Week 24
Hola amigos!
First of all, we have LOVED having a car this week! Driving to and from Nampa everyday has been kind of fun! Plus, it snowed a good amount this week, so we have been counting our blessings each day we don't have to walk in it. Unfortunately, we have to give it back today and I think it might be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do (just jokes hahaha but it will be sad)
I don't know if it was the sudden change in the weather or what but I've had a pretty bad cold all week. Which stinks. But! It's all okay haha
Sunday was crazy busy (like always)
Morgan our investigator, came to church! And stayed all 3 hours! We had to leave halfway through Sunday school because we had to give talks in our other ward (which was terrible timing because Morgan ACTUALLY came to church! And we had to leave...) We ended up getting there right as the meeting was starting (whoops) but we talked about missionary work (surprise surprise)
I stressed how as members of His church, we are disciples of Jesus Christ which means it's our life-long calling to share His gospel. It's not a job just for fulltime missionaries like me.
I used Pres Erying's conference talk from October of 2002 called Rise to your call (thanks to my dad and Sister who both sent me this talk.) Side note: this is an AMAZING talk if anyone is looking for something to study. I highly recommend 10/10 haha
Anyways, I shared this quote from his talk
"You are called to represent the Savior. Your voice to testify becomes the same as His voice, your hands to lift the same as His hands. His work is to bless His Father’s spirit children with the opportunity to choose eternal life. So, your calling is to bless lives. That will be true even in the most ordinary tasks you are assigned and in moments when you might be doing something not apparently connected to your call. Just the way you smile or the way you offer to help someone can build their faith."
I LOVE this!!! This is applicable to everyone! Full-time missionary or member missionary! God has called us! He will guide us and he will Magnify us!!
Remember, even as little as not saying anything at all... not opening our mouths when the opportunity arises is still allowing Satan to win! So have the courage to open your mouth, and the spirit will take care of the rest!
Good stuff, man! Good stuff!
We also taught Morgan another lesson on Sunday. It went really well and she's super excited to be baptized in April!
So after we gave our talks in sacrament, this lady and her boyfriend came up to us and told us that he wasn't a member and asked us if we could come over and teach a lesson that night. So we quickly cleared our schedule and went over! Because how often does that happen?? They came to us!!
But right before we were gonna go over, she texted us and gave us a heads up that's he's a super logical person and has read a lot of anti material. I was pretty nervous going in, but I faced my fears and trusted that the spirit would guide. They are suupppeerrr awesome people! We had a great time getting to know them, but once religion was brought up it was a little more tense. They want to get married, but she wants to get married in the temple and he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith so theyre kind of at a crossroads here. Do they get married anyway or break up? I guess she thought having the missionaries over would solve all their problems and immediately convert him. Sadly, we aren't marriage counselors and we can't solve every problem.
The saddest part was having to sit there while he told us in detail every single thing that was wrong with the Book of Mormon. That didn't hurt my testimony, but it did hurt my heart a little bit. My job as a missionary isnt to teach something new, its to remind people of what they once chose and knew. So it was truly heartbreaking to see someone who once chose this, completely reject it in every way. He said "if you could just throw away the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story, id convert" which is so silly because the Book of Mormon is the key stone of our religion! Without it, everything else crumbles. All I could do was testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and pray his heart would be softened.
We are so blessed to have His gospel on the earth today. Read the Book of Mormon!! Whether you've read it a million times or never heard of it. Just open it and start reading. Do it for me. Do it for your parents who keep bugging you to read. Do it for seminary. Do it for yourself. Because it truly is the best thing you can do for yourself.
I love you all!! Have a safe week!
