Monday, October 27, 2014

Week 13: The Ghost Pepper Challenge

Hi everybody!
Nothing super exciting happened this past week. We had some really great lessons though! 

Thursday we had exchanges and I was in my area in Sis. Jensen again. We met with Maria and talked about General Conference and how we can apply it to our lives. I hope all of you will go back and watch or read the conference talks because they were so good! Also I got to drive on exchanges! It was super weird to drive after not driving for 3 months.

Friday was awesome! We met with the Cambers, who are a less active couple. We originally planned to teach them eternal marriage, but that morning during my studies I felt very strongly that we should share Moroni 10:3-5 with them. So that's what we did and we talked about how to gain a testimony. It was such a good lesson! The spirit was so strong! 

Then we had a meeting with the Elders in our ward and our Ward Mission Leader, Bro. Knowlton. While we were eating dinner, Bro. Knowlton got this bottle of hot sauce from the fridge and told us that we should try it. So this sauce is ghost pepper hot sauce and on the warning label it says "use one drop at a time." So yeah. It's really hot! All of us tried it. I had half of a drop and it burned my whole mouth! But it was super funny to see everyone's reactions to it! I have a video of us doing the ghost pepper challenge, but it won't let me attach it to the email. :(  

On Saturday we went to our ward Halloween party and that was super fun! They made fresh apple cider (so good!), had a chili cook off and did a Trunk-or-Treat. 

So remember a while ago when my mission president (Pres. Stoker) challenged us to read 12 pages of the Book of Mormon everyday and I extended that challenge to you? Well I finished the Book of Mormon on Friday! It was so awesome! The last few chapters are probably my favorite! And in the last chapter is Moroni's promise (Moroni 10:3-5) and it says, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

I love these verses! Moroni gives us this formula for how we can know truth. He says that we need to ponder our question, then pray to Heavenly Father with a sincere heart and with real intent if these things are not true. We also need to have faith that our questions will be answered. But as long as we follow these steps, the truth will be revealed to us. Heavenly Father wants to answer our questions and wants to help us gain a testimony. And if we do this simple formula, we can know the truth of all things. 

Pres. Stoker challenged all of us to do Moroni's promise when we finished reading. So that's what I did! I already have that testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, but I wanted that reassurance. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was not true, and after my prayer I heard this little voice that said, "It's true." Part of me wanted a bigger, more dramatic spiritual witness, but that's not how it works. The Lord speaks to us with a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12). And that little voice was all I needed to have that reassurance. I invite all of you to do Moroni's promise and I know that Heavenly Father will answer your prayers because He loves you!

We had a really good lesson in Relief Society yesterday on the talk "Your Four Minutes" by Bishop Gary E. Stevenson. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/your-four-minutes?lang=eng) He talks about how we do so much to prepare and to do our best, but sometimes we fall short. And that's where the Atonement comes in. The highlight quote from this talk is "The miracle of the Atonement can make up for imperfections in our performance." Heavenly Father knows that we won't be perfect and that's why He provided the Atonement for us. He doesn't ask us to be perfect, He just asks us to do our best.

I'm really excited for this next week, because tomorrow we have Zone Conference at the JSM and we're watching "Meet the Mormons!" It's going to be awesome! But I'm also super sad, because this is my last week with Sis. Turley before she goes home. :(  So we'll get transfer calls on Saturday. I will most likely be staying in Hanover, and I'll find out next Tuesday who my new companion is going to be! But Sis. Turley and I are going to have an awesome last week together, because we're going to find a new investigator! 

Well I think that's about it for this week! We're off to go carve pumpkins with our district and we're going to make them do the ghost pepper challenge haha! It'll be fun! I hope you're all doing great and you have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Love, Sister Harper

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