Week 18: We Hope To Not Be Transferred

"You don't know how good you have it until you don't." 

Hello everyone!

Great news: Sister N and I were not transferred this week, so we get six more weeks together in Jamestown! We promptly decided to put together several big projects in these next six weeks, which I'll talk about in more detail later. Yes, we are going to have a crazy busy transfer. But that's what missionaries like! : D

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So! The general theme in our lessons on Tuesday was "I Am Impressed By Those Who Are Focused Despite Distractions". Sister M came with us to reteach the Plan of Salvation to Melissa. I guess it had been a while since she'd first heard this lesson, so I'm really glad we were able to help her understand it better. And as usual, the kids running around the living room would be a good excuse to be distracted, but Melissa once again amazed me by her determination to listen and learn. It was amazing to see how much she's grown since I've known her--she participates more in our discussions, and even became emotional when talking about her grandparents. I love seeing her knowledge blossom! Being a teacher is the best. We also met with Kim H that afternoon, and in the time at her house her dad was in and out of the living room, Nathan came home from school, and Brittany dropped off her two children so she could go to the doctor. But this whole time, Kim was determined to learn and focus, and she was moving us along when we thought it might be best to just wait for a different day. And I'm so grateful she did, because we were able to hear a piece of her understanding and testimony of forgiveness. She has learned that forgiveness is an option not so that those who bothered us can feel better, but so that we, the bothered, can heal. (Here's the talk that helped her understand, the one I was so excited about last week: http://www2.byui.edu/presentations/transcripts/religionsymposium/2003_01_25_Bednar.htm)

Throughout the week we were also using extra time in the evenings to practice our musical number Savior, Redeemer of My Soul just in case one of us was transferred this week and we had to do a surprise performance on Sunday.

We met with Brittany again on Wednesday, and after going through the Plan of Salvation we ended up talking about the temple, and, though we hadn't planned on it, helped her start to set the goal to get there herself. She realizes that it would be so great for Nathan if she went with him. And we think it would be pretty awesome if their whole family went. : ) So that's pretty exciting! That evening we taught Nathan the same lesson, except with him we read directly out of our Preach My Gospel manuals. His Mom Kim was there as usual, and we had an awesome discussion. Nathan is doing so well--he comes with questions he found in studies, he shares his insights and testimony, and he and his mom often compete to see who knows more about the Gospel. : ) It's super fun to teach this family.

Let the festivities begin! When we got home from Nathan's lesson Wednesday night, we found the Young Women had heart-attacked our door and left us with a plate of cookies. : ) Yay!

Thursday's weekly planning went pretty well, although by this point the fear of being transferred started to hit reality. We were, after all, writing in our new planners for the new transfer. When I realized I'd better wait to write in the town I'd be serving in that transfer, I really started to feel nervous. It really helps you remember how precious your time and the people you're with are when it's possible you'll be leaving for good. Needless to say, we really enjoyed the time we spent sorting clothes at Goodwill--and we're becoming good friends with the employees there, so progress all around! Sherri has even started asking us about our missions. : D  That evening the Zs came with us to Melissa's home, and they taught her family a Family Home Evening lesson. It was pretty fun to be at a lesson that we weren't teaching, and it went better than I'd expected--most of the kids most of the time were paying attention, and they're all pretty excited to help with prayers. 

We had an awesome day on Friday. When we went to Brother M's apartment for a lesson, not only were Brother and Sister B able to come, but Tenneh M and her niece Bendu also sat in on the discussion and participated pretty well. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and although I was reminded that I am far from the perfect teacher, we all went away with great knowledge and I'm pretty sure they understood pretty well. Also, Brother M agreed to be baptized on March 8, so we're going to start helping him get ready for that! : D

We had lunch and a lesson with Ana (Dee's granddaughter) right after that, and it was pretty fun. They fed us potato soup and gave us cute valentines, and then we taught Ana the 10 Commandments. They've been sick for about 2 months (Remember when I talked about the Plague? They started with that and have been sick ever since!), but we're hoping they'll be healthy now. Ana is also shooting for March 8th for her baptism, and as long as we can meet twice every week, that should work. She's so excited to be baptized, and she's so ready! 

