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| Red tile sums up my life:) |
THE MORE YOU LIVE IT THE MORE YOU LEARN IT. I like applying this to the gospel. If you are a nonmember, a less active member, or even an active member who just feels like you don’t have a testimony of the church yet, here is a possible answer to your seeking. We can’t expect for God to give us a testimony of something, which is a gift to us from Him, if we aren’t willing to put in a little work and try it out. How are you going to know if you like Oreos if you’ve never tried one? Just live the gospel. It’s so simple and fantastic. Like an Oreo…but better :p
I made up my own little ‘whatever’ for something I’m working on the rest of my mission:
LOVE GOD MORE THAN ANY OTHER PERSON- CONVERSION.
I truly believe that this is all we need. I’m not quite there yet, and there will be days that are better than others, but I sure am working on it.
Monday- it was Sister Van Heels birthday and considering I sneakily was able to throw 3 surprise parties for her I’m gunna say I took home the ‘best companion ever’ trophy. Lol. It was a great day. Birthdays make me happy :)
Tuesday- IT RAINED ALL DAY. WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA??! Comitted 2 of our investigators to baptism! 2 of our other investigators are getting married sometime this next week so they cn be baptized “before one of us has to leave” haha. YAY!
Wednesday- It rained even mooore this day! I missed rain more that I thought :p A less active member that hasn’t allowed missionaries in his house for years let us in..He said he wants us to start coming over more often and that he likes the spirit we bring with us and the example we are to his young grandchildren. I thought that was super cute. Peoples hearts soften. They really do. In the Lords perfect timing!
Thursday- We were reaaaaaalllllllly glad we had a Jeep this day. Because of all the rain and dirt roads we hit some serious puddles, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a ton of fun though :p We had 8 lessons this day and literally everyone we tried to see was there for once. It was incredible. Had lunch with other missionaries in our district….interesting is a good word to use I guess? Lol. Elders. Still can’t believe Heavenly Father expects us sisters to marry one someday hahaha.
Friday- Helped a woman put up some Christmas decorations while we listened to lovely Christmas music :) Went to bed with a hooooorrrrrrrrrribllllllle headache. It’s strange because I have never had ‘health’ issues so to say until I got to this area. Haha. Must just be the stress!
Saturday- All the missionaries in Apple Valley got to sing at the AV Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was a ton of fun. Sister Van Heel and I wore some bannnngguppppp Santa Hats!!! Don’t worry, we made sure to take them off during the prayers/national anthem :p Between all of us missionaries we ended up handing out over 1200 packages of cookies with a “He Is The Gift” card stapled to it. IT WAS SO AWESOME. Great missionary opportunity.
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| Sister Cauble |
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| Those hats doooooeeee |
Got a few doors slammed in our face this day. No worries though. You gotta have those every once in a while to feel like a true missionary. Plus it totally made up for it when we had a lesson with Jan’Ine and in her prayer she said “I’m learning everything about You, God and I like the way it’s going.” :’)
Sunday-It was a strange day. I felt really…off? Not sure how to explain that one haha.
COOL THING THAT HAPPENED THOUGH: We are teaching a black mother and daughter who have been coming to church for like 2 months straight. Well, it was hard getting them there at first because they thought we were a ‘white church’ even though we are a WORLDWIDE church. Anywho. Another black lady, who we’d never seen walked in and we were so happy they were there to see it. Well, she ends up getting up to bear her testimony. At 1st we were really happy just because our investigators were getting to see/hear her. But then, as she was baring strong, powerful testimony she looked over to a different corner where we had 5 investigators sitting and said “you look like I did the 1st time I came to this church. I’m here to tell you to keep coming. This is GODS church.” That woman didn’t know them a LICK! If that wasn’t testimony that the spirit is real and guides people then I don’t know what is.
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| Love this family |
One thing the mission has for sure taught me is how to use time wisely. Its taught me that there are so many important things to do in life and so little time! I remember always being annoyed that mom wouldn’t allow us to take naps really or even let us sleep in that late on the weekend but now I’m on a mission and understand. As granny would say “YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOURE DEAD. You’re not gunna lay on your death bed wishin’ you’d slept a little more. You’re gunna wish you had worked harder so you could pay for a trip to Hawaii or something!”
We gotta be productive instead of idle all the time. I’ve found that it’s really easy to take 5 mins here, 2 mins there, etc. to ‘break’ (for yall it might be to surf the internet, to check your phone, to nap, to edit a cool picture). Let me tell you something though: that ‘here and there’ time adds up and before you know it, you’ve wasted at LEAST an hour of your day doing nothing that will benefit you in the end. If we just keep an eternal perspective of all things we’d be much happier and live much more simple lives.
Another sister serving around me gave me a talk/letter thing to read this week. In it the man said the following “Think of your life in 10 year increments starting from when you’re able to be baptized at 8 years old. 8-18, 18-28, 28-38, 38-48 etc. In what increment are the most life changing events occurring? 18-28. The Lord understood the value of kicking it off (this crucial part of your life) with a mission. You gain 10 years’ worth of life experiences on a mission.”
I can testify that what he said is true. WHEW. I sit in aw every single day at how much Heavenly Father teaches us in such a short amount of time. It’s so neat because lets be real here, if this is Gods work, and it is, then He could do it without the help of all these young immature 18-23 year olds…but instead, He knows how much it will help us learn/grow, therefore He so graciously allows us to be a part of this wonderful cause. It’s because of Him that I see miracles daily, that I’ve learned how to listen to that still small voice of the spirit, that I have learned the importance of family and how crucial the gospel for all of us. I JUST LOVE HIM.
Speaking of the spirit.
Ok, there can actually be beauty/symbolism in the ‘hype’ of Christmas. For example: when baby Jesus was born it was in a super humble setting (a lowly stable) however, given the circumstances it was absolutely GORGEOUS. It glowed. It’s just like that with humble houses in our own neighborhoods at Christmas time. Sure, they might not be that pretty during the day, but at night as they are lit up, you see the prettiness of it instead of the lowly house it is. Beautiful. I love it.
I hope you’re all remembering to #ShareTheGift
LOVE YALL, HOOLIGANS.
-hugs-
Sister Toolan
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| Still taking selfies |
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