The One with the Month in a Week

12-5-2016

  

Sister Richardson and Sister Cope!

Wow, looking back at our schedule to see what happened this week, I can't believe all that happened last week, happened in one week. It feels like several smashed into one. But as always here are the highlights of my oh so exciting life ;)

So Tuesday we were doing our schedule Mormon.org time/ computer time when I thought hmm one of the sisters in my last zone said the BYU application deadline was coming up I should check on that. (Mind you this was Nov 29th). Sure enough the entire application was due on December 1st! I had a mini heart attack and then dove head first into it. I wrote over 6 essays, answered all of their questions, got on and got my transcript from BYUI sent to them and called my mission president to do an ecclesiastical endorsement and got it all submitted on Nov. 3rd. My brain hurt and there was a lot of stress but I got it all done. Huge shout out to Sister Cope in proof reading my essays to make sure I didn't sound dumb, and Pres. Forbes for dropping everything to fill out my endorsement and then to call the admissions office when it didn't work and getting it all straightened out. He's the best mission president ever!!!😇

All the missionaries helping Sister B

During all of that chaos we had a big moving project this week to help sister B move into her new apartment. It's super nice and we had an awesome turn out from ward members being willing to help. Missionary wise it was us, the Andover sisters, and the Blaine Elders so that was fun. Funny story, so while the Andover sisters and us were bringing things down to the storage closet she has in the parking garage we found three dollies and sister B's walker on wheels and so we had a scooter race in a parking garage from one end to the other. It was SO FUN! I have pictures attached below :)

The Andover sister and us helping Sister B move

We had both awesome experiences with people this week and really bad. The two really bad ones were a guy who got hard core offended when we explained the rule of three and asked us to leave, and then a Less active lady who screamed at us to get off her property. So yeah that was fun. That was a first for both of those. Never had anyone less active or nonmember yell at me like that before, or had someone get offended by the rule of three and ask us to leave. Oh well that wasn't fun but hey it's all included in the mission experience right? The three awesome experiences were Linda, Julia, and Glenda. Linda was a new investigator that we got from the elders when they left two transfers ago and she's so legit. She's a physics teacher and she said when she met with us that she's meeting with us because she wants to know the truth. She's so kind and fun and is so sincere in what she does. We have a lesson set with her for tomorrow and are going to bring a member along. Pray for us that it goes well!! She's so wonderful. Then Julia we met right after that guy got offended and asked us to leave. She lives on his street. When we knocked on her door she said oh I'm glad you're hear! Then she told us about her great granddaughter who was really sick and asked us to pray for her. We testified of the importance of faith in God through trials and got a return appointment! Then last but not least was Glenda. We got her name and info as a media referral from Mormon.org saying she'd requested a bible. We went over to deliver her bible and then we're also able to give her a Book of Mormon, testify of it and that as missionaries we help people to find the truth for themselves. We were able to say a prayer with her and then set up a return appointment with her as well!! We saw some awesome teaching miracles this week :) God is Good!

Yup that's our faces!

We also had our Christmas Conference this week. Our zone and the St. Cloud zone combined and we had some trainings, a Christmas dinner for lunch, gave our zones Christmas presents to the Forbes and then watched our movie for the year. This year it was chariots of fire. (No idea what was going on for most of it to be honest). It was a lot of fun though we had popcorn and root beer floats.

And last but not least last night was SO FUN. It was the First Presidencies Christmas Devotional and since it wasn't being broadcast at the church we went over to our bishop’s house and watched it. First it was so fun because we popped popcorn and had soda and snuggled up on the couch with blankets and our notes, cracking jokes. And also because Bishops niece lives next door and she has always wanted nothing to do with the church but slowly she's been warming up to us missionaries and she stayed last night after dinner with them to watch the Devotional with us!!! That was a huge deal. So wonderful.

Tender Mercy of the Week (honestly there were so many God really had my back this week):

1. So while we were helping Sister B move we lost our phone. We looked everywhere we could think of trying to find it and nothing for 24 hours, it was just gone. For all those out there who don't understand, losing your phone in normal life is bad but as a missionary it's detrimental. So the next morning we ran over to Sister B's to try and find it and out of chance she had us take something down to the basement and I just happened to flip the seat of the walker I was wheeling around on the day before. There inside the walker was our phone. Somehow it had gotten from my pocket underneath the seat of the walker and into the basket without falling on the ground. It was completely dead, in the most unlikely place that had zero cell service. There is no way we could've found that phone on our own. God really helped us in that moment. It still baffles me that we found it because that was the absolute last place I would have checked. Huge tender mercy.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

This week spiritual thought comes at ya from a 2016 young adult Devotional in a talk given by Elder Quinten L. Cook entitled "Fear not...In Me Your Joy Is Full". Elder Cook throws down about using excuses to justify our actions. He says...

"Many justify sinful conduct and use as their defense, “Jesus taught us to love everyone.” This, of course, is true, but often those who advocate this position seem inclined to ignore His equally important admonition, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”"

Along with that throw down comes another that I found while studying in 2 Nephi 31:10.

"And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?"

If we truly claim to love Jesus Christ we have to be willing to keep the commandments. The only reason our Heavenly Father has given us commandments is out of love for us. To keep us spiritually and physically safe and happy and help us return to. Because after all his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If we want to stay spiritually and physically safe, if we want to have joy, if we want to make it back to our father in Heaven and be with our families forever, and flat out if we love him... we will keep the commandments.

❤️Sister Richardson