My valentine included a picture of a winged puppy with a matching tattoo (I don't think missionaries are allowed to wear them...?). I thought it was cool.

We also drove to far-away Cooperstown to visit Sister G. I hadn't really seen her at church, but it turns out she can't always come in the winter because of the bad driving conditions. She told us that she'd actually served a mission in Indiana, and we made an instant connection with that. I'm amazed at how strong in the Gospel she has been despite living far away from her family in Oregon, living far away from the church building, and living in a town where being LDS isn't socially accepted. We watched Sharing Your Light from last General Conference ( 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/sharing-your-light?lang=eng ), and she sent us home with a bag of groceries since she can never feed us. I was also very impressed that her young daughter Sarah sat with us and watched patiently the whole time. She's got some good stamina!

Spotted on the way to Cooperstown.

One thing I love about this mission is the opportunity we get every now and then to go on a long drive through the country. It really is beautiful up here, but it's hard to remember that until you're driving through it all. Sister N had fun listening as I read talks from General Conference.

And then it was Valentine's day! I'm pretty sure I got more cookies and candy and hugs as a missionary than I ever will as a normal person on this day of celebration. Sister D gave us a second plate of cookies when we dropped off Sister N's ripped skirt so she could sew the seam. Sister G gave us a box of chocolates. Both our parents sent us goodies. We definitely have plenty of sugar.  : ) And we still got to do normal missionary work, which was also good. Kim S drove up to Jamestown to teach a lesson to our new investigator Joe, except he cancelled last minute. But, as a mission teaches you to be, we were resourceful and were able to meet with Lee Carter, a member who hasn't been to church in a long while. Since it was a surprise visit, we weren't able to plan a lesson based on his needs, so we ended up watched He is the Gift and reading Mosiah 24:11-15. But we all felt the Spirit, and good steps were made. He has been struggling with forgiveness and asked us to help with that, so we're going to read The Character of Christ with him and see if it helps him the way it helped Kim.  Sister K had us come over to teach her daughter Kyra, and she also insisted on feeding us dinner. We ended up helping her make her Knepfla hotdish recipe, which was super delicious (likely since it was filled with copious amounts of cream and butter), and we taught Kyra about following the prophets. Then we went to the Pets, who had originally signed up to feed us dinner on Valentine's day. Fortunately they had planned on salad and German Stolen bread, and it was a great complement to our first dinner. That morning when our phone went off, we jumped and stared at each other, with horrified looks on our faces. We were sure President was calling to let us know we were being transferred. While it ended up being a calendar reminder that transfer calls were today, we were very nervous and jumped every time the phone went off all day. But we made it!

Sunday, then, was glorious. (Except Elder W and Elder R will be leaving us, which was sad for the Ward.) Brother M came to Sacrament Meeting with Tenneh and Bendu, and Bendu stayed for all 3 blocks. We were actually scheduled to help set up the potluck this week, but since we were with Bendu all day the Elders took care of it for us. (Aren't they awesome?)

 Then, since Monday was President's Day and a national holiday, P-day this week was switched to today. So to start off the new transfer, Sister N and I started to plan some big projects, one of them being a community Christian musical fireside. The theme will be Come, Follow Me, and we're going to invite the local churches to participate. We stopped by the Catholic church on Monday, and the liturgist Alicia was all for it! It will be a big project, and will take a lot of preparation, but when it's pulled off I think really good things will come of it. 

Our planning bomb exploded! I promise I try to keep my desk cleaner than this--it was too funny to not take a picture.

Looks like I'm running out of time. I hope you've all had a great week!

