Week 18

Dec 2

That's how that song should go in Ohio. Although it finally stopped and has mostly melted already. But we got buckets more since last week.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday we worked our tails off so that we would feel more justified in sitting around on Thanksgiving. We had so many appointments cancel, so that gave us lots of time to tract in the blizzard. We actually stopped by a former investigator's house all the way on the other side of our area, and when he wasn't home we felt like we had wasted a lot of miles to drive out there and wanted to make something of it. So naturally we started tracting, and after the second house, we saw a man outside walking toward us. He thought our car was stuck in the snow and wanted to know if we needed help. So we explained that we were fine and started talking a little bit, told him who we were and talked about the restoration, and he said we could come back and share a message this week! Whoo! We also met a lady in the nursing home where we volunteer who wants to learn more. She's super sweet.

 

Then Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. So we spent approximately 11 hours hanging out at Sister Busath's house. Haha. It was the best. I took a little mini nap on her couch, and she played Christmas music all day and invited a ton of people from the ward over. We got to eat and then take a break to nap and write a letter home, then we ate some more and took another break to play games. Then we ate some dessert and played more games. That was a fun day. It went so fast.

 

But the next day we got to get up and go to Kirtland early Friday morning and it was sooooo white everywhere! So much snow got dumped on us.The nativities were all finished when we walked in and there were a bunch of people coming that day. We took two really great tours that day, one was a way cute family from the other side of Ohio, and then shortly after we got back one of the Senior missionaries came and told us that our bishop had made a special request for Sister Johnson and Sister Coontz to take them on tour :) Haha. He brought his parents and grandmother to see the sites and they were the cutest. It was a really cool tour with them, too. Then that night Al and Loretta came to the lighting ceremony and got to meet Bishop Hatfield, Elder Sorenson, and President Vellinga! That was cool. They really liked the nativities. All the Kirtland sisters sang at the lighting ceremony, and then me and Sister Johnson were asked to help plug in some of the lights! Soooo we will go down in Kirtland history. Basically.

 

Saturday was equally as good because we took another awesome tour. They were two couples about our age. One girl was a lifelong member with a sister on a mission, then her boyfriend was baptized a few years ago and had just become active in the last year. Then the other couple was a guy who got baptized 13 months ago and his date who is getting baptized in 2 weeks! All because he was a good member missionary and asked her to come to church with him. It just so happened that she was searching for something, and found it when he introduced her to his faith. Now he is going on a mission in January! Member missionaries rock! It was probably one of the best tours I've ever taken. Same with the ones we took on Friday. It was just all around a great time in Kirtland.

 

Then yesterday was church, which was great as always. I love the Hiram ward. Then afterwards we saw the Stamms. Katherine is doing soooo well. SO well. She has already been praying about this and learning on her own. She read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and prayed about it, and after discussing her questions she told us that basically everything made sense, and fell in line well. She said she didn't think we were saying things that were wrong, but she said it's so different that she needed to study more and pray about it. Good answer, right?!? That's exactly what she needs to do! We are so excited to keep teaching them. It's taken so long to get to this point, and it definitely will take more time now. But they are being prepared more and more, and the ward members have been so great at befriending them, so I'm not worried about them losing contact with anyone in the church. They are already such Christlike people. It will definitely take time with them, but that is certainly not a bad thing.

 

Michael is just being Michael. I'll just leave it at that. I'll let you all know how he's doing when I figure that out myself. We had another lesson last night that went pretty much the same as last week, aside from the fact that we actually spoke a little more this time. But he's gonna take time too. No worries.

 

So this week I wanted to share some things Heavenly Father has taught me this week. And that is that it is okay to have weaknesses. Over and over again on my mission I have been told this, but I think it was solidified more than ever this week. In Elder Scott's talk from conference, "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ", he says "The joyful news for anyone who desires to be rid of the consequences of past poor choices is that the Lord sees weaknesses differently than He does rebellion. Whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy." One of my new favorite scriptures is in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, where Paul says "(9) And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (10) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." So it's okay to be weak. In fact, we should glory in our infirmities, as Paul, because our weaknesses are opportunities for Christ's help. I'm a huge perfectionist. But it's important to realize that if we focus on everything we are doing wrong and trying to fix it all at once, we are not going to end up fixing anything. We just become overwhelmed and discouraged. But I think we might all be surprised to realize that we are doing alright after all. Now, I don't want to sound like we should be lazy and not try to become better. We can always become better. But progress comes through trust in the Savior and His Atonement. And when we are utilizing the Atonement and doing our best, then we are strong. Regardless of our weaknesses.

 

I hope that made some sense :) And I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you for the letters and emails this week! You have no idea how happy they make me!! Love you guys :)

 

Tayler