.: Week 15 "Frozen Yogurt and Jason's Baptism = Successful Week"

Week 15

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week down! This week was super awesome honestly, a lot of really happy moments and we had some good work days...every day we came home EXHAUSTED. I woke up every day this week thinking is it really morning? I swear I just laid down haha :) But I guess that is missionary work right? Anyway I hope everyone had a great week, thank you again for all the love and support--couldn't do this without all your prayers! I can't wait to tell you all about my week! :)

So first things first, I had my first Zone Conference. It was lots of fun and a whole day event, so that was a nice break in the week. :) My mission president and his wife are really the most inspiring people. They talked a lot about seeing the temple as the goal and baptism as a gateway to being sealed in the temple. Because our mission is so close to the temple they are really putting a focus on getting families sealed and doing temple ordinances. That was kind of cool I thought, yes finding and baptizing is important but the temple is the end goal here. The temple is closed until November but I am so excited when we can have the members doing temple ordinances.

Another thing that was talked a lot about this week was Gratitude and I totally was shrinking in my seat when Sister Ostler started to talk about the things Heavenly Father has given us, especially in regards to learning this Language. Every day I get home but I am like, this could have gone better...I could have said that better...yada yada yada. And then when it was talked about that we should be grateful for the things the Lord has given us or the knowledge he is giving us rather than focusing on the things we don't have. And so I took a minute to think of where I was 4 weeks ago in regards to how to be a missionary, the language...and I was thinking about how grateful I need to be with what Heavenly Father is helping me with everyday. :) So that was kind of a nice realization for this week. But my first Zone Conference was super good--plus I got to see my favorite batch mates. THEY ARE THE BEST :)

My first Zone Conference :)
I got to see Sister Singer again!

Another highlight the week was the Baptism of Jason. :) This was the best day ever, seriously so exciting to see a completed family. Jason's wife Phoebe has been a less active for like 8 years, she and Jason were married in December, we helped reactivate her and then Jason started taking the missionary discussions in February and was baptized on Thursday. And seriously I could not be more happy and the whole time I was just thinking about how awesome this step is in their lives. Phoebe shared her testimony about eternal families and it was so cool to see. I have watched them progress together and it was such a happy moment to finally see Jason take this step in his life :)

Jason's baptism--l. to r. Jason, his wife Phoebe, me, Sister Dolor

I got to see Sister Holzworth!

Another fun thing that happened this week was with Yuri the Trike Driver. :) So their are these little trikes with side carts that people drive around and every single day we see Yuri. It usually consists of him yelling something about Joseph Smith and how the Bible is the word of God, we didn't really ever take any time to talk to him because we don't know how worth it the conversation would be. But one day this week we walked right past him and we started to talk about Joseph Smith and teaching him about the restoration. And we told him that this is Christ's church...just had a really nice discussion. So we came back the next day and there he was ready for us to keep going, pamphlet in hand. So we went further and we ended up teaching him a couple of times this week and he accepted our invitation for baptism. :) Lesson learned? Talk to everyone, including crazy Trike drivers :)

We have been talking to a less active lady named Elma, we call her Nanay Elma. We have been talking to her and telling her to come to church since I have been in the area. Talk about patience with someone, she hasn't been to church even though we invite her every visit. So this visit I told Sister Dolor we were going to do something different. We went in and taught her how to pray--and she never, ever wants to pray--we never know why. So I told her that Heavenly Father wants her to pray, and we asked her if she would after our message. And she said okay after I begged for like 5 minutes haha :), and then we sat there and waited and waited and waited. 10 minutes goes by and she still hasn't prayed. But then finally after 15 minutes of kneeling on our knees Elma prayed, she said that she hadn't prayed in over 10 years. Guess what--she was at church on Sunday :) It just made me think, you really never know what someone needs....every now and then people just need a shove in the right direction haha :)

Last thought of the week was when 2 brothers from Armenia--where even is that haha--came to church on Sunday :) With a 30 second notice we were asked to teach the Gospel Principles lesson, its fine cause we teach this stuff all day everyday but when I started the lesson I got this feeling to teach about Christ's life and when he came to the America's in 3 Nephi. The lesson was supposed to be on Tithing. But I just went with it--poor Sister Dolor caught on after a little bit. After the lesson these 2 men came up to me and said they wanted to know about Christ's life and what we believe as members of the church because that was their first time they both had ever been to our church. And it was just a cool experience, when I think about being guided by the spirit sometimes I wonder HOW? or WHY? How does that even work? But really we are guided every day and I just love D&C 19:23--I started D&C this week, we just need to walk and be ready/worthy to receive promptings because you really never know when they are going to come :)

Well I hope everyone has a good week, thanks for the thoughts and prayers. :)

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Zeeeee