Love,

Sister Fin

Week 17: In Which I Renew My Desire to Change

"There would have been no Atonement except for the Character of Christ." -Elder Bednar quoted somebody, not sure who it was

Hello everybody! 

I hope you've all been having some excellent week. : )

So, Tuesday. Bryan has a super crazy schedule--he works at Burger King and does snow removal, so he's basically up all the hours of night and morning. It was a miracle in and of itself that we were able to schedule a lesson with him at 10:30 in the morning (so that we could bring a member with us)! After teaching about how we have the Gospel today (The Restoration), why the Gospel is important (The Plan of Salvation), we finally got to talk about what the Gospel of Jesus Christ actually is. What are these glad tidings we keep being so excited about? We teach the first steps of the teachings of Jesus Christ in this lesson--faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end--but in the hour block we only covered faith. Bryan, while he has strong faith that his prayers are answered, kept getting stuck by his inability to understand God's love. We were all trying over and over to explain what the Spirit feels like, and trying to ask questions that would help him understand, when I learned to understand the promise given in D&C 100:5-6 "Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say." I told him that my Mom had been taught by missionaries, and the way she had learned to feel God's love was the way everyone, including Bryan, learns to feel God's love--by living the Gospel. I had never before made the connection that living the Gospel is the way we learn to feel the Spirit, but as I was guided by the Holy Ghost I was able to learn and teach at the same time. It was very powerful and I was crying, and apparently his girlfriend's minecraft music matched the tone nicely (said Sister N). : ) Yay missions! 

This is the trailer across the street from Bryan's home. I thought it was an interesting design and figured I'd better record it for history. 

I also finally got to go to the post office and pick up the package that was waiting. It turned out to be Rachel's letter (Heavy enough to be a package? I don't know. The mailing system confuses me.), which was super fun. While there I spotted Harry Potter stamps, and left with a nice collection. : ) 

Wednesday was awesome. We had 3 lessons and district meeting done before our lunch hour, which was basically the most fulfilling thing ever. Appointments in the morning are the best! First we met with Melissa, who is doing super well after her baptism on January 25. We went over the Restoration again, which turned out to be a good thing since she said she'd never really understood that message and it's pretty darn important! I've seen a really big difference in her confidence as we've met with her--especially after her baptism, she asks us fun questions in lessons, she's more confident voicing her ideas, and I haven't heard her stutter in a long time. : ) Living the teachings of Jesus Christ really does change lives. 

We also met with Kim and shared my most favorite topic ever, The Character of Christ. Unfortunately, this talk cannot be found on lds.org and I have no idea how Sister N got her hands on it, but anyway we all had copies and read and it was awesome. The basic message is that because of Christ's complete selflessness he was able to overcome every temptation to be selfish, and the way we can learn to be that way is through repentance. (I promise you it is very mind-blowing when you read it.) If anyone wants a copy, just let me know (and give me your mailing address).

Our phone has a nice eclipse going. It makes it pretty fun to read texts, but at least the black hole is at the top, not the bottom, of the screen. If it was at the bottom we wouldn't even be able to read what we were texting! Hopefully our new phone will come soon.

Then, that night we had an awesome lesson with Nate and Kim and Brittany all together. We are on the Plan of Salvation now, and we just read straight out of Preach my Gospel. Nathan is getting much more comfortable sharing his own insights, and I'm definitely getting better at asking questions that help others learn, so that was all exciting. At the end of the lesson, Nathan insisted that his mom say the closing prayer. I've never heard her pray--she always asks us Sisters to pray for her lessons--so it was really neat for us. She thanked Heavenly Father for sending her "her girls," as she calls us, to help her family when they needed it. Definitely felt some warm fuzzies then. Aww!

On Thursday we did weekly planning and tracted. It was pretty crazy--we had an hour scheduled, but of the 4 people we talked to, 3 of the conversations lasted pretty long! We've been using Family History as our "reason for knocking," per se, and it's been cool to see what people know and love about their families. 

