January 23, 2017

District Lunch

Holding a bearded dragon at a less Actives home.

Sister Cope

HERMANA DUVALL!

We had an awesome week with tracting and some less actives in our ward!

On Tuesday we went and stopped by an older lady named Lauren. A man answered the door and it looked like he was going to turn us away when Lauren came up the stairs. She let us in and said that it had been a very explosive day for her. She started crying and talking about all the stress she’s been under lately with having to get her house ready to sell with no one to help her. Sister Ching and I offered to come help her right away and she just looked at us for a few seconds and then through her tears said "you would do that?". It was amazing. We had a spirit filled lesson with her and I was able to remind her of her divine worth as a daughter of god. We are going over every Tuesday to help her get her house ready. I love that woman so much I'm so excited :)  

We went tracting a lot this week because our area book has been picked over with all the missionaries that have been through the area and let's face it, we need more people to teach! Throughout the weeks finding we saw miracle after miracle with being able to meet people who were willing to have us back to have a lesson and we ended up scheduling 4 lessons with different people for the coming week because of tracting. It's always so hard to get started but once you finish knocking you just feel so satisfied that you are doing what you've been called to do and what god wants you to do.

So during our weekly service at Sheryl Jones (which I'll mention later) she was getting rid of a keyboard piano and so I asked if we could have it instead and i would check with our mission president if I could keep it. So I checked with Pres. Forbes and now while sister Ching does her language study I get to have a music study where I practice the piano so I can play in our ward Relief Society! Wooo! 

SLEEPOVER

Thursday we got to sleep over at the New Brighton sister’s apartment so we could all go to the temple on Friday morning and we had a blast. We pulled all the mattresses out into the living room and just talked and laughed for a long time. I love Sister Woo and Sister Hermansen :) Which brings us to our temple trip on Friday.

All the missionaries at the temple.

Oh it was so wonderful. It was a day full of missionaries. There was our district, two districts from the Anoka zone, and one district from the north St. Paul zone there. All in all we had about 23 missionaries at the temple during our session and that's not all! Sister Kastel and Brother Delong (my old ward mission leader) were working at the temple that day too! It was such a tender mercy. Brother DeLong was one of the workers that helped me while I was doing the session. There was so much love in the temple that day, probably one of the most spirit filled temple trips I've ever had.

Temple Trip aftermath! EXHAUSTION :) !

Also we experienced another moment where we found out one of the reasons we were sent to Blaine. We went to find a less active YSA named Emma. We found out where she lived and she let us right in. She has had one messed up life, like honestly I don't know how she is still the bright and smiling person that she is. As we were talking she said you know I think it was very inspired that you came by tonight because I was really depressed and I needed you. And at another point said I think you were both sent here for me because I am at a really low point in my life right now and I needed someone to talk to. I love her so much. She is also the coolest artist ever! She makes costumes for a living and we are going to go over this week and she's going to teach us to sculpt! SO EXCITED!

Funny Moment of the Week:

Sister Jones has promised to give Sister Ching and the Cat

Sister Ching wanted to get Mediterranean food for lunch after the temple and the guy working gave me some falafel to try for free. So now I can write that one on my bucket list and cross it off!

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

I found this quote while studying this week... 

"The Father did not deliver the Son by removing the trial. For our sakes He did not do that, and He allowed the Savior to finish the mission He came to perform." This is the thought that came to me after reading that passage... God IS infinitely kind and loving and just like it was hard for him to watch Christ suffer it's hard for him to watch us suffer. But it is for our sake that he allows that suffering to happen. He needs us to finish the mission we each came to perform. Why would God not remove the suffering of his only begotten son but remove ours? Although trials are not fun and are very hard and challenging, if we let them and trust god, our trials can help us to become more like our savior. 

️Sister Richardson