A Tornato and Endurance

Monday - Sister Danz and I had a very enjoyable p-day. We went shopping since I hit an anniversary point in my mission. So I used the money Grandma Peggie sent me to buy a new skirt.

Tuesday - We had studies. Like always, I learned A LOT about enduring to the end. And what that really requires us to do. Here is what I learned:

• You can learn to endure to the end in many ways. 
• You can learn to endure as you repent and, with faith in Christ, strive to overcome the things of the world. 
• You learn to endure when you bridle your passions and put the things of God first in your lives. 
• You learn to endure when you keep your covenants.
• Enduring means to remember that you have taken the name of Christ upon you and that you will always remember Him and keep His commandments.
• Enduring means to serve God, to bless others temporally and spiritually. You are aware of other people, see their needs, and respond immediately to alleviate their burdens and serve them in the way the Savior would. 
• Enduring means learning how to preach the gospel always, “to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [you] may be in” until the end of your lives.Enduring means to stand in holy places, come what may, so that you will always have the Spirit to be with you wherever you are.
• Enduring means to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ, to follow the Savior and keep His commandments, to give everything to build the Church, including making necessary sacrifices to strengthen your family, to attend the temple, to do family history and missionary work, and to reach out to those who are struggling.
• Enduring means to sanctify yourselves, to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32).

I'm so grateful for this gospel and the joy it brings to each of us.

After studies, we did service at Sister Kingsford's. Her garden was covered in weeds so we got them out. Then we had lunch with them. And had just enough time to go see Sister Black, we invited her to read the general conference talks, she was pretty happy about it, we even gave her a copy of the Ensign with them in it. She won't come to church but we won't stop inviting. We miss her. And we love her. And so do many others. After that, we visited Sister Biffle where we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to improve on one of those principles. She won't be able to come to church because of her husbands health. But I truly believe she would come if he was healthy. She has such a strong testimony.

We had dinner with Sister Pringles and spoke her about repentance. It's amazing to hear her testimony. She is such a strong beautiful woman. After, we met with two potential investors at Starbucks. Antonio and Michael were very nice. We had a lot of difference in religion, but in the end it was all enjoyable visit. One huge prayer of mine was answered, no Bible bashing happened! Woo! We never had a chance to do Mormon.org so it didn't happen this week.

Wednesday - we had a lovely morning, district meeting was very enjoyable. We learned how to use "how to begin teaching" and learned just how much better we need to be at it, all of us. It made me grateful.

After district meeting, we had lunch and our sister training leaders called us to check on us. I guess we will have a weekly phone call like that. It's kind of nice but I'd rather be out working than doing a private phone call. Oh well. After it was over, we visited Sister Walsh and spoke with her about faith. In this lesson, she told us how she can't go to church because of all the pain she is in. I felt very prompted to tell her if she would come to church the pain would go away (she didn't come) but I know the spirit told me to tell her! I hope one day she will come.

We visited with Sister Cabanaw and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to church, and as much as she keeps saying she wants to come . . . actions speak a lot louder than words. Dinner, well, they cancelled on us, so I called around and eventually the Hulls answered and said they would feed us, they were very nice and we spoke with them about Obedience.

After, we had a new member lesson with the Randall's a member came with us, and the member who came had a very strong testimony about missionary work, and service, and how we are able to teach each other at church. One thing I'm a firm believer in: there is always someone who needs to hear something you have to say and flip-flopped. We all need each other.

Thursday - Now, because district meeting is on Wednesday, we can do service Thursday morning at Habitat for Humanity, I love it! It's one of my favorite service projects. After service we got to try finding a few less-actives and try to figure out who lives where. And who is even interested. We even tried a little tracting. I love tracting but I feel there is a better use of our time. But, in order to develop referrals you must do it some way (if members aren't giving them to you). That is what President Hinkley said in 1999. So after tracting, we went to Sister Millers, she is teaching us Spanish. She is a Spanish teacher. It is kind of fun. I've picked up a bit. Although when we share a message it's in Spanish. I can teach God is our loving Heavenly Father in Spanish  . . . roughly. I still need some practice.

We met with Jennifer, who did want to go on a mission at one point and now has no desire to even come to church because of all these different things. One of which being her boyfriend. She is a very nice young lady. We taught her the plan of salvation. And invited her to come to church and to be mindful of how the atonement can change her and her family as she does what Heavenly Father needs her to do. We then tracked for about 30 mins, with not much luck. But we had dinner with the Weavers. It was a great dinner. No dairy. Thank goodness. We taught on missionary work and invited them to do it and pray for opportunities to do so. That night, the weather was really bad, but we were trying to contact some less actives who told us to come back ,but when we came back they didn't answer. But one did. Sadly we were under a tornado watch so needless to say, after about 5-10 mins inside they asked us to go home for our safety. (It was 8:30ish) and we went home. Better be safe than sorry. We planned for the next day, and went to bed.

Friday - The house didn't get thrown somewhere else like in the Wizard of Oz. We had a lovely time going for a run the next morning. The sister in Berthoud sent us a video of the tornado that they saw. But sadly/luckily we never saw one. We got a different car because our car had plastic hanging down from it. So we are back to having a red car: better than bikes. We also got a referral and we were able to contact her. Courtney was super nice, we shared the restoration with her and even had a return appointment. We had time to come home, weekly plan and then we had to go to see Amanda and Emily came with us. After, we had a short lunch break 15 mins at Inta Juice. They are really good. Lots of dairy free options. After Amanda we had dinner with the Richardson family, pizza. And we taught the kids about exercising faith in Jesus Christ. After, we met with Ben and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is very nice. He has been to church the last few weeks. Which is great!

Saturday- We were able to do service for Judy Brown. She has the horse rescue. It's so fun. She still has the four horses. I love horses. Then we walked back to our ward mission leader's house, and had lunch. It was super nice. Debbie (his wife) made us ribs, and lots of other great foods. I told Debbie if she keeps cooking good foods every time I come, I'll end up living there. After, we had time to drive back to town and tract for about 30 mins or so until we had dinner. While tracting we found a man named David. He was very nice. We were able to set up a return appointment. We were so excited. On the way to dinner Courtney sent us a message and told us she is a satanist and isn't interested. saddest part of my day. The Vigils feed us dinner, and we were able to share the Restoration, sister Vigil asked if we could ever come and met with just her. Of course! After dinner we went to the Marks. And the Weavers came. (Our lesson helped, they did missionary work) the Marks were so happy that they came with us. After the Marks we tried to visit lots of different people but no luck.

Sunday - Fast Sunday, and ward counsel, church and missionaries correlation. 5 hours of church all together. When we got to church our ward mission leader asked us to teach gospel principles. With no preparation. We pulled it off. Not sure how. After church we didn't take a lunch hour but I wish we had for a nap but we didn't have time. It's a miracle we fit studies in on Sunday. After studies we visited the Bradstreet's and it was a great visit. I love them. After we had dinner with sister Pringle, we taught on Obedience, and how great it is that we are given commandments to help us grow, and reasons why we should be obedient. After we got into the Chavez families home, and were able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And invite them to come next week.

We spent some time contacting less actives and found the Gibson family, they are super sweet, but not very engaged. But they told us we can come back. Great things are happening even if it doesn't look that way. I mean we taught 24 total lessons this week only 6 of those were active people and that was at dinner, and our gospel principles class. 16 less active lesson. And even if the referral didn't work out, a seed was planted.

If any of you are interested go read the talk "Find the lambs, Feed my sheep " by President Hinkley