Friday was kinda' crazy. I don't know why, but Sister N and I were just tired and very tempted to slack off all day. We pushed through it, and look what happened! Sister N found her nametag!

We were actually in our first lesson with Jane L, a new investigator, when Jane asked us if one of us was missing our nametag. We (Sister N and I) looked at each other in shock, both wondering how she could know we were and sure it must be a joke. But it wasn't! She said she'd seen the tag by the door and it was hanging on the tack board! Sister N had given up hope for that nametag--we'd even ordered another one and it finally came last week. I could visibly see her struggle against the desire to pause the lesson there and run down and grab her precious memories. But she waited valiantly, and it was still there afterwards. : ) Miracles do happen, people!

Our lesson with Kim that night was also crazy. It's usually the best teaching environment ever, with her practically pouring the Spirit out with her comments and no distractions whatsoever. But this time her 5-year-old granddaughter was playing with her leappad, and Malachi was crying in the baby pen, and Nathan and his Grandpa were walking past us every 2 minutes, and Brittany came in and out on her way to pick up stuff from work. Kim, however, was determined to learn, and was so impressively focused that we just kept going. And it was super worth it, because it was The Character of Christ: Part II, where we discussed what we can do to develop a Christlike character within ourselves. 

Saturday morning we tried to tract a cute neighborhood, but we could quickly tell by the unshoveled sidewalks and riding lawnmowers that we were in old people territory, so A no one was awake and B no one wanted to hear what we had to say. (That's kind of an unfortunate yet true stereotype about the elderly generation). Kim S came over to Jamestown for a couple lessons, and the highlight was definitely our lesson with Joe. He's actually in the same trailer park Bryan lives at, and it went super well. He understood how everything could logically be true, and when we invited him to pray to know for himself he said he would've prayed anyway without asking because he knows God answers prayers. So he's going to get his answer really fast. : ) Hooray! 

That night we also had a super awkward lesson with a kid named Collin where we showed him about familysearch.org. Apparently that door approach only works when people are actually interested in doing their family history, because we really didn't get anywhere. But oh well. Sometimes that happens. And he'd actually picked up a Book of Mormon some time in the past, and we showed him Moroni 10:4-5 to read that evening, so a seed was planted.

​North Dakotans really love pickles. Tricia gave us her jar of "garden mix" pickles, which were dilly and spicy from the jalapenos. They were actually super good! I love pickles and, as such, am a pretty good candidate for being a North Dakotan.

Sunday was super awesome, although super long. Brother M came to church a half hour early, so I was super grateful we were already there for the Ward Council meeting otherwise he would've beat almost everyone there (And what kind of first impression would that be? Not very awesome.). He had an awesome time and ended up staying for all 3 meetings. And apparently in Priesthood meeting, while he introduced himself he announced that when his family moves to Jamestown he wants them all to be baptized! We haven't even invited him yet! Holy cow! ... I really hope I'm not transferred next week, because Jamestown is literally the best place for me right now. At least, that's my opinion. :D

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This week has been a humbling and edifying week as we've together studied how our mission changes us. It's given me the much-needed opportunity to reflect on who I am now and who I strive to become. I know that I have a long ways to go before I reach my full potential, but as I've seen the examples of my companions and other missionaries I know that as I continue to repent on a daily basis the Lord will shape me into who I need to become. 

Thanks for all the emails and prayers!

Love,

Sister Fin

 

Week 16: The Work of Salvation

"And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect."D&C 128:15

Hello everyone!

We've had a pretty great week, as usual. : ) I'm pretty sure I talked about Family History work last week, but it deserves two emails. :D 

So on Tuesday we met with Kim Harris again. We had called her on Sunday to see if we could come over for a lesson, and guess what she was working on when we called? Her family history! The timing of our training on this is definitely inspired, at least for the Jamestown area. So we read Elder Bednar's address "Missionary, Family History, and Tempe Work" together. It's amazing to see how she is involved in all areas of the work of salvation--missionary work with her family, family history and temple work for her ancestors. : ) Elder Bednar has promised us that, "As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives." I'd say that promise is well worth the effort, so I'm excited to start using our family history hour every week and learn more about my family. 

