Temples

Fun week! Shoutout to Nathan for getting into BYU! good work broski!

Monday: recovering from my sickness day, so really relaxing p-day was necessary. We did have an awesome lesson with Alyx, who is 13. She wants to take the lessons but is hesitant to get baptized because her mom can't go to her wedding if she gets married in the temple; strange that that is on her mind at this age, but I think that her testimony in the restored gospel with strengthen her. Her grandma is also a huge support in helping her go to church and take the lessons, so I am confident that she will get baptized soon. Alyx did say that out lesson was "exciting" though; we taught the Plan of Salvation and we used some visuals. We also stopped by to visit Kori and Josh, who are high school teachers that let us teach them the first discussion. They have a ton of Mormon students so I really hope they go to church; the youth would get a kick out of that. But we saw Kori and she was busy but said that our lesson last week was "fun." Not exactly what I was hoping for...I'd hope that our lessons are spiritual in nature, but exciting and fun are the next best thing I think ;)

Tuesday: Went to mission prep, and I feel like I learned way more than I taught. It was cool though; we practiced teaching the first discussion. Brother Lotze, the teacher, taught us and it was pretty powerful. He started with "I testify that today you will feel the Holy Ghost. The fruits of the Holy Ghost are love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. I promise that you will feel those things today because your Heavenly Father loves you and has blessed you to be here with your family(the whole class). Families are important to God's plan and always have been. Adam had a family that he taught to follow God. He was a prophet..." He said "I testify" a lot and weaved in scriptures. I tried to do that this week and I realized that my teaching was more powerful and possibly authoritative. I was really impressed with his teaching though and learned a ton. he also said that after he teaches the first vision. He asks "who appeared to Joseph Smith?" and let them bear testimony.

Wednesday: got a call in the AM from the mission office. I had to do more visa paperwork; complete another online application. I have no idea what that means for the time frame that I might get my visa but patience has been key again this week. Had a lesson with Lucas who is 8 and adores us. He calls us "my sisters." Precious. He stares at me and gives me lots of hugs...I find it quite flattering lol. Then we went to mutual and talked to the priests in 2nd ward about preparing for missions and what they can do now... it was a trainwreck in my opinion... We were excited about missions and talked about fun things but when we asked them how we should be missionaries now they said that they actually don't have to invite people; they just have to be an example and then when the missionaries knock on their door, they will just say yes because of the people that they know. I was like NOOOO; have I not taught you anything. That is not the most effective way to do missionary work; how will the work hasten if we don't do anything different and just expect the missionaries to hasten. I couldn't pull it back after that so I was pretty sad. It is just hard to motivate teenage boys. I could not really connect with them. Oh well. We tried. But that brings up a good question. For most of my mission, I think we have done a pretty good job trying to get the members involved in the work and excited about it, but I'm curious how others have tried to motivate people to do missionary work. What has been successful?

Thursday: Sister Hammond's birthday! We played basketball at the church. Now that we switched apartments with the elders, we live in walking distance from the stake center. It is pretty convenient. then District meeting where we talked about finding/tracting. Elder Dodge shared that his favorite quote from our last meeting on tracting was by Elder Holland who said something along the lines of "when you are rejected, you stand shoulder to shoulder with Christ." wow that is powerful. Then as we were walking around we got attacked my an epic rain/hail/sandstorm that came down so hard and fast. We could do nothing so we just stood there. It was pretty cool though. Then I had a thought to go see Calandra, an investigator who we had one lesson with a while ago but has been busy since. I gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she was moving so it was good that we came by when we did so she could tell us. That was pretty cool. Then we stopped by a less actives house and it happened to be her birthday so she invited us to stay for Navajo tacos. Dad, I am working on acquiring the art of making them. They are cheap so that is good. I set off the smoke alarm in our apartment trying to make them, but the Navajos tell me that is good and I must be doing it right. nice.

Friday: epic lesson with Quintana. I was tired of planning so I wanted to go out. I thought about an investigator, Quintana, who I hadn't seen in awhile. I decided to check up on her. We stopped by and she immediately told us about her day. She had just gotten back from being at the hospital all day with her daughter. This morning she found her 5 year old passed out on her bedroom floor. She was able to wake her up after a few minutes and then took her straight to the hospital. She expected them to tell her that her daughter was sick and/or dehydrated. But they told her that her daughter has problems with her heart. She has an enlarged atrium so her heart isn't working properly. Quintana was really distraught because she has a lot of things to deal with now. She also didn't have an family there with her that day so she felt alone. We watched the Mormon message "Mountains to Climb" and talked about faith. She accepted a baptismal invitation. We had an awesome discussion and she is happy with all the things she has experienced so far with the church. She said she was so happy that we came by and wanted us to come back soon. We knelt in prayer with her boyfriend, who is a less active member who just started coming back to church, offered the prayer. I felt the Spirit so strongly. I know that the Atonement covers all pains, physical and emotional. There is a healing balm that is found when we live the gospel, all parts of it; especially when we read the Book of Mormon individually and as families. Then Book of Mormon study class; epic discussion on Alma 60 and how it parallels our day. Brother Prall also shared an experience about service. When he had a young family, he helped them the most sometimes by going out with the missionaries right when he got home from work. His wife would be a little bitter about it, but as he would leave with the missionaries every time there woud be this amazing peace that fell upon his house. His wife loved it because the kids would be so good and it was an awesome feeling. He realized that Heavenly Father was able to bless them with what they really needed; Brother Prall wouldn't have been able to bless his family that much by staying home. I have realized that too; Heavenly Father blesses us and our families better than we could when we serve Him.

Saturday: another awesome lesson with an investigator. She is 14 and her name is Crystal, She thought it was cool that Joseph got an answer at 14, and at the end she said she was really happy. We gave her a baptismal date and she was excited. Her mom expressed concern that they didn't have dresses for church, but we told them to just come. They are awesome! I made Crystal say the closing prayer; lately I have been employing manipulation...in a friendly manner--I joke with them that if they don't pray with us, then I'll make them say the opening and closing prayer at their baptism. That usually does the trick; she offered a beautiful prayer ;)

Sunday: Gilbert Arizona Temple Dedication. not many words to describe the feeling of being in the temple (our stake center was an extension of the temple that day). I had a very touching experience though because Audra was there. She hugged me as I walked in and I almost cried because she was able to be there in the "temple" with her dad. It was sweet. Also this week we are trying to focus our lessons around eternal families and temples as a goal with baptism as a step to get there. All of the people that we have asked to be baptized have said yes with that theme in the lesson, so I think that is a good thing. I love temples.

Love you!

Sister Sadie Bledsoe