Book of Mormon yet. She saw the painting I have on the front cover of my Book of Mormon, and we started talking about how I like to paint. I showed her a painting I did of Captain Moroni for my friend Elder Petersen! She thought it was so cool and said she wanted me to paint her a picture of Nephi. I told her I would give her the painting when she finished 1st Nephi. I worked with her to set a reasonable goal and she actually wanted to make it a little more challenging for herself! She said she wanted to read the 22 chapters in 1st Nephi in 11 days! She's really excited to read now, and hopefully her mom will follow suit!

The last highlight I'm going to share is about our friend Alba! She called us out of the blue a couple weeks back and said she wanted to start coming to our church again. She's come two weeks in a row now and loves it. Its really hard to coordinate lessons with her because she works so much, but at least she's coming to church! She has been welcomed in by the ward so much. I'm really excited about her.

Small Plates

"It's easy to turn to God"

That's a quote from President Ashcraft. We've been talking a lot about the power of prayer as a mission lately. Missionaries pray a lot (like, a lot), and sometimes its easy to lose the joy of prayer, or forget the power of prayer. 

But this random line that President Ashcraft said in the midst of hundreds of other sentences stood out to me. 

I can talk to God! Yes, the creator of the Universe. The very Being who makes the sun rise every morning and who gave me the people I love and who literally knows everything. I can talk to Him. Whenever and wherever. 

How cool is that?

He's the most famous Person ever, and I can just call Him up whenever I want and He'll pick up the phone. 

Who else can you say that about? I can't call a celebrity and expect them to answer, or frankly, to care. 

I can't even call my own parents whenever I want and expect them to always answer and to always have time to talk. And they love me! A lot!

Our loving Heavenly Father cares SO MUCH about us. He's always ready to listen. 

I'm so grateful for that. Because it doesn't matter how hard I try, how much I learn, how long I serve. I will never be the perfect missionary. A perfect missionary doesn't exist. And that's a hard reality for me to face sometimes. I like to do things as perfectly as possible. But as a missionary I have about 100 tasks to accomplish in any given moment and about 500 people who are counting on my help in one way or another. And guess what? I can't. I can't do it. It's too hard and there is literally not enough time or resources available to me to make it possible.  So what am I supposed to do?

"It's easy to turn to God."

No matter what challenges you're facing in your life right now, no matter how many things you are incapable of doing alone, no matter how inadequate you may feel, the solution is just that. Turn to God. Because He's capable of it all. And more than anything in the world, no, more than anything in the universe, He wants to help you. All you have to do is ask. 

Luis 

Veggie Burger Aracapa

Hermana Jackson

Hermana Jackson

Hermana Jackson

A little wet....

P-day with my friends, Elder Jensen, Elder Murray, Sister Stone, Sister Carter

Sister Stone

Elder Murray

The pattern of learning

 Large Plates 

Zone conference, graduation, and goodbyes 

Pday last week was tons of fun! We went to Universal CityWalk and walked around and soaked up the sun. Add Universal to the list of reasons why the Florida Orlando Mission is the best mission in the world;)

We also had a zone conference this week! It was our last one with the Ashcrafts and I am honestly kind of heartbroken about it. I love them so much. I learned a lot of really good things about being bold and spirit-guided, especially when inviting people to be baptized. I'm hoping to see some changes in myself and in my teaching abilities going forward.

We started teaching a lot of cool people this week! One of them is Kaitlyn (although that's not how she spells it in Spanish). She is so sweet! We met her in our complex and she was outside watching her cute little girl Madi play on the playground. She has such an open heart and she is super interested in what we are teaching! We had a lesson with her again later in the week and met her cute son Ian and he is a HOOT. That boy can talk and it's so funny. This family has a lot of potential. 

We also got to help our friends Rocío and Victoria this week! Victoria graduated from fifth grade so we helped her get ready for her graduation and then we went to it with them! We braided her hair super fancy and then met up with them later for the graduation. We had somewhere else to be for the last part of it, so we left early and then met them for ice cream after. It was such a fun day.