That evening we went to the Z's home and shared the principles of daily and weekly missionary planning. It was really fun to find how they can relate the things we do as missionaries to their lives because I really want to make sure the time management I have now carries on into the post-mission life. 

Wednesday was pretty slow--we basically drove around forever trying to find members of our Ward that no one has ever really seen. We were actually supposed carpool with the Elders to training at 5:00 that day, but since we had 400 extra miles and they had enough miles too, we decided to drive up Thursday morning. It was super exhausting as a missionary to be driving for 4 hours, just since we weren't teaching or talking to anyone. However, important work was done. (It just felt like such a waste of time...!) And then we had an awesome lesson with Nathan, Kim, and Brother B where we finished reading through the Restoration in Preach My Gospel. Nathan is going to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true, which will be foundational in helping him prepare for his mission.

On Wednesday I'd been fighting off a sore throat by gargling salt water, but Thursday morning when I woke up I knew I had a cold. I have this interesting watery-left-side-of-face thing that happens when I'm sick, so I really hoped it would hold off unto after our conference. I moved around pretty slow that morning, but we were able to make it there on time and we had an awesome training. My brain was working more slowly, and I kept a tissue handy, but I was still able to perform with Sister N so I'd say it went pretty well. : ) It's always an awesome experience to hear from President and Sister Anderson--they taught us about why baptism is essential (D&C 84:20), and Sister Anderson told about her experience as their mission comes to a close. She had reflected on the legacy she wanted to leave--obedience--and on how she hoped she had grown. She encouraged us all to write in our journals who we hope to become on our missions, and I did that today and it was awesome. : ) There's definitely no way I'm going to grow and improve if I don't have a vision of who I want to be and a plan of how I'm going to get there. On the drive back from Fargo we were super pumped to work like crazy, but then my cold kicked in and instead of swapping insights I napped while she listened to our Men's Chorus cd. :D We had fun going to the Chinese Buffet in Jamestown for dinner--we've wanted to go since January 22, Sister N's year mark. It was pretty tasty, especially the pineapple/coconut sherbet.

Friday was basically ... slow. I had to take several naps, so Sister N was stuck inside cleaning and reading and writing letters and doing anything she possibly could to be productive. We did have fun helping Bryan, an awesome investigator, clear out his trailer that had apparently been the victim of some intense vandalization.

Brother Newton, the member whose house we used to stay in, works with the buffalo herd in Jamestown. When we inquired about his job, he offered to let us go see the buffalo! This is White Cloud--apparently she's a true albino. And blind?

Saturday morning was so cool! When I woke up, the only way to describe my feeling was "On fire!" That is literally what I told Sister N! Except I wasn't on fire from a fever, per se, but from the zeal that resulted in the combination of returning health and a desire to bust down the doors and spread the gospel. I don't know, I guess Heavenly Father saw it was time to answer my prayer to help me focus on my purpose as a missionary (holy cow did that prayer work!). We tracted first thing after studies, and we ran into 2 really exciting new people--one Mohamed M, a guy from Liberia with a Christian schooling, as well as Joe, another guy from the Devil's Lake reservation with a really neat focus on family. At 11 we had an awesome lesson on temples and family history with Melissa, and we had her new visiting teacher there! It is one of the hardest things ever to bring members to lessons, so that tells you just how exciting that morning was. It's amazing how much easier it is to work as a missionary when everything you do is focused on your purpose (inviting others to come unto Christ)--that's a lesson I hope I never forget.

Melissa was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost during Sacrament meeting, which was a great experience for everyone involved. She had arranged for a babysitter, but that fell through so all 5 kids (she was babysitting 2) came to church. I'm glad that they came, though. Sister Z helped out with tending, and they had a great experience. And even if they had been crazy, the gospel is all about families and it doesn't make sense to leave your family behind. 

