9-15-2014

Whew...

Time! Today marks 11 P-days left on my mission. Haha! I'm actually doing pretty well at staying focused and involved and happy and not trunky and all of that. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm GOING TO DO MY ECCLESIASTICAL ENDORSEMENT TODAY and START SIGNING UP FOR CLASSES in the next few WEEKS and...yeah. No big, no big.

But I'll tell you about all the rocking miracles and greatness we saw this week!

UPDATE:

We finally hit standards this week! :D Standards are a few numbers that President has determined we should shoot for to have a balanced approach to missionary work. They individually are not all that challenging, but getting them all together at the same time can be tricky (it's 4 member present lessons, 2 on date, 2 at church, 2 new investigators). And we hit it! It's been a while. AND I AM HAPPY. (I was happy before I reached an external measure of my success, don't worry. :) )

Also, I realized that I'm not the best at sharing miracles in these emails, so...HERE ARE A COUPLE (excerpts from my letter to President this week):

1) Met some potentials at the church building (referrals from the A1 sisters), brought a member with us, and they became new investigators and one of them got on date in the course of the lesson! Pretty awesome. Trying to reconnect with them now though; hoping Jade comes to FHE tonight.

2) Had a great lesson with Christine where we got her on track for a more achievable date of Oct 11th (it was Sept 27th before, but she hadn't come to church yet). She DID make it for the sacrament this Sunday (had work at 1:30) even through cramps and 'laziness' as she called it. So proud! The partial result of some prayerful and persistent texting, so we're happy. :)

3) Brittany Pollard is just doing phenomenally. In the month and a half since her baptism she's already finished the Book of Mormon and is through Section 105 of the Doctrine and Covenants already. She also taught Relief Society on Family History and temple work this week. Whhhaaa..?! And is applying to go to BYU in the Winter. Both Sister Van Leuven and I feel super blessed to have been here to see her join the church. Definite learning experience that for true conversion, it's the spirit that teaches, not us.

4) Also had some less actives we were pretty worried about come to church for the first time in like...3 months yesterday. So great. And the ward just swallowed them up in a very genuine way, which they needed so badly. They said they had a good experience and will be back. Brought a lot of joy to both Sister Van Leuven and I.

Of course there's a lot about missionary work that remains challenging, but (15.5 months in) I've gotten a lot more comfortable with a lot of things, and am pretty consistently dang happy. So that's good. :)

PROFILE:

Name: Jenni Brown

Age: 19 (almost 20)

Accessory of note: The front of her hair (like her bangs, but long) is dyed purple. Not like, light amber whatever...bright purple. And she has a purple car too.

Obsession of choice: Family History! No joke, it's what has brought her back to activity in the church.

Tricky background: In the foster care a lot when she was young, finally adopted into an LDS family (and baptized), and her mom died soon after. Being adopted has been one of the major drives behind her family history fire.

Where she is in the Book of Mormon (last time we checked): Mosiah 2. Awesome :)

How she was: REALLY standoffish. Wouldn't let us in at all. Pretty rude, pretty brusque, extremely sarcastic.

How she is now: Much more open. Much more kind. Lets people (at least us) in more easily. Still dealing with a lot of hard things (trust issues, etc), but is coming to church for the first time in a long time, and being an awesome fellowshipper and missionary.

Her hopes for the future: She...kinda wants to go on a mission (!!). Definitely wants to stay active in the church...wants to be a good example and change others by her example. So proud. :)

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

We're doing a Zone Read of Preach My Gospel this transfer (80% of our Personal Study. Yep. A sacrifice at first, but I'm doing better now :) ), and something that stood out to me was in lesson 2 of Chapter 3 where it talks about how "we will be rewarded according to our works and our desires." I always thought of that phrase kinda like this:

Not able to do good works (because you're handicapped or restrained to a bed or a prisoner of war or something?) but have good desires? SAVED!

But having read a couple other talks, I realized that being rewarded according to your works and desires can also mean this:

Doing something good (helping someone out/fulfilling your calling/doing missionary work), but you don't really want to and you have a bad attitude about it? =...not saved.

If we don't repent, of course. And that's the blessing, that there's always room for us to change. If you're doing good works already, you've already won one half of the battle! Now just to pray for your heart to be changed, and for you to develop the desire to do what you're doing (for the Lord or somebody else). Change your heart, and it will be accounted unto you for righteousness. Pretty cool!

PICTURE:

​Tessa (in the middle) was sick this week, and her mom gave her a bunch of masks so that she 'wouldn't contaminate anyone'. Fun. :P

Alright, I love you all! Like I always say, write me now while you can still get blessings for it! ;P

Sister Hale

PO Box 13390

Mill Creek, WA, 98082

It'll be fun, I promise. :P Love you!

Sister Hale