Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Week 5: One Month Down!

Hello everybody!
Hope everyone had a great week and is enjoying their holiday weekend! 

So this week was really crazy but it was so great!

Monday: We went to the Holy KFC for lunch. So the Holy KFC is is Lebanon, NH and it's location is where Joseph Smith had his leg surgery when he was little. So that's pretty neat! Then we drove down to Manchester for New Missionary Training. I got to see all of the sisters from the MTC and that was so much fun!

Tuesday: New Missionary Training. Most of the things they taught us were things that Sis. Turley had already trained me on. Way to go, Sis. Turley! Sis. Stoker (mission president's wife) gave a really great talk and talked about Abinidi. So Abinidi was a missionary and he preached the gospel to King Noah's court. No one listened and his investigators killed him! But Alma listened. And it says in the scriptures that Alma shared the gospel with 450 people. And then his son Alma the younger was a great missionary and brought even more people to the gospel. I really love this story, because a lot of times we may feel like Abinidi, that no one cares and no one is listening. But we really don't know the effect we have on others. Because of Abinidi, thousands of people were converted! It's truly amazing the effect that one person can have. 

Wednesday: Zone Interviews. We went to Plymouth, NH for meetings with our Zone and then for interviews with Pres. Stoker. Pres. Stoker is so great and I love having interviews with him! Then in zone meeting we talked about Christ-like attributes and obedience. It was such a good meeting! Then we went on exchanges and I was with Sis. Jensen. Exchanges are when we switch companionships for a day. 

Thursday: Exchanges. Sis. Jensen is awesome! I learned so much from her! During our companion study we read this talk (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/teaching-with-the-power-and-authority-of-god? lang=eng&query=teaching+with+the+power+and+authority+of+God) and it was super good and you all should read it! That morning we went and taught a less active about the priesthood and encouraged her to get her patriarchal blessing. Then we went to the Haven and that was awesome! Sis. Jensen loved the Haven! Then we went and taught a recent convert. She's going through a hard time right now, so we listened and did the best we could to comfort her. Then we exchanged back and Sis. Turley and I went to dinner at a member's house. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with pure maple syrup! It was so good! I kinda felt like Buddy the Elf and how he puts syrup on everything! That's kinda how New Englanders are. They put syrup on almost everything!

Friday: Planning Day. So on Fridays we take about 4 hours or so to plan for the next week. We plan our schedule, plan lessons, set goals. It sounds really long and really boring but it's super helpful and we have a lot of fun during our planning sessions! Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch with a recent convert and that was yummy! 

Saturday: I hit my one month mark! It's so weird to think that I've been on my mission for a month! It feels like I went into the MTC yesterday and also that I've been here forever! On Saturday we tried to contact some less actives, but we only talked to one of them. Everyone else wasn't home. :( But the one we talked to said he was "all set" and that's the New England was of saying, "Go away, missionaries!" Super annoying! But then we went to see a referral we got a couple weeks ago. Her name is Brandy and she's a media referral, which means that she went onto mormon.org and requested a visit from the missionaries. We called her a bunch and stopped by her place a couple times after we got her information, but she didn't answer and was never home. But then we on Thursday we stopped by her house and she was outside with her kids! She said that we could come back on Saturday so that is what we did. And when we saw her she was outside with her kids again! We were hoping to get to know her more and to teach her, but she wasn't feeling too well, so we left her with The Book of Mormon and said we'd come back another day. And then as we were leaving we turned around and saw that she was reading The Book of Mormon! I'm so excited to go back and teach her! 

Sunday: I love Sundays! We had church in the morning and that was really good. Then we went to a member's house for lunch and we had lobster! I mean lobstah haha! That was mine and Sis. Turley's first time having lobster. I'll be honest, it's not my favorite seafood, but it was still really good! Then we went to institute, and it's kinda like seminary, but for the college age kids. There's a couple that lives on Dartmouth campus and they have institute at their house every Sunday night. We watched a talk by Elder Bednar called "That Thou Might Not Shrink." It was so good! He talked about how even though life can be really difficult and frustrating at times, Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. It may not be what we had in mind, but it is what's best for us. He's our Father and He knows us personally. And He will be there to lead and guide us along the way. Here's the link if you would like to read it. https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18?lang=eng

Monday (today): We went the Dartmouth to do emails there, but the library was closed, so now we're at the church doing emails in the family history center. While we were at Dartmouth we went into this really cute store and while we were looking around, we heard the song "As Sisters in Zion" start playing. It was a medley so it also had "We'll Bring the World His Truth" in it. Sis. Turley and I looked at each other and were like oh my gosh this is so cool! Then Sis. Turley asked the lady that worked there about the music and she said that she heard it and really liked it, so she put it on the playlist to play at work. We started talking and she didn't seem super interested, but she said that we could come back. And she said that she knew the Grampp's in our ward (the same couple who does institute) so that's awesome! So we're definitely going to see her again, but that was such a blessing to be able to talk to her! 

So here's an analogy that I heard this week that I thought was really cool. Heavenly Father has all of these blessings that He wants to give us and these blessings are like the gumballs in a gumball machine. He's not going to give us all of them at once. We have to do a little bit of work before we can receive the promised blessing. Like we have to pay tithing to receive those blessings. We have to put the quarter in, and turn the handle and then Heavenly Father gives us the blessings. Anyways, I thought that was a really cool analogy.

Okay here are a couple more New England quirks. People here have front doors but they never use them. They have a door in the back or the side of the house that they use. I thought that was super weird. And everyone says wicked all the time! Like that was wicked good haha! 

Oh so cool thing! This next Friday (12th) we're going to the Boston Temple! A lady that Sis. Turley taught in her last area is going to the temple for her endowments and we get to go with her! I'm so excited! So Friday the 12th will be our Pday next week. If we have time to email, you'll get an email from me on Friday, not Monday of next week. But then it'll be back to normal the next Monday, so in 2 weeks. 

Well I think that's about it for this week! Hope you're all doing great! Love you all!

Love, Sister Harper

No comments:

Post a Comment