Called to Serve: Week 36 & 37

Hey! Transfer calls were this Saturday, and I am heading to PARIS! ...Illinois. Paris appears to be on the Illinois/Indiana border (heading far from St Louis again), and it's a branch! And we'll (me and Sister Schwenke, my new comp) be the only missionaries serving there, so this will definitely be a change of pace for me. I am way excited though, farms and flat land here I come!

I promised a picture from the temple, so...

This is Sister Webb, Sister Mendenhall, and I at the temple last Tuesday. It was so great! I was so glad to be back there.

Also, in further Dumpster Diving endeavors... Okay, not really. There was no diving involved. But we saw these two chairs sitting OUTSIDE of a Dumpster in our complex when we were coming in one evening, and Sister Nelson and I just looked at each other... and before you knew it, they were in our shower being disinfected by bleach! :)

This week overall was a pretty slow week though. We dropped all three of our investigators... One told us she couldn't meet with us right now because she was being kicked out of her house. One hasn't been progressing even though we've been teaching her fairly regularly. She says that she is too dedicated to her own church to ever make a change. One, the pastor that was picked up a while ago, said that he read the Book of Mormon (the first part of it) and "didn't get anything out of it." He was also applying for a job at another church, so we think that may have something to do with it... Which was tough. But a clean slate can be a good thing. Miracles happen when you least expect it, and when you're working the hardest!

But man oh man, tracting in the hot humid weather is blech... I got very sweaty this week.

Oh! We did some interesting service for a member this week. She called us and asked if we would like some food from her freezer when she moved. Who says no to free food? Well, this week she called us and said, "Oh, bring the elders... and would you mind helping me move a few things in the garage?" Of course we don't mind. The job turned out a little bigger than we anticipated though, so we only made it through a little bit. I cleaned out my corner of the garage though! :)

Had some good thunderstorms this week! Ok, mostly one good one. But it was fun to watch! I saw a really neat lightning strike.

Also! Uncle Steve and Garrett totally surprised me! Here I was, just getting ready for church, and boom! Uncle and cousin walk in and sit down. I was very surprised! I feel bad, I probably said half the things I would have... I thought of all my questions after they left! But it was a nice surprise :)

One of the things I've been trying to do in my personal study is implement more General Conference talks. While I was at the temple, I purchased my own copy of the General Conference issue of the Ensign, so I could mark it up and take it with me. This week, I read two talks: Elder Hales' "If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments," and President Eyring's "The Priesthood Man."

Both excellent. I loved Elder Hales' talk. It focused on obedience, and it makes the comment that obedience is motivated by love. When we love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, we will be obedient. And we show our love for Them through our obedience: "Our love of the Savior is the key to Savior-like obedience."

In President Eyring's talk, I appreciated his comments on how to be a righteous role model. He talked about three things we can do: Pray fervently, serve diligently, and be committed to honesty. I liked how he showed that each led to the next: as we pray specifically and earnestly, we will be inspired to know who to serve and when. As we served those people, we will be more dedicated to serving Heavenly Father, and we will lose our desire to be dishonest in any way. "Any way" includes so many things, I realized. We're dishonest when we act in a way that goes against the promises we've made with God.

Anyway, I will try to grab a few more pictures and send them your way. Uncle Steve told me I need to send more pictures :)

City Museum: