Sister Lauren Holbrook: Week 29: All of the Magic

Missionary time and missionary life is a very funny thing. It lasts for forever and yet it flies by so quickly, you can't believe that you're a third of the way through your mission in downtown Salt Lake City. Crazy stuff.

We're going to take this week day by day.

Monday after our P-day adventures of Walmart and ultimate frisbee at the park, we made some phone calls then went to a regular family home evening where we helped sweet Sister F fold laundry. She's nine months pregnant :) Then we had a great visit with the Alvar family - they had some really rough news this past week, and so we brought some of the service missionaries in the area with us to provide some additional guidance. It was a powerful lesson, and they definitely felt the love of our Heavenly Father for them.

Little side note: I am SO GRATEFUL for all of the service missionaries in this stake. We work so closely with them and they are lifesavers with some of the people we work with. I absolutely adore each one of them. They're basically my grandparents while I'm here :)

Tuesday we had a wonderful lunch with Sister LeSueur/Candice!! Old mission companions can take us out to lunch - don't worry :) We had an amazing and much needed visit with her. And we even did a role-play while she was there!! We all love and miss her a lot.

The rest of the day was an adventure. Sister Bill was having stomach pain, so we ended up taking her to the doctor to make sure all was okay. We ended up spending the rest of the evening there and then coming home and going to bed early.

Wednesday We had interviews with President Hansen. I love that man! He is so inspired as to what each of the missionaries in this mission need, and he really does all in his power to do the will of the Lord to help each of us progress. The counsel he gave to help our companionship and area was amazing, and I look forward to going forth and applying it all! We have a goal of getting at least one person (returned member or recent convert) to the temple this transfer. We're going to do it for sure.

Thursday was Sister Bill's one-year mark!! Woo hoo!! We celebrated with a sick day and going to a few appointments we had that evening. This sweet Korean woman in the retirement branch we're over gave us literally everything she had for our dinner. We were all in shock at this woman's faith and willingness to give us so much because she believed in the blessings the Lord would give to her. There are people like her all around in this stake, and I am so grateful for their examples to me as I am learning to go forth and really apply my faith in every single day.

Friday was district meeting and weekly planning!! Party time! Thank you to the Kurihara's and the BG1st ward for your AWESOME packages!!! That chocolate helps a lot ;)

We had fantastically effective planning, then halfway through district meeting Sister Tucker became sick! Which means another few hours at the same Instacare in the same room as before (the ironies of missionary work).

She's just fine, and so we went off to dinner where we had a sweet lesson with this amazing family! Charlie is preparing to be baptized in June, and so we are sharing the missionary lessons with them so he can be more prepared and also so that his dad, who is not a member, can also have missionary lessons :) They are incredible. We then went to another spaghetti dinner for a ward party, met lots of people, talked in Spanish with some of them (I really need to practice my spanish more), and then met with that ward's Bishop who is amazing. I mentioned that the people here are incredibly full of faith, right?

Saturday was incredible productive!! For Sister Bill's language study (she's fro Montreal Canada where they speak French) we watched some church movies and had a blast with them. Again, amazing examples of faith in the early history of the church.

We went on splits and I was lucky enough to go off with Sister L in one of the north wards. We saw a few less-active members in the ward and she was AWESOME at boldly inviting them to come to church!! We then visited Anna who is one of those amazing examples who I will always love. Her husband was just released from the hospital for major alcohol poisoning. She has a sweet little boy who is four. And she just wants to get back into the gospel. She has been reading the Book of Mormon, though she doesn't always understand it, and she prays constantly. She loves the ward, and she loves being a part of the church. With all that has been going on, she really wants to get back in the habit of going to church and we are going to help her get to the temple. Despite everything that has been going on (and we don't even know half of it all), she still remains faithful. I love her dearly. And I am so grateful for the time we spent with her that night.

Our wonderful ward mission leaders came to correlation! I love this stake and am so grateful for the inspired leadership here.

Sunday was insane. Always is. But especially this Sunday. Three ward councils beginning at 7:30, and then church meetings until 5. I love it :) But by the end of the day, we were ready for our P-day. We were able to speak in one of the wards about the Apostasy and the Restoration. It is so cool to see how this stake is really catching the vision of sharing the gospel! They really need strength in their members, and we are doing all that we can to help them. We met with another amazing ward mission leader before heading home.

We're all completely exhausted and will probably spend most of today sleeping. But you want to know the best part? We get to do it all again this week!! I am so excited! Missionary work is extremely tiring simply because it taxes you physically, mentally, emotionally, and especially spiritually. BUT the miracles you see as people choose to change their lives make every little bit worth it.

Some scriptures and thoughts from the week:

Hymn 248 the old mission theme (that you all should learn to play on piano so you're never taken by surprise)

Isaiah 13 is all about US as missionaries and members of the Church bringing the gospel to all the world! It's so cool to find yourself in the scriptures.

Preach My Gospel chapter 1, pages 6-8 about the message of the Restoration and it's importance in sharing the gospel. I love the sentence on page 2 that says, "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase."

Proverbs 29:18 What is our vision for ourselves? For helping others? For our families? We need a vision in order to set goals and make plans to reach that ultimate vision we have.

Meaningful prayer. Study it.

Following up: how is Preach My Gospel study? Were you able to share the Because of Him video? If not, you definitely should.

I love you all so so much!! The gospel is true! Heavenly Father loves each one of you!!!

Love,

Sister Holbrook