Sister Erika Hales
Ps transfers are next week (I know craaazzzyyyy right??) So I won't be emailing until Tuesday. I know it'll be hard going one more day without hearing from me, so in the mean time check out my Facebook for more inspirational/ motivational/ spiritual/ cheesy/ uplifting thoughts! Plus you get to see pics of me! What could possibly be better?? ;)
First of all, we have LOVED having a car this week! Driving to and from Nampa everyday has been kind of fun! Plus, it snowed a good amount this week, so we have been counting our blessings each day we don't have to walk in it. Unfortunately, we have to give it back today and I think it might be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do (just jokes hahaha but it will be sad)
I don't know if it was the sudden change in the weather or what but I've had a pretty bad cold all week. Which stinks. But! It's all okay haha
Sunday was crazy busy (like always)
Morgan our investigator, came to church! And stayed all 3 hours! We had to leave halfway through Sunday school because we had to give talks in our other ward (which was terrible timing because Morgan ACTUALLY came to church! And we had to leave...) We ended up getting there right as the meeting was starting (whoops) but we talked about missionary work (surprise surprise)
I stressed how as members of His church, we are disciples of Jesus Christ which means it's our life-long calling to share His gospel. It's not a job just for fulltime missionaries like me.
I used Pres Erying's conference talk from October of 2002 called Rise to your call (thanks to my dad and Sister who both sent me this talk.) Side note: this is an AMAZING talk if anyone is looking for something to study. I highly recommend 10/10 haha
Anyways, I shared this quote from his talk
"You are called to represent the Savior. Your voice to testify becomes the same as His voice, your hands to lift the same as His hands. His work is to bless His Father’s spirit children with the opportunity to choose eternal life. So, your calling is to bless lives. That will be true even in the most ordinary tasks you are assigned and in moments when you might be doing something not apparently connected to your call. Just the way you smile or the way you offer to help someone can build their faith."
I LOVE this!!! This is applicable to everyone! Full-time missionary or member missionary! God has called us! He will guide us and he will Magnify us!!
Remember, even as little as not saying anything at all... not opening our mouths when the opportunity arises is still allowing Satan to win! So have the courage to open your mouth, and the spirit will take care of the rest!
Good stuff, man! Good stuff!
We also taught Morgan another lesson on Sunday. It went really well and she's super excited to be baptized in April!
So after we gave our talks in sacrament, this lady and her boyfriend came up to us and told us that he wasn't a member and asked us if we could come over and teach a lesson that night. So we quickly cleared our schedule and went over! Because how often does that happen?? They came to us!!
But right before we were gonna go over, she texted us and gave us a heads up that's he's a super logical person and has read a lot of anti material. I was pretty nervous going in, but I faced my fears and trusted that the spirit would guide. They are suupppeerrr awesome people! We had a great time getting to know them, but once religion was brought up it was a little more tense. They want to get married, but she wants to get married in the temple and he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith so theyre kind of at a crossroads here. Do they get married anyway or break up? I guess she thought having the missionaries over would solve all their problems and immediately convert him. Sadly, we aren't marriage counselors and we can't solve every problem.
The saddest part was having to sit there while he told us in detail every single thing that was wrong with the Book of Mormon. That didn't hurt my testimony, but it did hurt my heart a little bit. My job as a missionary isnt to teach something new, its to remind people of what they once chose and knew. So it was truly heartbreaking to see someone who once chose this, completely reject it in every way. He said "if you could just throw away the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story, id convert" which is so silly because the Book of Mormon is the key stone of our religion! Without it, everything else crumbles. All I could do was testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and pray his heart would be softened.
We are so blessed to have His gospel on the earth today. Read the Book of Mormon!! Whether you've read it a million times or never heard of it. Just open it and start reading. Do it for me. Do it for your parents who keep bugging you to read. Do it for seminary. Do it for yourself. Because it truly is the best thing you can do for yourself.
I love you all!! Have a safe week!
Sister Erika Hales
Ps transfers are next week (I know craaazzzyyyy right??) So I won't be emailing until Tuesday. I know it'll be hard going one more day without hearing from me, so in the mean time check out my Facebook for more inspirational/ motivational/ spiritual/ cheesy/ uplifting thoughts! Plus you get to see pics of me! What could possibly be better?? ;)
How we feel about snow at the end of February
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