Speaking of Rocío and Victoria, they came to church again and it was such a miracle! They weren't planning on coming because they were having car troubles, but long story short they decided to stop by at the church to say hi, and then ended up staying for Sacrament meeting! And they said their favorite part of it was the Sacrament! Another part of the miracle is that when they were sitting down and waiting for it to start, some members sat behind them and they totally knew each other!! Rocío is going to an esthetics school right now, and the members actually own and manage the school! They were so nice to her and told her if she ever needed anything that she could reach out to them. It was a tender mercy. We have kind of felt like we've hit a roadblock with Rocío and Victoria, and we didn't know how to get past it. We've just been praying for them to be able to find a genuine member friend who can help them understand the magnitude of the importance of the restored gospel. And it happened! I'll keep you updated on how this week goes with their new member friends! 

That miracle was one of many that we saw this Sunday. It was such a good day. And it ended at the Cajas house, which is always so awesome. I love Bishop Cajas and his dear wife and their kids so much. I would die for them. We were all enjoying each other's company when Elder Jensen and Elder Ebana came over. They came because they got a call from President Ashcraft yesterday, and Elder Jensen will be finishing the last 3 weeks of his mission in another area. I'm pretty sad about it. Elder Jensen and I have been in the same ward for the first 7 months of my mission, so it will be hard to see him go. Needless to say, I may have shed a tear or two at the Cajas house. It'll be good though. It was actually an answer to prayers. And it'll make other changes in the future less hard. I've officially been in the district longer than anyone else. I've seen the whole group turn around. No one that was here when I got here is still around.

Mission life is weird. It's so good and so fun and so full of change. Change can be hard but if I've learned anything out here in Florida, it's that change is good. God always has something better in store for His children. 

Speaking of change, MY BROTHER IS MARRIED!! Avery and Haley got married on Saturday and I got to call for a bit to say hi and wish them well. I'm so happy and excited for both of them. I love you both!!

Small Plates

The pattern of learning

When Christ visited the American continent, the people were so eager to learn from Him. After he appeared to them they gathered together to hear him teach. His teachings to this people are contained in several chapters of the book of Third Nefi. One part of this era in the Book of Mormon that really caught my eye this time around were these three verses in chapter 17:

"1 Behold, now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked round about again on the multitude, and he said unto them: Behold, my time is at hand.

2 I perceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.

3 Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again"

Verse three in particular caught my attention. Christ basically gives the people a pattern for learning. All they want is to keep being taught by Him, but He knew better. They were human. They were imperfect. Their capabilities were finite. But He knew how to help them learn to the best of their abilities. 

Step 1: "go ye unto your homes."

Or, in other words: put yourself somewhere (physically, spiritually, and emotionally) that will allow you to be taught by the spirit.

Step 2: "ponder upon the things which I have said."

Think about what you have heard and learned up to this point. Does it make logical sense? Is there evidence, big or small? How could this knowledge benefit your life? How can I apply what I already know to strengthen my understanding of it?

Step 3: "ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand."

Pray to you Heavenly Father and ask Him to open your mind unto understanding. He, the Father of your spirit, the co-creator of your mind, will give you enhanced capabilities to understand eternal doctrines and principles. 

Step 4: "prepare your minds for the morrow."

Make room in your mind for more. Don't fill your minds with intelectual blocks or distractions. Make your mind a fertile ground for understanding, whether that be through going on a walk, getting some exercise, getting some rest, or whatever else it may be that will prepare your minds. 

Step 5: "I come unto you again."

This was His promise to the people, and it can be a promise to us as well. As we learn how to learn, we become more capable of learning. It's a wordy sentence but it articulates the truth. As we deepen our understanding through prayer, study, and faith, our heart and minds are better prepared to recieve more knowledge, "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more."

My invitation this week is to make a conscious, careful effort to learn something new about our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel. I know you will be blessed as you do so, for, "The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth."