Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Monday, July 21, 2014

Monday, July 21, 2014

Hi!

Where does the time go... this week has FLOWN by!  A lot of great things came of the week!  As always-- my thoughts are very jumbled, but as long as I get them on 'paper' then all is well.  Haha!  So, we were able to start teaching 3 new people! I think I may have told this story.  I can’t remember ... but I fearlessed a woman a month or more ago, and she wanted to come to church and then after that she never came, but we have seen her 2 different times after and her health is poor lately so she couldn’t attend church. The 3rd time we saw her we told her that because her health is poor, that we would be able to teach her about the basics of the gospel and she accepted.  When we arrived at her house her cousins were there as well.  So they were all able to learn. :)  Renee still wants us to come again.  She liked the idea of the priesthood and committed to do some reading. :)

We were also able to receive some [I mean 10] referrals from a family in our ward who has friends they want us to invite to learn more, and then quite a few families that are in our ward who are not coming that they have had on their mind.  So since this upcoming week is going to be nuts, we decided that we would visit a lot of them this past week and we were able to meet the sweetest family that a lot of the family that are not members yet. They were all so willing to have us over for Family Home Evening-- so we will go next Monday night.  We have a lot of Sisters Conference things to do today.  Some things are not working out as planned-- so we are meeting together today for a meeting.  Not the most fun way to spend a p-day, but with the trust people put in us must come the responsibility to do what is required.  Even having planning meetings on p-day. Haha :)

Some of the videos we had recorded need some help and further planning.  So... yeah. Speaking of today, we also took our car in to get an oil change.  So now we are carless. Routine things seem to come up at inconvenient times. 

We are starting to talk to more people, again and I love it. Everyone says that it doesn’t get easier the longer you are on your mission.  But whole heartedly disagree.  As PMG says, as your testimony of the atonement increases your desire to share the gospel does too.  So that is what it comes down to.  And yeah-- it’s still hard to talk to people... I’d be lying if I didn’t say that, but it is definitely easier than when I first came out.  

A returning member in our ward was able to get her temple recommend yesterday! :) This is awesome! :) We will be going on August 5-6th I think, when the temple reopens.  She has really changed her life and started doing all that she is supposed to. We are sure proud of her, it’s not easy to change. 

We have been able to meet 2 less active members just as we talk to people. I’m telling you-- it is so neat. Meeting Laura at McDonalds was easily the most pleasant experience.  We had just visited an investigator that didn't show up to the lesson, and after months of not progressing we realized it was time to move forward and try again in a little bit of time.  So we were bummed, and we needed Wi-Fi to get an address, and Sister Williams suggested that we go to McDonald’s to get a cone and Wi-Fi. While we were there we were both looking at the maps on our iPads and there was this older woman who was bussing the tables. [BTW, the McDonald’s here are SOOO busy] So she was cleaning tables and was just so nice to everyone. She came by where I was sitting and I just looked at her and told her that she was doing an excellent job at work. I told her the qualities that I saw in her [you should have seen the way she was talking to people] and she thanked me. And before our conversation was over, I asked her name and she said "Laura.”  And I asked, “Laura, may I give you something?" and I grabbed a mormon.org card and said as I handed it to her, "this has changed my life" and she smiled at me and said, I know-I was a member of that church." and we talked more about it. She said that she wanted to meet with us. It was special. She said... "oh man, I’m getting’ goose bumps" and I pointed out that that was the spirit.  It’s a miracle that we got to meet her...because we don’t think her records are in any wards in NY any more.

Interviews are this week with President again. I feel like we just had them.  Twelve weeks went by fast.   We will see what revelation comes this time around. It’s always something good. 

Ever since we have been challenged to work more closely with PMG, I have found myself really loving it! That thing is gold. I have been finding that it is really fun to challenge PMG with questions and see if it can answer them. It can answer each question that I have brought to it thus far.  I love it-- there is so much to learn from it. We are trying to center everything we do around it. So exchanges are more PMG oriented, and all of our meetings have been too. It’s been great. 

Something that I am trying to teach the sisters on exchanges is the importance of being organized. I am trying to teach them about how to get the most out of their iPad and the ways you can really stay organized with it. There are so many people that don't use the iPad in all the ways that they really could if they knew how. So teaching them how to/importance of keeping notes organized, and using the reminder app and the area book app.  

I have been asking every sister missionary that I have ever been on an exchange with since becoming STL about what spiritual gifts they feel that God has given them and create a discussion out of it. I would invite a lot of people to ask this question in the classes they teach and things. It is one, a great get-to-know-you question and two, I have loved to be able to see how the Lord helps his work move forward. I mean, everyone can’t have the same spiritual gifts-- and that is how the Lord can keep everything balanced. Plus, it is a great way to also see which other spiritual gifts I want to develop. 

I have been having neat studies lately as I have an organization system for tags and making my own notes in the column of my scriptures in the gospel library app. I will hopefully have a neat personal topical guide. I have been trying to tag things by topic so that I can reference things for life. Technology these days makes for different ways to gain knowledge-- pretty cool.:) 

Hope you are all doing well!

Love you!


Sister JaLynn Freeze

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