So this week....so much has happened! Wednesday we had zone conference and, like always, it was so great! I learned so much and got so much motivation to finish out the transfer. One thing that President Waddoups said was that by the end of your first 12 weeks you should be ready to train. Especially because this next group has a ton of sisters coming in. Ummmm. That is in 2 weeks. And definently not ready to train! So it is a good motivation to push myself more.
(Pictures I "borrowed" from Pres. & Sis. Waddoups' blog of the zone conference since Kaeli didn't send any today. Thank you Sister Waddoups!)
So we have been thinking this whole month has been deserted, but little did we know that there is a national holiday that EVERYONE goes to the beach...or who knows where, but our town was eerily quiet. There was no.one.here. But good thing the mission knows that this day happens and it was our deep cleaning day! We deep cleaned our whole house and it looked so squeeky clean!
This week has been great and I have so many things I want to share! But I will share a few that I feel are most important to share with you all. (But if you want more details on my week go check out my companion, Sorella Wightman's blog - HERE.)
In my scripture study this week I have been studying the book of Alma. As we know, Mormon saw our day and he knew exactly what we would need when he compiled the Book of Mormon. And when comparing the length of books in the Book of Mormon, the amount of writing for a rather small amount of time (39 years) lets us know that the Book of Alma is especially parallel and relevant for our time. So I have been reading and looking for how I can apply these teachings to modern days. And I have found so much!
So one of our biggest trials in Rome 5 is traveling. Our zone consists of a bunch of little cities all spread apart with just country in between. So it takes a long time to get to the places we need to go and without a car it is pretty tricky. But this week has been even trickier! Because the whole country is on vacation, they don't run the buses and the trains on the normal schedule so it has been nearly impossible to get anywhere in a good amount of time.
Yesterday we had an appointment with a member family at 7:00 in the evening. We knew that the buses were not running normally and we knew we needed to figure out how to get to Capenna (where the family lives). So we spent a good chunk of our morning trying to solve this problem. We discovered that the only way to get to this city that is probably 25 miles away, was to take the train 40 minutes to Rome, get on the metro line B to a place where we could catch the metro line A, then take the metro to a stop that has a little train, take the little train to a bus station where there is one bus in the whole zone that can take us to Capenna. This was nearly a 2 1/2 hour process. But we needed to get to this appointment! So we put our trust in the Lord that we could get to this bus station in time for us to catch this one bus. The process went fine up until we got on the little train. There was work being done on the tracks and we missed our bus by 2 minutes. And we didn't know what to do. We found a bus that went nearby Capenna and so we called this member and asked them to pick us up from there. And we were so embarrased. Because this has happened a few times. And we were being hard on ourselves. Was there something we did wrong? Is there something that we are doing that is preventing us from recieving guidance from the Lord? I didn't know. It lead me to start thinking about our work. We have had all zeros for the past week. No lessons, no new investigators. Magged, our investigator with a baptism date, stopped meeting with us, and I was being really hard on myself. But I feel like I have been working so. hard. to be the best missionary I can be and do the Lord's work with every part of me! Of course there is always room for improvement, but am I not giving enough?
So I went to the Lord in prayer. I asked him if he is pleased with the work I am doing. Why are we working so hard and not seeing any results from our work.
This morning I was reading in Alma chapter 8. Still looking for how I can apply these teachings into our day. This chapter is telling about how Alma was teaching to the people of Ammonihah. Alma is like the most awesome missionary in the history of time and these people were so mean to him. They spit on him and cast him out of the city. And I can kinda relate.
Then an angel visits Alma and tells him "Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God" (vs 15).
Now I know I am not going to get a vision from an angel, but I do know that if I am keeping the commandments of God, there is no reason to be hard on myself.
President Monson said, "Do your duty; that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest. Should there be anyone who feels he is too weak to change the onward and downward course of his life, or should there be those who fail to resolve to do better because of the greatest fears- the fear of failure- there is no more conforting assurance to be had than these words of the Lord: 'My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them' (Ether 12:27). Miracles are everywhere to be found when priesthood callings are magnified. When faith replaces doubt, when selfless service eliminates selfish striving, the power of God brings to pass his purposes".
The Lords grace is sufficient for all my weaknesses. If I am being the best missionary that I can possibly be, he will take care of the rest!
I have so much I want to write but I am running out of time!
I love you guys! I hope you know I love you with everything in my soul!
Trayser, be good to Colten.
Colten, be good to Trayser.
Have fun in High School!
I will write you each a letter this week! And mail it! Since I have stamps!
Dad, I just love your emails. Thank you for taking time to write me!
And Mom, I hope you know how much I look up to you! You are my best friend/hero/superwoman and I just miss you so much!
Sorella Wiltbank
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