Pictures:
Christmas Devotional
w/ the Weidmans (Love them so much)
Christmas Devotional
w/ my "posterity" (judge me. I swore I'd never take one of
these.) My new companion is just to the right of me. SO CUTE. Sister Stratford.
From Riverton, UT. Age 20. Cheered in high school and loves One Direction &
U of U Football. She's a girly girl and she OWNS it, so it's just adorable, you
know? She is also very real and has a beautiful testimony.
And...2 random
sisters at the Patron Apartments. Sis. Thomson and Sis. Lopez.
President Weidman,
My heart is still
overflowing from the Christmas devotional. Thank you and your beautiful
wife for the thought and inspiration that was put into that. The spirit
was strong and I received personal witness of the Savior's love for my weak and
simple self.
And thank you for our
lunch conversation about charity. I feel like I am often blessed with
those extra opportunities to talk with you one-on-one so often. I really
appreciate it. Especially since I was asked to give a talk about charity
in church this week :)
My thoughts about
charity continued as I read in 3 Nephi 28 (I'm behind, but I'm going to finish
by Christmas!) about the 3 Nephites. 3 Nephi 28:9-10 "...and
all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye
have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall
stand. And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit
down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the
Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am
even as the Father..." and then it goes on in verse 18 to talk about
what they actually did: "they did go forth upon the face of the
land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as
would believe in their preaching; baptizing them, and as many as were baptized
did receive the Holy Ghost."
...There it is. Our
missionary purpose. I'm just prayin' for that level of consecration, you
know? And yet I'm not sure if my heart wants it enough to be willing to
pay the price for it. The capacity of joy which equals the capacity to
love as the Savior did...but I feel like that capacity to love comes with the
price of increasing our capacity to endure suffering. But perhaps not. I
need to ponder that out more. Just wanted to continue our thoughts of the other
day.
Jesus
Others
Yourself (But J
& O are kind of the same, right?)
We're working on our
20 conversations a day! We made an especially concentrated effort on
Saturday, which was really our only day in our area all week. We didn't
quite make it to 20 with the time that we had, but we did find a new
investigator who seems pretty open and interested! We're trying to decide
if we need to make our conversations more efficient or if that would make us
sloppy and out of tune. We just need to practice more, I think.
Sister is doing well in contacting. She was confident, genuine, and
friendly. I could see the blessings of that first day training you put
them through.
Sister S is
wonderful, of course. Her testimony is so real and sincere and honest. I
thoroughly admire that about her. She's a sweetheart. I hope you
get to hear her conversion story sometime.
We have barely
started the 12-week program due to the Christmas schedule in the Visitors'
Center, but we're hoping to get caught up this week. Because we'll technically
have 7 weeks this transfer, I'm not too worried about getting behind.
Though we will definitely make it a priority so that she can feel more
comfortable in teaching situations.
By the way, I
thoroughly appreciated those new missionary trainings. They were efficient and
inspired. I even enjoyed the "Lock Your Heart" talks given.
I really appreciate that you took the time to emphasize these principles
from the very beginning of their missions (and to review them fore those of us
older folks). I'll be honest in saying that while I'm a
"fan"/have a testimony of the doctrine behind locking your heart and
keeping your whole self focused on the work, I find the actual "Lock Your
Heart" talk slightly less than inspiring. I feel like it gives
extreme examples that allow me in my pride to exempt myself from some of its
teachings. My struggles on the mission regarding this particular
principle have more to do with keeping all of my heart focused on my purpose
(and allowing the Lord to consecrate my heart--as discussed in Elder Callester's
"Consecrated Missionary" talk) than keeping myself from clipping
toenails and other extreme instances of disobedience. I think it would be
more helpful to frequently review the appropriate relationships between elders
and sisters...or to find a way to teach it that spiritually motivates rather
than scares.
...On the other hand,
I think we all caught the jist of the principle you were trying to emphasize.
So maybe a change is unecessary. Just wanted to give you my thoughts. I
hope you read them in the most humble voice your mind could muster...because I
really did appreciate those talks.
Miracles:
We have been praying
for ****, our former investigator with a back story that's too big to share in
this e-mail. So, after a month and a half of no contact, she walked into
the Visitors' Center a few nights ago with her boyfriend, *******. After
chatting with her briefly, she less-than-subtly implied that she's ready to
start things up again. She even attended the Westwood 2nd ward with her
boyfriend on Sunday. We couldn't be more thrilled! We'll keep you
updated.
On Thursday, we
literally had a total of 2 minutes in our area outside of 1 appointment we went
to...and in those 2 minutes, we managed to contact 2 people who were both
interested in learning more. The Lord consecrates the time, President.
It's a real thing.
The Visitors' Center
has been packed, but I feel myself still being able to teach and talk with
people by the Spirit. That's been a beautiful experience. And a miracle.
Thanks for all you
do, President. I pray you have a wonderfully merry Christmas with your
family!
We love you!
Sister Wells
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