Monday, May 19, 2014

Monday, May 19, 2014

Hi!

GUESS WHO GOT THEIR HAIR CUT?! I love it:) It is basically the same hair cut I got before, in high school, and I love it.  I missed it!  I imagine I will always have this hair cut for the remainder of my life... if I am being realistic. Haha!

This week was been a roller coaster!  Just as busy as ever-- sometimes I am like, "What are we even busy doing?" But we are needed different places and so we are out and about.

So, starting with last week's p-day-- we had zone activity.  So as a zone we went to Prospect Park and played kickball! It was a blast.  Since we are in Bensonhurst, we are further out from the rest of zone 2 so as a district we tried to find what part of the park they were in and it took us 45 minutes of walking... I'm not gonna say we were lost- but we had no idea where we were.  So the zone leaders came and found us and we went with everyone to play kickball.  The park is huge- it probably takes an hour to walk from the top of the part to the bottom.  We started playing on one of the fields and then a team came [who had a permit] to play on the field.  So, we had to leave.  It was sad.  Then we went to the next field and there was a son, and a dad playing catch.  It reminded me so much of the boys and dad.  I felt so bad; one of the elders asked if we could play on the field.  So as the dad and son were walking off the field I went to talk to the dad and asked if he and the son wanted to play with us. The dad said that he had hurt his foot prior, but that his son [who was 6] would LOVE to play. So we had a good time. Cameron was on my team and we let him kick first and things and the dad just watched.  He was on a little league team and loved playing. So, now fast forward to like 15 minutes later. Cameron is in the outfield and the dad had stood up on the dugout bench to take pictures of his son, and out of nowhere, one of the elders kicked terribly, a foul ball... Right into the dad's head!  It was horrible!  We didn't know what to do... It was evident he wasn't too pleased- and so I ran over with another elder and got him a water bottle and band-aid to clean off the blood from his sun glasses.  When he saw how sorry we all were he was fine and we continued to play.  His son had such a good time, and so did we. :) The funny quote the elders always throw in my face was when I was trying to include Cameron in the game, and as we were running to switch from kicking, I was trying to help him know where to go. And in my really excited voice, not thinking about what I was saying, I said "okay Cameron! We have a REALLY, REALLY important job for you—WAY, WAY over there" as I was pointing to the furthest part of the outfield. Haha!  Little did I realize how unimportant that position sounded until after I said it.

On Tuesday we had district meeting and helped a woman pack.  This woman was a referral. She is not a member. But her daughter is.  She is a devout born again Christian, but she has a good relationship with God. She prayed with us, in a very unique way-but it was kid a cool.  We just held hands and she spoke very reverently to him.  We didn't really help her too much, she mainly wanted to tell us about the things that she had and how she valued it all so much-sometimes people are just lonely and the simple fact we are caring about what is going on in their life means so much to them.

That night we also taught a woman in the ward, who is trying to come back to church. She expressed concern that she doesn't feel God’s love, and we helped her see that you feel the love of God the most when you are being obedient.  It is hard to find a teaching style that helps her learn the best, so we will have to get creative-- it is always so special to be able to bear testimony of the things we know are true.  I know why God wants us to share our testimony so much- it only strengthens our own testimony.

Wednesday was our interviews with president :) they went well!  We do interviews zone by zone, and then we have a time slot. This time around, each zone also had a district leader training meeting, where district leaders were trained in their callings. The APs taught the training and the district leaders companions, zone leaders and the sister training leaders were asked to go to this meeting.  I was learning so much... Just a lot of reiteration on accountability. That's the number one take away for me in my whole mission this far, being accountable.  We learn that The Lord deletes in accountability and that he expects us to be accountable to everything that we do.  I am finding that if I want to gain trust with The Lord I need to be accountable to the things that I committed to do. As we all know- it’s harder to live by than to say. They taught the importance of "teaching missionaries don't just have a district meeting”, which is just the play on words the other phrase we use, "teach people not lessons" so they talked about being innovative in meetings, don't always do the same thing, make them have take-a-ways and leave the missionaries with things that they are going to commit to, and be prompt on following up with them.

 The interview itself went great. Honestly, this was the breeziest interview yet.  We had a 30 min interview as a companionship that was simply just about the sisters and updating president. Then we spit and did 15 min interviews with president on personal things. I felt no concerns. I was thinking about it and talking about it with Sister Montgomery, and I was telling her just how much I feel like my mission is not as personally a struggle as it used to be.  I kind of eluded to the fact that I felt like Heavenly Father made it that I could focus my efforts a little bit more on the here and now and what I need to do.  She told me that it's not that my problems are gone, it's just that he gives us the strength to get through them because we have a lot of people to attend to.  And I felt like that was the case. So my interview with president was so simple. Super short.  I feel like it MAYBE took 7 minutes... And we were done. That man is a great teacher. I love him.

Thursday we went on an exchange and I took the sister I was with to her pre-scheduled doctor’s appointment for her eye. So that got cleared up and we went on our merry way!

We had a special lesson, our amazing Relief Society President was a champ and went with us after church to visit someone.  She didn't end up being home so we decided to go to another house-strictly on a whim.  We had the most amazing lesson! She committed to live the Word of Wisdom then and there and she threw out the alcohol in the sink.  I threw out the lighters.  We got rid of the coffee and tea.  It was great.  The spirit was so strong.  She knew what she had to do, and knew what would make her feel better spiritually.  She wants to go to the temple, so that is our goal after coming to church regularly :) Very special. :)

I'm learning a lot.  Constantly being humbled.  I feel like there is so much to do, and often I feel like in don’t know what the fine-line is to complete everything on the to-do list and "do it right" as Dad always says.  We took a survey for the brethren, for when the general authority comes. It was ALL about Preach My Gospel and how much we feel like our knowledge and application had grown.  I was amazed how much I felt like I HAVE grown.

I love the gospel. It’s true.

Love you,

Sister JaLynn Freeze :)