Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at
9:50 AM
Hey family and
friends,
So, I just received
word that I am getting emergency transferred this Tuesday and am being moved up
to Durham to be a zone leader. Apparently the zone leader combo up there
wasn't working. Crazy stuff, right? But that's mission life, I
guess. Elder Mickelsen is doing fantastically well, so he'll do fine.
Besides that, this past week hasn't been too exciting.
We had a couple of
investigators in church. For sacrament meeting, two relatively recent
converts shared their conversion stories, which were really good and powerful.
Then, I gave my third talk so far in Southport :) But it was good.
It basically was on the Atonement, and I focused it around 2 Nephi
2:21-27. I absolutely love that chapter. But I ABSOLUTELY love
verse 27. Probably my favorite verse in the scriptures at this point.
I spoke for about 25-30 minutes. I'll tell you what, since being a
missionary, giving 30-40 minute talks has become no big deal. It's crazy
to think about. Oh, I also played the song that the primary kids sang in
sacrament meeting. And then for Sunday school, the youth combined with adults
and we taught that entire lesson too. I guess it was missionary Sunday.
Either way, lots of the regulars were gone but we had a lot of visitors.
Anyways, we did a lot, the two of us, but Elder Mickelsen basically
taught the entire Sunday school lesson because he had done most of the prep for
it, and I had just finished giving a 30 minute talk. :)
Okay, I have a story
regarding the importance and necessity of EXACT obedience. Once upon a
time, we got a media referral for a lady who was moving into Southport area;
the missionaries had been working with her where she moved from, and they
helped her pack and move. We were excited. Well we helped her with
a few things over the course of the month but didn't really teach much since
she was still getting settled in. Well, long story short, the
missionaries in her past home decided that rule of not going into a home where
you're alone with a lady didn't really apply to them, so they decided to forego
that rule and just waltz in her house despite no adult male being present...oh
how they may have thought that was easier then, but when she got here and
invited us in, we were like "ummm...we can't do that if there isn't a man
here" so whenever we had to go over there, we brought a man. Well,
that, in combination with who knows what else, "turned her off"
because she had never heard that rule before and didn't really like us bringing
people with us all the time. We tried to explain to her, but she wouldn't
listen. 1 investigator...lost. I felt like Alma when Corianton
decided to be a complete bum and go chasing after Isabel, which caused the
people not to listen to the word Alma and the others were preaching.
Next, I think I only
got a letter from grandma last week.
I honestly don't have
much else to tell you. I do want to thank you (my parents) for the
phenomenal example you set for me in terms of everything!! but in particular, I
want to mention tithing. We were having this discussion with a less
active who said he couldn't pay his tithing...and that kind of thought process
would never cross my mind. One thing I attribute part of it to is how mom
always made sure we understand that the Lord was blessing us for paying our
tithing. I don't care if it appears that I'm going to have to starve and
live in the gutter, I will never not pay my tithing. Ever. I wish I
could instill that testimony and desire in everyone, but that would
be counter-intuitive to our Loving Heavenly Father's glorious plan ;)
So, one other
thing...on Saturday we seemed to have found a large chunk of people that didn't
care at all for the wonderful message we share We talked to this one lady and she had
some interesting "doctrine". This
lady didn't believe in baptism. She actually had a lot of the other
principles of life pretty close such as having to live a Christian life (even
though she was slightly contradictory at some points in thinking you were
no better of a person if you were sitting at your house or out helping people
nevertheless, when people are placed in your path you should help
them...confusing, right?) anyways, she didn't believe in baptism. She
thought baptism was an old school old testament thing they did, and when we
were talking about Christ being baptized, she said that the reason he was
baptized was because he wanted to help John the Baptist know that John was doing
good things.
Anyways, every
mission has its unique challenges, but I hope that you all have a wonderful
week :) oh, and by the way, the first part about the
emergency transfer and going zone leader...April Fools!!!!! hahahaha.
Got ya! :) :) :)
Love,
Elder Patty
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