Hey everyone,
To start off I'll answer the question from the subject-it's a joke Elder Killian told me the other day. Why is it so windy in Wyoming? Because Idaho blows and Nebraska sucks! Sorry if I offended any idaho/Nebraska lovers. It is actually quite windy here though. Everyone keeps warning me about the wind during winter, it'll be an adventure for me...
Were getting closer to the ward members which is awesome! The stake challenged everyone to have the missionaries in your home to teach lessons, and our ward put it in their ward mission plan too. So members have been inviting us over to teach them and it's been fun. A lot of the members have little children, so I've been learning how to teach like 3-9 year Olds. Harder than I thought...i respect parents who teach their children, and do family home evening and stuff a lot more now. Good job! Some of the kids are awesome though, and they LOVE the missionaries. It's great that on the walk to dinner appointments we get yelled at by people driving by, then when we get to homes the kids treat us like superheros!!
I had someone tell me they didn't want to read the Book of Mormon because they're Christian for the first time this week. We were doing service at the retirement home and I was in the kitchen washing dishes. One of the ladies told us that some missionaries stopped by their house and gave them a book. We asked if she had read it and she told us it's not on the list of things for her to do, because she's Christian. We told her we're Christian too! I told her to look up 2nd Nephi 25:26, or at least just read the introduction to the book of mormon. We'll see what happens.
Last Friday we got a call in the morning asking us if we could help someone move. We agreed and went over at 1 and it ended up taking like 4 hours, but it was awesome. Us and another set of missionaries went over to help him, and afterwards he asked if we had dinner appointments. Neither of us did, so he paid for our dinner. We had the choice to go anywhere we wanted....so we went to Pandas express!! We had some extra money so on our way to drop off the other missionaries we saw Wendy's. It was like this Wendy's had its own gravitational pull, I found myself driving to the drive through. We all got large frostys and it was glorious. Good day.
Kinda a cool thought, the guy we helped move was a member and he told us "I always feel bad asking you guys for help, when it's not like asking you guys to help me teach someone". I was kinda thinking about that, like was this a waste of time? I didn't feel like it was, Its good to serve but could I be doing something more important? That night I was reading in the teachings of Brigham Young. One section is titled "the spiritual and temporal aspects of the gospel are one". Brigham young talks about how in God's mind temporal and spiritual aren't separated. He also says, "if I am in the line of my duty, I am doing the will of God....i am serving God as much in one place as another...anything that pertains to the building up of the Lord's kingdom on earth, is considered a spiritual work". That was really cool to learn, and cool that I got an answer to the questions I was pondering throughout the day. If you are in tune with the Spirit, your questions will be answered!! Usually when I think of a spiritual work I would think of going and teaching a family a lesson and bearing my testimony. But by helping a member move, I'm fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and serving as Jesus Christ served and that was spiritual work!! Moving a couch for somebody was spiritual just like bearing my testimony to him is. Crazy!! I also thought about how everything I do as a missionary is considered a spiritual work. Walking, making me feet and legs sore, from door to door, even when I think there is no success, is still doing spiritual work. I'm so lucky to always be on the Lord's errand 24/7!
Speaking of making my feet and legs sore, Saturday we walked a LOT. Apparently the first Saturday of every month is "no drive day". Our dinner appointment was about a half hour walk, which wasn't bad. But afterwards we walked around the neighborhood, knocking on people's doors we thought of. On our way back to the apartment we took a path that led us to a dead end, so we had to turn around and find another way. We ended up walking in front of the ward mission leaders house, as he was getting in his truck with his wife. Fun fact-we try to meet with him once a week usually on Wednesday or Thursday nights, but this week things didn't work out. BUT we saw him and talked with him for a little bit-and his wife gave us lemonade. We were able to get some information on people we have been thinking of and it was good, we had a little meeting then. There's no coincidence we hit a dead end, and ended up walking past his house at the EXACT moment he was outside. The spirit guides us as we are working. Almost every time we have been out walking, something important happens. Actually, as we were walking to our dinner appointment I thought of somebody that lives by and said "hey we should knock on his door" and Elder Killian said he had the same thought. We were both prompted to go knock on this guy's door....but after dinner when we did nobody answered!! But because we had the thought to go knock on his door, we ended up walking around the neighborhood, and eventually ran into our ward mission leader. The spirit guides us missionaries, and his plan is usually different than our plan. Definitely worth the sore legs for walking for hours Saturday night.
Sunday was awesome. It was fast and testimony meeting in church which was awesome. I got up and shared my testimony which was fun. But one of the most powerful testimonies that hit me during that meeting was from a little girl. I got out my phone to write it down. She went up and said "I'd like to bear my testimony that I know this church is true and I know you ask God for something, nothing is impossible. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen". The spirit testified to me in that meeting of the truthfulness of what she said. That is so true. If we ask in faith, and it's the will of God, nothing is impossible. Sometimes we just have to ask.
Monday I did exchanges with elder Stockwell. We drove over Sundays night and switched companions. Monday was great and we got a lot done and taught a lot of people!! Elder Stockwell had 3 lessons already planned for Monday which was super exciting. Their area isn't a car area though, so yeah it was super fun walking everywhere....lets just say I'm even more grateful to be in a car area now :)
Spiritual thought: I drew a picture this last week, I'll attach it down below. I started having the idea for this picture when I read Jacob 6:4-5. In verse 4 it says "how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the House of Israel...and he stretches forth his hands unto them all day long" and verse 5 says "cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you...his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of day". The phrase "arm of mercy" is mentioned multiple times throughout the scriptures and also the idea that God's hand is "stretched" towards us. We just have to grab onto that outstretched hand. He has done his part, he "cleaves" unto us. The Atonement has been done by the savior, it is there for us to use. We just have to do our part. Whether it be by repenting, or using the Atonement to be comforted and strengthened in our afflictions. That hand is stretched out towards us, He loves us and wants us to grab his hand but he has reached as far as he can. Just reach toward him. His arm of mercy his extended towards us all.
Fun stuff:
-scariest moment of my life happened last Tuesday. I was making myself ramen for dinner. Because in fancy I decided I was going to mix in some Sriracha with the ramen. I untwisted the top of the Sriracha bottle and it exploded. The red Satan liquid went straight for my eyes. It all happened so fast. I was blinded, the bottle fell to the floor and exploded more, I thought I could hear the devil himself laughing (probably just Elder Killian laughing at me because I'm an idiot). As my eyeballs felt like atomic fireballs I found my way to the sink and rinsed out my eyes. The cool tap water flowing into my eyes was glorious. I havent touched that bottle of Sriracha since, out of fear.
-as me an elder Killian were walking we found more peices of the broken statue, and came home and glued then together I'll add a picture.
-I found a bouncy ball and it's been my source of entertainment when there's nothing to do
-a member fed us breakfast for dinner and it was amazing I haven't had a good breakfast in a while
-I met someone's pet ferret names Sassy
Elder Milius
Picturers: Arm of mercy, repaired statue, sunset at the neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, selfie I took just now because I don't have that many pictures
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