well i'm trying to think of other news . . . we had zone conference this week! elder arnold of the seventy was here for a mission tour! it was AMAZING! seriously a wonderful experience. it was a good wake up call to remember how important this work is and how dedicated we should be. it's kind of hard to explain in an email, but just an amazing experience to be taught by such a powerful servant of the Lord. i have rededicated myself to serving with all my heart might mind and strength! that's the only way to do this work . . . the Lord's way. it's also the hard way because it requires us to BECOME not merely to DO. i've come to recognize how much i need the Lord, how much i need the spirit. because I don't know how to help my investigators! i don't know their hearts. but the Lord does, and he guides us. it's a truly remarkable work.
yesterday sister yura and i attended a sacrament meeting in bellevue as well as our own so that she could introduce some mongolians to each other. there ended up being about 15 minutes left in the meeting after all the speakers had gone, so the bishop got up and said "i see we have a couple sister missionaries visiting us today. we'd like to invite them to come up and speak to us for the remaining time, and then our closing hymn will be . . ." sister yura looked at me with pure fear in her eyes haha (sorry inside joke to myself, jane's favorite phrase is "pure fear in her eyes"). it's so cool though cuz i wasn't nervous! i'm sure it just comes with being a missionary, but the spirit guided us and it was great! i think this is what i'll miss when i come home . . . the spirit, power, and authority that we carry . . . not because of anything WE do, but because we are actually set apart to declare the gospel! pretty cool. i love these experiences that remind me of this setting apart because it's easy to forget about it since we do the same thing every day ya know? i remember knowing missionaries before and there was something different about them, but to me, i'm just me ya know? i forget that i'm a missionary! not that i really forget i'm a missionary but oh nevermind haha. anyway i don't know if i ever make sense in these emails, but i just know that this work is true and that the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints truly has the priesthood authority restored to the earth! what a blessing. oh one other thing about being a missionary. the other day i realized that when i think of myself i always think of me as "sister gibbons" and not "liz." haha i don't know if that makes sense either but my first name seems weird to me a little bit now haha. oh gosh i hope i'm not a total weirdo when i come home. you'll tell me if i am right? i don't think i will be. here's hopin'
well that's most the good stuff. nothing super exciting to report except [J]'s still solid for september 5th! she's so ready. she could've been baptized weeks ago. it'll be a happy day though. pray that her mom will come! everyone else is chuggin' away, no one else has a date for baptism. it seems more and more like [K] will never make that leap of faith. i'm kind of at a loss of how to help her which is frustrating. but i need to follow the spirit and really be prayerful about her. the hard thing is that of course people can just choose not to act! even when they KNOW it's good and true. that's the hardest part of being a missionary i think.
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