 

We had a lesson with Brother M (he said we could call him "Brother" :D) right after church, so with great effort we hurried through our post-meeting to-do list (apparently missionaries accumulate many things to accomplish in small amounts of time) and rushed off to his family's apartment. And guess what! He'd already read through part of the Restoration pamphlet, and his question was, "What makes your church different from all the others?" Bingo. The Priesthood. : ) Needless to say, we had an awesome discussion with him and he invited himself to read and pray about and share the Book of Mormon! His family will be coming over from Liberia at some point too, and he asked if they were welcome to come to church, which is definitely the best question you can ask a missionary if you want to make their day.

Sunday afternoon was slower due to the Super Bowl. Within that segment of time I made a promise to myself that when I'm not on a mission, I will always do everything within my power to make sure the missionaries have something productive to do during the Super Bowl. I will make an appointment with my dog if I have to. But we plowed our way through, and that night a member fortunately had us over for dinner and a lesson for her daughter, so that was definitely helpful.

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It seems like I learned so many things this week. I'm focusing on changing and growing, which includes daily repentance. I'm also trying to work on family history and involve that into teaching. As Sister N describes her mission, it's "a steep learning curve." But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love to learn, and when I'm learning a lot all at once, that just makes it more efficient. And the best part is, it's not all about me. When I learn a lot, that helps me help others, and that's what missionary service is all about! It's definitely going to be the best 1.5 years. : )

Thanks for reading. : ) 

Love,

Sister Finlinson

Week 15: Applying Prayer to a Normal Day = Awesome Day

"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." 2 Nephi 32:9

Hello everybody!

As usual, we've had a pretty grand week in Jamestown. The weather has been unusually warm, in the 40's instead of -40's. Apparently it's been like this all over the U.S.--we're hoping that the drought this summer won't be too bad. But it sure is pleasant right now!

On Wednesday we had a really good lesson with Melissa. We read Jacob 5 with her, which I was slightly dreading since it can be so long and hard to get through. But she totally understood everything the first time through! Melissa is so amazing, and that was a great reminder for us as the missionaries that yes, she is ready to be baptized. It snowed some that morning, so we tried shoveling snow as a finding activity. We must have picked the wrong time/street, though, because no one was home. However, I still enjoyed the service time. Just not very effective for getting to know people. But we will continue to try! 

We drove up to Carrington on Thursday, and had a couple lessons with two not-really-investigating-the-church-but-we're-teaching-them-anyway families. That's always a little disheartening, but I know that the more they learn about and strengthen their faith in Christ the better they'll be. And we're hoping that some day they will, through the example of the Gs, decide to hear more about the Restored gospel some day. And let's face it--what better way to spend an evening than in the home of an awesome  family?

There's a really cool guy from Texas who'll be in the Jamestown area for work until March (he's been here so long that Bishop asked him to prepare a talk for church!), and he took us to lunch on Friday. We had a sweet conversation about his personal conversion story--it turns out that he was first introduced to the church on a business trip in his 20's, when a friend's family invited him over and the missionaries just "happened" to be there. :) So let this be a lesson to us all that reaching out to our friends in love really does make a difference. Also, we know that it was a good restaurant because they let me have my BLT exactly the way I like it: bacon, tomato, cheese, and mustard all on toasted wheat bread. 

