SO... First of all, I hope that you all had a phenomenal Valentines Day and President's Day. Holidays as a missionary are SUPER different, but there's nothing like celebrating by going out and talking to everyone we can see about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which will ultimately help them, if they choose to accept it, feel greater love, peace, and joy than all of the boxes of chocolate, hearts decorated on their doors, and roses that they could ever get.
Well, this week wasn't SUPER eventful, so this, in theory won't be very long, but you know how much I love to elaborate on all of the super, unimportant details, so... it's all relative. :)
We had transfers this week, and it was super weird to not be getting a new companion or going to a new area... so strange! It's my first time in 6 months (THAT'S RIGHT - 6!!!!!! I reached my 6 month mark this week, how crazy is that!? I feel like just yesterday I was saying farewell to my mom and dad at the MTC - crazy business how fast time flies) having everything (companion and area) stay the same for longer than 6 weeks. SO COOL! I am so excited to be staying in Bonners Ferry with Sister Rogers for the next 7 weeks. What an amazing blessing this life is, I'll tell ya.
This week we went to go visit a Less-Active, Part-Member, family, and one of their kids asked if she could say the prayer before we left, and we of course thought that was an awesome idea, so we said she could. She jumps up off of the couch, goes and runs into the kitchen and comes back with one of those decorated plates with a prayer on it and proceeds to pray something to the effect of, "Dear Lord, thank you for dirty dishes that fill my sink. It means that we have food to fill our plates while many don't have anything to eat. Amen." It was a pretty interesting situation and super cute that this 9-yr-old girl wanted so much to say the prayer, but we were sad because she really doesn't know how to pray but wanted to because she knows how important it is. That experience taught me so much about the importance of teaching people about the gospel and about how each person has an inherit desire to learn and know truth, whether they know they do or not. It just fueled my fire desire to want to get out there and spread this glorious gospel knowledge to everyone that will listen!
Something else (MILESTONE!!) that happened this week was that I saw 3 (that's right, count them) 1... 2... 3...!!!!! MOOSE! They weren't even fake ones on people's welcome signs! THEY. WERE. REAL. LIFE. MOOSE!! I have attached a picture of one that was literally 20 feet from us for your viewing pleasure. Anyway, the first one that we saw was on our way home from interviews with the Mission President and his wife on Wednesday. Sister Rogers and I were almost home, just driving up the highway, and I commented, "Man, I can't believe that we haven't seen a Moose yet! I bet we'll see one sometime within the next 7 weeks. If not, I'm going to be super disappointed." Then, almost instantly, what do I see on the side of the HIGHWAY, just munching on some leaves..? A MOOSE!! WHAT!? IS THIS EVEN REAL LIFE!? Why, yes friends, it is. That Moose wasn't a figment of my imagination, AND to make it even better, we saw 2 more, just this week. I'm pretty sure they're coming out of hiding. So happy!! :)
Another really amazing thing that happened this week was that we were going to visit one of our investigators, Kelly. She has just blown us off for the last month and a half or so, and that has been really difficult. We went today with the intention of seeing if she even wanted to investigate anymore, and to drop her if we needed to. Well, to our utter shock and amazement and gratitude from the Lord, she was home, opened the door, DIDN'T blow us off, and we were able to teach her a more focused version of the Restoration based on what she really needed to hear. She opened up to us about some things that were going on in her life, we told her that we would keep her in our prayers, and testified to her that this is what she needs in her life. That the message that we share will improve her life so much, more than any other thing, and bring her more happiness than she has ever experienced. We testified to her that we know this message is true, and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want her to be happy. When we were leaving, she told us that "I wasn't even going to open the door today, but I'm glad I did. Can I give you two girls a hug?" We hugged her, said a prayer with her, scheduled a return appointment for next week, and went on our way with smiles on our faces and in our hearts for the tender mercies of the Lord.
Ahh, missionary work just warms my heart!! Doesn't it warm yours? Well, friends, that's about all the update I have for you other than also, I cut my own bangs this week because they were getting SUPER long.. we're talking Rapunzel status here......... (not really. That would be intense.).. so that was an adventure. ANYWAY, to end on a more spiritual note, I had the privilege of watching a broadcast from Salt Lake City this week, and we were blessed enough to be able to hear from some really inspired and wonderful servants of the Lord. One in particular, one of the new apostles, Elder Renlund spoke about talking with people when we are asked questions about the gospel, to refer quickly to the restoration and of the fact that we don't do the things that make us "strange" in the world's eyes because they're healthier, or just as a social thing, but rather, we do them because that is what has been revealed to us by a loving Heavenly Father to His Prophet. What a glorious message the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. This life is amazing! :)
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