11-3-2014

...Yep. The time has come. The time when trivial comments about time passing quickly now become very serious and threatening. Because, ladies and gentlemen, you will only be getting 3 MORE EMAILS of this variety before I am no longer a missionary. CRAZY. (and perchance not even that; our Pday is being moved to Thanksgiving in the last week of my mission and I DONNNN'T know if there will be library time on that day. We shall see.)

But! Without further ado...THE TALE OF OUR TRIUMPHS. And my week, and all that jazz. :)

UPDATE:

Well...it's been a great week! We MADE STANDARDS (this fairly challenging combination of key indicator marks (people at church, on date for baptism, etc.) that the MP has set as standards of excellence for the mission) and had 3 people at church! CRAZY MIRACLES! :D Brandon continues to progress (he read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon this week) though he remains frustrating...Rachel has been praying out loud (!) and is newly on-date for baptism, and Jessica invited herself to church this week! Miracles! :D Another miracle is that we found a new investigator at 8:29 last night (and it's started to get SUPER dark, thanks to daylights savings, so even more awesome), which was the last thing we needed to hit standards! Phew...rather exhausting week, but a very good one.

PROFILE:

Not that I don't have cool people we're working with to profile, buuutt...this needs to be done.

Name: The Ghost

Age: ...anywhere from 26-35

Where we see her: Wandering our complex with a distressed look on her face

Outfit she wears every day: Purple Northface type jacket, snake-print leggings

Disturbing behavior: Shall I count the ways? ...gathering rocks into one of those free doggie bags they have in receptacles in our complex underneath our window at 6:40am...dancing at 9pm with several metal wire type things (like the type that secure the election signs in place by the side of the road) and walking around with a black trash bag on her head (yesterday, I'm not kidding). Kinda creepy.

What happens when we try to talk to her: She doesn't acknowledge us and sprints off in the other direction

My theory: Schizophrenia. Or otherwise very disturbed. So far she seems harmless, so we haven't said anything to the management, but...yeah.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Helaman 3:35

"...Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction. 

Nevertheless, they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

I've loved this scripture for a while, but it stood out to me again in my reading this week. I like especially where it gives the process (kinda reversed in the scripture) that goes like this:

Yielding hearts to God>Purifying and sanctification of their hearts>filling their souls with joy and consolation

Who doesn't want joy and consolation, right? Especially in times of difficulty and persecution. I love that in this scripture the direct cause of that joy and consolation is yielding their hearts to God. What does that mean for us? It means giving up your love and allegiance to things that are not of God, things that are the 'good and better' on the spectrum of good-better-best, or things that are expressly against his commandments. A lot of times we give these things up in our external lives, but retain them in our heart. It's an act of faith to sacrifice these things, but we can be confident that when we do, God will purify and sanctify us, and bring that peace and joy more fully into our lives.

PICTURE:

He's a sassy man. This is as close as I could get. :P

I love you all!

XOXXOXOXOXO

Sister Hale