Monday, September 15, 2014

Monday, September 15, 2014

Hello!

This week. Goodness, Where to start!

I'm not going to lie, the beginning of the week started off pretty slow, and then as time went on things just picked up and it was a GREAT week.

So Monday-- Zone activity. We went to the Beach area.  We didn't go to the sand. But there was a handball wall [which was fun to see since I haven’t played since Lynbrook at the beginning of my mission] and we played a little bit of volleyball. Not everyone in the zone decided to come, but we had a fun time. I would say the highlight of the day was one of the Elders doing an ice cream sandwich eating contest against the clock. He finished with 2 seconds to spare! He ate 6 ice cream sandwiches in 2 minutes. It was pretty sick... I thought I was going to puke, but he did it and another elder said that we would fill up his big gulp and buy him a burrito if he did. Ha-ha good times.

We were able to teach a lesson to a Sister who is high functioning autistic. It is so fun for me to go to those lessons... I really just feel that she is double connected to the Lord. She really loves the Lord. She is going to get married in 2015. It’s so cute.

Thursday was the Mega Zone Conference. I thoroughly enjoyed it. President and Sister Calderwood realized about 9ish months ago that as a mission, you can't continue to always teach new things, because there becomes a time when all the old missionaries go home and you realize that the new missionaries really don’t know anything that the old missionaries were trained on. So our training at Mega Zone was the same that I had at the beginning of my mission, a lot of it almost word for word. It was nice to see the light bulbs go off in the newer missionaries just as it had for me. And really-- there was quite a few things that stood out again going over it. I feel like I struggle to teach spiritual things-- it’s still really something that I’m not good at. I have noticed over the year how you can't teach things of a spiritual nature like you would teach notes on a staff, and how to count out a measure. So-- lots of learning has taken place there. But President’s workshop was all about how we need to focus in more on teaching the doctrine of WHY we do things, so that people can be touched by the spirit to change and do them. I understand the principle, but still hard to apply. I learned a lot on behalf of the person that we are teaching. I felt like we needed to start teaching him far more simply, and so we are going to tailor our lesson plans to that.

Sister Haun was asked to head up one musical number for mega zone, she asked me to sing alto- and an elder to sing with me and a guitarist to accompany. And she sang melody. It was fun-- We sang sweet hour of prayer. On the note music... I got called last minute [literally, from the pulpit our zone leader came up after he opened the meeting and said "oh, and Sister Freeze will conduct our music" and I walked up scrabbling to find the page haha!]

After mega zone conference, we exchanged with our STLs and had a great day. Honestly it was just what I needed to get myself going. I am in the process of writing a blog post about the experience that we had after exchanges with sister Haun and I. But basically we are going to do a 40 day fast of all the things that "poke at our spirits" and get in the way of us being faithful servants of the Lord. It was super inspired. So more to come on that when I get it up.

As far as our exchange goes-- it was so spiritual. I got to go back to Plainview, my old area when I was working in YSA, and let me tell you-- that was SO fun to be back. The dynamic of being a missionary in YSA is so different. The members seem to be on the same page. We were able to go with a returning LA to the senior couple's institute class, and that was so cool. The member was just intently listening and I think really liked it. We were able to teach another REALLY inspired lesson. The woman that we taught is SO ready to be baptized, but there is a lot of things that she is going to have to sacrifice with her friends and so that is where she is at right now. After lots of prayer and preparation we were able to present the idea of moving up the date of her baptism. She originally had it a planned for a few weeks ago, but then she wanted to do it in December. It was so evident that she was ready now, and so we talked to her about it and she had the spirit touch her. She is praying on the new date that we extended to her. It was really special.

The other incredible thing that happened, that was such a tender mercy was -- on our exchange we were able to meet with Dan Verga, the person that was baptized when I was in Plainview. When I met him it was so evident he was a changed man after all these months. He has come such a long way. He lives and breathes the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had a neat experience where his prayer was answered and he received a job. He is really relying on the Lord. I admire the faith of these members. We had a testimony meeting during our lesson, and the spirit was so strong. Easily the highlight of my week.

Sister Haun was able to find a family on exchanges that wants to learn more! :) We are going to go over there tomorrow to teach them, and then on Wednesday she is going to come to the RS activity-- we are canning peach jam :). They we doing look ups and Sister Haun followed the counsel of our mission president to look up all the families first rather than individuals, and the first family she looked up they wanted us to come. Pure in heart if I’ve ever seen it. A direct quote from her is, "I’m looking for a church that has good Christian woman who are in the world but not of it" As you can see, this is the church she is looking for.

Last night we were invited to go to a part member families house for dinner, and they had relative’s over-- it was so fun to be able to answer the extended families questions about missionary work. The members [wife is a member, and husband is not] have a son who left on his mission at the same time as me, and they were talking about him. It was so interesting to see their perspective of what he was doing in the field. I hope you are all receiving blessings from the work that is being done. Love you all.

🌾Sister JaLynn Freeze