January 12, 2015

Hey :D :D so guess what! I got asked to talk in church. I just got transferred here so I’m a little scared but I was given a note at dinner. It was really fancy and in the note it asked me to talk about Nauvoo and the missionary work there and my preparations to coming on a mission and my goals now and in my future and of what the mission will do for me. Ahhhhh!! lol Scary right? Ok I’m just not a public speaker. So I’m a little scared. Anyway I love it here. I feel like I’m still trying to know my investigators. I’m not sure if I have met all of them yet. haha but I think I’ve met most of them. I just found out from a member today that one of our “on dates” is using us. I’m not sure if that’s true but she is getting interviewed by are district leader this week so we will go and pray about it :) I met this really cool family last night. They are RC and we talked about the temple a little and I got the prompting to talk about patriarchal blessings. I butchered that haha Anyway we talked about the importance of it and the spirit was so strong and the wife was so excited and asked her husband why he hasn’t gotten his yet because it sounds so important and it is :) I love mine and look at it all the time. It’s helped me so much in the hard times. I haven’t taken a lot of pictures. I’ll work on that. My companion is the complete opposite of me so it’s interesting and uncomfortable at times. lol but it’s a mission and I’m dealing hahah Okay so I’m in a hick town that has a rodeo arena in the middle of town.

It’s huge and I guess it’s a grass arena so the football team also plays there. The football team isn’t that great. The rodeo is better lol that’s what I hear anyway. I’ll be home before the round up comes to town but I might come back in September to see it. My shower in the closet haha it’s pretty funny.

I have a really small living space but it is less to clean so I’m ok with it and I really only sleep there. It’s great though. The other day we were walking around the Walmart parking lot and this guy was working on his truck so we went to see if he needed help. we ended up talking about the restoration and while my comp held the flashlight I helped him get the fan belt back on. it was crazy but we got it on! Woot!! hahah my trial in this area is loving. Not the people but loving I guess my companion. Loving her enough to change who I am and be more like Christ. Loving this work and this area and my investigators enough to change and not be the same person I was before I came on a mission. Changing myself and letting God break me down and build me up to where he needs me. It’s going to be so hard but I know that through God I can do this. I have to work at it every second of every day. God loves us so much doesn’t He? He gave us this chance on the earth to grow, to make mistakes and overcome our challenges. ahhh I have so many but I’ve discovered that my challenges are my talents. Weird I know but my challenges make me how I am and make me have to work for what I have. a desire to become. I don’t know if that made any sense but oh man I’ve just learned that the gospel is so simple. I look at it like this God is so small but so huge that you can’t even comprehend and that is how the gospel is. How it’s so small. So simple, so easy that when you do it it makes sense but then it’s so huge that you can’t comprehend all of it at once and won’t until the millennium ahh the Lord loves us so much. we are so blessed.

Love sister steen