Later that day we finally met with Brian and finished our discussion on the Plan of Salvation. We had hoped to commit him to baptism, but since we brought Tricia (an awesome recent convert who comes to lessons even in the midst of extreme migraines) we ended up focusing on building good member relationships (aka chatting some), and we'll just have to wait for our lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That kinda' makes more sense in my brain, though, since that's when we're able to really explain the importance of baptism. Anyway, we now have a really cool lesson to look forward to this week. : ) Also, that night we had a sweet lesson with Brittany where, long story short, I played with her daughter McKenzie and Sister N committed her to take the missionary discussions. Their family is doing so well! (Kim H's daughter)

Saturday was a really motivating day. For my personal study I focused on preparing for our upcoming Zone Conference, and we're assigned to write two 3-minute talks, one on Praying in Faith and one on Using Family History as Missionaries. I'd been trying to write those talks for days, and the principles of prayer finally clicked in my head and out rolled a SWEET insight that we ended up using for our dinner appointments. That was really exciting. And then we had a great lesson at Melissa's apartment with the Z family so Melissa and Brother Z could practice how she holds her hands and bends over etc. for her actual baptism. We usually struggle with dealing with all the kids in our lessons, but this time Sister Z rounded everyone up for the opening and closing prayer, and then they closed with the grand finale of bringing out a freezer cake to celebrate with Melissa. It's in ways like this that I learn how essential members are to missionary work. There really is no way we could do anything like that as missionaries, but when Sister Z becomes friends with Melissa and really takes care of her, that's where actual Gospel living comes in. I hope that made sense. We also practiced our musical number for a few hours, but only after first applying the principle I'd just learned about praying before everything you do. And guess what! After we went through it one time, it was basically perfect. I don't know why I always forget that Heavenly Father helps you when you ask, but I do. So this was a good reminder. : D

And then Sunday came! We were at the church building by 7:30 to start filling the font. Ward Council had been cancelled, but no one told us so we just hung out at the church until 10:00. It was nice to have extra time to practice and print out programs, though. Melissa did make it to church, thankfully, and she also brought the friend (Eliza) she's been babysitting for so much! That was definitely exciting to see Melissa get into the missionary spirit (1 Nephi 8:10-12). Kim and Dale made it to church, also, which was super exciting. Sister N and I performed her cool arrangement of Amazing Grace/As Now We Take the Sacrament/How Great Thou Art for Sacrament Meeting, and it was well received. Melissa's program went really well, and we were all able to feel the Spirit, which was especially cool for her friend Eliza. Melissa is the first investigator I've ever had to be baptized, so it was really exciting to be there with her. But it's really good to know that Melissa understands her baptism isn't the end goal, just a milestone, and she's ready to work towards her eternal family.

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 This week we went to Carrington for a couple lessons. Super awkward pose.... oh well. You get the idea, right?

Sister N, me, Melissa, Brother & Sister Z. (FYI, our church building doesn't actually have any paintings of Christ--we just have a framed rug thing. It's pretty neat, though, especially since it's the same scene as on the Restoration pamphlets.)

 

Photo accredited to Sister Zaine and her trusty iPad. Thanks for the pictures!

 

Our investigator Brian has a piano from 1917 that has only been tuned once, in the early 1900's, and still sounds amazing! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pethel family fed us an awesome dinner of taco-filled pasta shells Saturday night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm getting super excited for our Zone Conference (a training meeting from our Mission President & his Assistants), especially since to prepare they've had us study Prayer and Using Family History in Missionary Work. The talk here -> ( https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/10/missionary-family-history-and-temple-work?lang=eng ) was super helpful and I hope you take a moment to read it!

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Last Sunday Sister Kim S (the Sister who just came back from her mission in Brazil) taught about prayer in Relief Society, so Sister N and I have been focusing on our prayers all week. On Saturday I learned from 2 Nephi 32:8-9 that we all have the available blessing of having everything we do be consecrated (or dedicated) for our personal growth. We decided to test out this principle by praying for help with specific things in our prayers throughout the day, and it made such a big difference. Because of our prayers, our practice for Sunday's performance was more effective, we had greater success finding people to teach, and our lessons were guided by the Spirit. I know that the Lord answers prayers, and I know that the more specific we are when we ask for help, the more exact and recognizable our answers can be. 

Thanks for reading. : )

Love,

Sister Finlinson

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