**Story Syd wanted added in to her blog about her experience listening to the Spirit**
Can you add this story to my blog?
Listening to the Spirit
This morning, at roughly 4:30, I was shaken awake. As I lay there, I guess I was having a casual conversation with the Lord, asking him why I was awake. I began to go through our investigators one by one in my head; thinking that maybe He wanted me to know something at that moment. As I got to the end of the list, a thought came to my head to go check the Carbon Monoxide Detector in the living room. I then said two silent prayers, asking the Lord if I really needed to go check them, or if they were just a silly thought. Just as I began to pray for the third time, I heard a very strong reminder to "go check the detector!" So I do so, even though I knew that I would be waking up my companion.
As I stared at it, waiting for the green light to blink as a sign of it working...it never came. The batteries were dead, with no warning. I suddenly went to every clock that we have and stole the AA batteries from them. When I put them in the detector, it began to blink green as an indicator that the air was safe.
Moral of the story is, we didn't die. Hah but, I followed a prompting that I received and I do not want to know what would've (in the future) happened if I had ignored that prompting! I am so grateful! As a result of this experience, please check to see if your detector is working in your home! Carbon Monoxide is deadly and we all deserve to live! :)
**Now for the Fam letter**
Dear family and friends,Oh how glorious was the morning! How is it back home in the US of A? The weather here has been all over the darn place this week! Hot and sweaty to windy and miserable. Hah, kinda sounds like Idaho weather to me! The humidity here is unreal. Even when it is cold, the damp air just runs right through our jumpers- straight to our bones! I never understood what "cold to he bone" weather was until this week. I swear my bones are probably blue from frostbite! But, it has been a great week nonetheless!
On Monday, we began the mission wide 'Challenge Week'! The purpose for the challenges was to 'wake up' the mission and encourage us to go 'above and beyond' the call of duty (thank you Buzz)! The winning prizes for each district was EBM hoodies! Holla! So, needless to say, we were definitely motivated!! Some of the challenges were silly and caused us to get out of our comfort zone and others were just down right daunting!
Some fun ones were; take a selfie with 7 random people, have a dance off with someone in the city, have someone draw a portrait of us on a pass-a-long card, and pet 10 separate cats. These challenges in particular were not too hard at first, but they definitely required some work! We were able to get all the seflies and one of the people we took a picture with actually became a new investigator! Miracles! I had the lovely opportunity to have a dance off with a beautiful young girl in the middle of a neighbourhood. That was such a blast! And the darned cats... We literally had to crawl under cars and make every embarrassing noise possible to lure the cats towards us; and still we came up short! Turkeys!
The ones that challenged us the most were; committing 6 new people to come to church, putting 2 new investigators on dates in the first lesson, and to teach 6 different lessons in one day. Wow. We felt so pressured to accomplish them all and literally poured ourselves into every challenge! One moment stands out a little more than the others. On Tuesday evening, we were on our way down a hill in Abertridwr to find one more potential before ward council and SLAM! There goes my ankle onto the pavement, with all my weight baring on it! Oh my word. *Bad basketball memories right here people* My skirt flew up and I was laying up-side-down on the pavement. After I realized what had happened, Sister Wiesner helped me up and we had to hop to find our last potential before the bus came! Long story short, we missed the bus because I couldn't run, but we were able to find our last potential and catch a ride to ward council! And the beauty of this story is, my ankle was absolutely fine in the morning. No bruising, no inflation, nothing. Which has never, ever, ever been my experience with rolled ankles!
Heavenly Father truly knows what moments will define us! Will she let this bum ankle slow her down and give up on finding this chosen potential or will she continue forth in faith? We continued forth and we were blessed for our efforts! I am so grateful to know that He is aware of me and my situation. He knows how to test us. He knows exactly how far to push us until almost the breaking point; but never beyond it. That experience was such a tender mercy to us!
The rest of the week was quite fun! Man. I cannot even express how much fun Sister Wiesner and I have with each other. We just mesh and it makes the hard moments seem SO much more bearable! She is such a blessing to me. One moment this week made us laugh until we cried! Some members invited us over to share a message with them and then they would feed us dinner. After we shared our message, the wife said that she didn't want to cook so she asked in McDonald's was okay. We accepted the cheap date and headed on down! We went inside and picked out our meals, then jumped in the car! We began to eat and they just drove! ended up in Llanbradach and they just pulled over in a random neighbourhood and said "Well! Thanks for coming!" Sister Wiesner and I just looked at each other with a face of "Are you serious?" Hahah then we just grabbed our fries, rocksacks, jackets, and ipads and exited the car with our hands overflowing with our personal garbage! They promptly drove off and we just stood there. Homeless! The wind began to blow and the clouds came and there were now lunch-friendly benches to be found! So we plopped ourselves on the curb in this old folks haven and ate ourselves some Mickey D's! Nothing but wonderful mission stories! Bless their souls. :)
This weekend, we were able to attend Stake Conference and hear from our lovely Mission President and his wife, as well as Elder Herbertson from the quorum of the seventy (from Ireland). They spoke about how our testimonies are our defence in this world. That we should not waste our time on worldly things (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter) when your testimony could be growing! This world is temporal! We need to be focused on our eternal destination; the Kingdom of God. They promised that as we make a conscious effort to further ourselves from worldly enticings; that our eyes will be opened to the wonderful world that reaches beyond our 4 inch screen! How glorious will that moment be!? I challenge you all to do this! Pull away. Worldly addictions can consume the mind and mentally paralyze our ability to communicate with people! Human people! So, do this.! After you're done reading this email (love you ;) put the phone, computer down and play with your children! Write a letter to our grandma! Invite a friend to lunch! This will change you! Please heed the council of these great men!
Following Stake Conference, we were able to spend the day with the Williams family and celebrate by eating steak! It was lovely! The steak was quite literally the size of my face! Dreams do come true! :) And then Sister Williams surprised us with every flavour Ben and Jerry's ice cream offers! Woah! Sister Wiesner was able to pack it into her hollow leg, while I could barely finish half of it! The members here truly take such good care of us! We are so incredibly blessed to have the support that we do. We never go hungry here in Caerphilly! Nor is there a lack of hunger for the spirit! They lift us and encourage us to be the best missionaries we can possibly be. How blessed are we!
I am truly grateful for the opportunity that I have to be serving the EBM at this chosen time. The turmoil in the world is often what is driving people to seek a higher power; and that is where we come into the picture! We are the guides to help them to get back home! I know this gospel is true. I know that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know Thomas S. Monson is on this earth to lead us in this world filled with darkness. I know that He, our Saviour, LIVES! I know it; therefore I must share it!
Thank you for your letters and prayers! I love them and I love you!
Taa-daa for now,
Love,
Sister Syd
No comments:
Post a Comment