How I LOVE you! Being able to see Sister Luft and Sister Fulgham and ask them all my questions about you made me so happy :)
The weather here is amazing. It gets a little chilly at night (enough for my rain coat and a scarf) but during the day it's in the 70's normally. My brain still hasn't registered that it's not spring or summer but that it's the middle of winter right now haha.
This week has been good. We've had some adventures and it seems like the beginning of the week was forever ago. But here is a *short* rundown of what we did (I want to save time to write about some things I've learned this week).
Monday: We taught a really awkward, not awesome lesson to Michael. I think he was drunk. And it just wasn't a good situation. But it ended up being really humorous :) I'm not sure when/if we'll go back and try to teach him again. How grateful I am for being taught all my life to avoid addictive things. It is so tragic to see someone in that situation.
Tuesday: We picked up Sister Hope! She was a visa waiter for Brazil who had just received her visa. She was flying out on Wednesday so she needed companions for a day. So we got to be in a trio again :) It was awesome. I was surprised at how quickly I came to love her when we were only companions for one day haha. We did service with Sister Cleversley. We got to clean the kitchen and then bake a cake for her daughter! It was fun. Later that day we had a lesson with Tatiana. We went on splits because sister King wasn't feeling well. So I went with Sister Walk to teach her. It was a beautiful powerful lesson. She felt the Spirit and we invited her to commit to a baptismal date. Her bf andrew came in just at the end and we invited him to pray with us. Tatiana gave the prayer and it was so beautiful. She felt the Spirit and Andrew did as well. I am really excited to see what happens as they continue to learn and progress. It was New Years Eve but the only indication of that for us was all the fireworks that started going off around 7 pm haha.
Wednesday: We dropped Sister Hope off at the air port. When we left our apt and headed up to Long Beach we found a world enshrouded in dense fog. It was crazy. And hard to drive for the first 20 minutes. I literally couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of the car. But thankfully we made it safely to the airport in PLENTY of time :) We waited with her until Sister Tew arrived. It was fun to just sit and observe people as they busily walked through this little airport. Several members came up and talked to us-we could always spot them in advance. Mormons just have a look :) It was so sad to say goodbye to her as she left and walked through security. But I'm excited for her to finally get to her mission in Brazil.
On the way out we saw a couple giving a passionate goodbye. That was...weird. Being a missionary is so awesome haha.
I had a Sister Training Leader meeting that day. It was good.
Thursday: We met Josh. He is awesome. We also talked to Barbara. She is a member but has fallen away because she doesn't understand what we truly believe. That is so sad!
We also had a lesson with Mike. it was good. We taught him the word of wisdom and challenged him to stop smoking. I LOVE the word of wisdom :)
Friday: We had zone meeting. I gave a training on inviting. I learn so much every time I prepare for those. I loved the emphasis the whole meeting had on the purpose of why we are all out here. Pretty much we have the best job in the world :)
That night we had a lesson with the Watkins. We promised them that if they read the first 10 chapters in the BoM we would take them to get frozen yogurt. So we finished chapter 10 with them and went and got frozen yogurt. It was so fun! But the best part was that Jazmine and Dustin joined us for the lesson for the 1st time. Wahoo!
Saturday: Correlation. That was really fun :) And Interviews.
Sunday: We had a beautiful sacrament meeting. I realized how much I love the gospel as I sat and watched families interact and come in and out of the chapel. I love that as a missionary I get to know so many people and greet people by name as they come in and ask them about their life and meet anyone that I don't recognize. it's the best :)
And now it's back to Monday. Another week. Time goes by so fast on a mission.
One of the things that I have been studying about a lot this week is covenants. I read Sister Stephens talk from conference and was struck with how amazing covenants are.
I loved this quote from her talk:
"These priesthood ordinances and covenants provide access to the fullness of the blessings promised to us by God, which are made possible by the Savior’s Atonement. They arm sons and daughters of God with power, God’s power, and provide us with the opportunity to receive eternal life—to return to God’s presence and live with Him in His eternal family."
How wonderful is that? The promises we make with God arm us with power-God's power.
I was reading in 1 Nephi 14:14- "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." When we make sacred covenants with God it truly arms us with power.
I have such a testimony that God wants us to be happy. Life is hard. But He knows the best way to work through trials, to learn from them, and to become what He sees we can become. Do we know what we have? Do we understand what an amazing blessing it is to make and keep sacred covenants?
My invitation to you all this week is to ponder about the covenants you have made with God. And try to do something every day to keep those covenants. And then on Sunday when we have the amazing opportunity to partake of the Sacrament, we can renew those covenants with God.
Sister Stephens said, "We need the opportunity to renew our covenants each week as we partake of the sacrament. Latter-day prophets and apostles have taught that when we worthily partake of the sacrament, we can renew not only our baptismal covenant but 'all covenants entered into with the Lord.'"
I love this Gospel. I LOVE being a missionary. It is so hard but it is the best thing I have ever done. God loves us. And this is the way to access that love.
I hope you have a beautiful week!
I love you!
Love,
Sister Andelin
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