Hi family! I miss you. I feel bad for not calling you that much while I was at BYU. I loved Lila's talk that you sent! I gave one myself on Sunday. I'll have to send it to her. James, you'd better be excited for BYU! Look at the website at all the clubs they've got! They have activities all the time. Look at posters on the wall in the Wilkinson center and in the BYU newspaper. There's tons of fun, free stuff going on. There might even be a LEGO club, who knows? Friday nights they have $1 movies that are always good, people play night games, Sunday nights there's tunnel singing where people get together in certain tunnels and sing hymns at the top of their lungs and it echoes because you're in a tunnel. The classes are challenging and you learn a ton, especially the religion classes. Are you taking your unicycle? You should. It's great to get to classes quickly. I didn't even lock mine up. I took it into class and stuck it in the back and no one cared. It's a good way to meet people too. Great conversation starter. Wait till you try riding it in the snow! That's an experience. As you're walking through campus you can start talking to anyone and they'll be friendly. One girl was going through the bookstore with smiley face stickers and sticking them on people saying "Be happy!" I could go on. It's just a good place. You'll have a blast. Freshman especially have a good time. I'm jealous. :-) I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!! HUG!!!! HUG!!!!! HUG!!!!!!!
Hi friends and family! I can't believe it's transfer week again! Ah! Our district leader was so mean! He calls us Saturday night when they let us know about transfers and says, "You sisters are staying together in Hanford!" We were really happy. But then he comes back with "Just kidding. You're both leaving." In the mission we call it doubling out. It's where both missionaries leave an area and two new ones coming in. Elders are coming in. Naturally all the single sisters in the ward are upset because they can't have the missionaries over anymore unless they have someone else come too. I really liked this area and wanted to stay but oh well. The whole mission is amazing. I'm being transferred to Madera. I am excited because I'll be in a Spanish ward again. I assume my new companion is a native speaker. I hope so because I could use some Spanish help.
I actually played a trick on my companion. The way transfer calls work, the district leader calls you Saturday night and lets you know, but if you're going to be a trainer, President Gonzalez calls in the morning. While my companion was in the shower I hit "call" on the President's number but hung up before it rang but it still showed up on the phone's history. When she got out of the shower I said "Look who called! You're training!" and showed her the phone. She really thought I was serious. That was funny. We can tease each other like that.
You meet some very interesting people when you're a missionary. Sometimes when you're tracting (knocking on doors) I kind of feel like: and behind door number 1......or more like 1200!..... We knocked some doors yesterday. People are grumpy on Sundays! One man opened the door, took one look at us and said "not interested" and shut the door. That's starting to not be a surprise. Oh well. We're trying to share the gospel to those who are prepared to hear it and some people are just not prepared yet.
We were asked to speak in church on Sunday. That was before we knew about transfers so it ended up being perfect since it's our last week. My companion spoke using as a base Matthew 5 about being "the light of the world." Like I said before, she is a fairly recent convert. She joined 3 years ago. She has a lot of examples of how the examples of members have helped her because she did not have that in her own family. I used Matthew 6:19-23 about treasures in heaven and an eye single to the glory of God. Especially as a missionary, I see more clearly where my priorities should be and what is really important in life. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and as long as we put Him first in our lives, everything else will either fall into place or fall out of our lives. In "True to the Faith" the definition of "sacrifice" says it is to give up something we value for something of greater worth. I know that sometimes Heavenly Father asks us to give up things we value which might be good things even but there are things of more worth that are in store for us. I also used in my talk a quote by C.S. Lewis which says "I believe in Christ as I believe in the Sun. Not that I can see it, but that by it I can see all." That is true of our Savior Jesus Christ. Not everyone sees Him but if we have an eye single to the glory of God, we are able to see life clearly and the reality of trials that we face. We can see them as a blessing and recognize eternal value. That has saved my life. When I've had a hard thing I'm going through, it might still hurt but if I mentally step back and look at it from a gospel perspective it doesn't seem as severe. Because we have the plan of Salvation, because we have a goal, we know where we have the potential to go and we know the steps we need to take to get there. We have a foundation in a world of changing morality. That has been the thing of greatest worth that I have seen. I love telling people about that plan!
It has been amazing in this area. I haven't had that much Spanish practice so I've been nervous about when we find a Spanish speaker to teach. I'd like to testify that the gift of tongues exists! When we come across someone who is willing to listen, somehow I am able to communicate what I want to say in Spanish. When we find someone who speaks Spanish who we can tell isn't interested just by their expression, I can't think of the words to say. So I know when I am able to speak, it's not me. I am only trying to be an instrument. This is truly Heavenly Father's work. We have run into quite a few Spanish speakers this last week. I think the elders coming in are both Spanish elders so that will be good. There are areas that have a lot of Spanish speakers. I've been proud of my companion. She's learned how to introduce us as missionaries in Spanish and she's memorized the Missionary Purpose in Spanish too. I was helping her with her pronunciation this week and she was doing really well.
Hope everyone's doing well at home! Keep learning and growing! It's a process that doesn't stop. Take our dear friend Bonnie's advice: "Life is what you make it, so make it good!"
Keep Smiling!
Hermana Evans
No comments:
Post a Comment