SOOO many things happened this week. I don't even know where to start, so please excuse my brevity because I lack the time to express everything that happened with as much detail as I would prefer. First, I hope that everyone had a wonderful and inspiring General Conference! I know I did :)
On Tuesday we got a call from the housing coordinators to tell us that they were moving us out of Sister Waite's home the next day! We weren't taken too much by surprise, we thought this would eventually happen in the near future, just not this soon. We spent all night Tuesday packing until 2 am when we eventually crashed. Then Wednesday morning, we had to get up early and get ready for a meeting that Hern now has to go to since she's been made STL. It was a 6 hour meeting and during that time, I went on exchanges with another sister, which made me the senior companion for the day and the only Spanish speaker. Interestingly enough, no one was home. Haha! We must've tried visiting 10 different homes. Although it wasn't very productive, I really enjoyed spending time with Sister Eliason. She is a sweetheart and I hope I get the chance to work with her in the future. Later that night we loaded all of our stuff into Juan's truck. It was a big load, yeah for Juan! Then we said goodbye to Sister Waite and took some pictures. It was a happy/sad goodbye. I will miss living with her. :)
On Friday we had a zone meeting! The meeting itself consisted mostly the ZL's trying to help motivate us to continue baptizing all of Caldwell. Haha! They have a lot of faith in us. :) I know that as a missionary our purpose is to baptize, but during the meeting my mind was drawn instead to a few of my recent converts, now less active. How can the Lord ask me to keep baptizing when they don't stay strong on their own? I couldn't help the feeling of sadness that I have knowing that Eva, Isabel, Carlos and many others do not come to church and feel no desire to be a part of such a wonderful organization. I reserved my thoughts and feelings until after the meeting so I can think about it some more. Then, during one of the sessions of General Conference, I remembered something very important, my job is to baptize them and help them in their journey, not to baby them every step of the way. In the scriptures it literally says that no one can come into the presence of the Father without the ordinance of baptism, and that is what I am trying to accomplish on my mission. I can spend all day with converts reading the scriptures, teaching them how to pray, and sitting with them at church, but the fact is that they can't always rely on me because I physically won't be there 100% of the time. At some point, I have to let them go and spread their wings, so they can gain their own testimony. They have to want it for themselves.
Thursday was Hern's birthday! She's one of the oldest sisters in the mission, being 26 now. I remember it was rainy, and cold outside and we didn't do much because Thursday is normally when we do our weekly plan. But to celebrate, we invited all the Spanish missionaries serving in Caldwell to go to lunch at a restaurant called the Burnt Lemon. It was a lot of fun, then afterwards we invited the Hermanas to do their weekly planning at our house since we now have so much more room now at our new location! Towards the evening, we attended a Relief Society activity where we tied blankets for the homeless. Good times!
General Conference was so amazing! We invited everyone to come and watch it with us, and we even got a few turnouts! There are heaps of things I can say about each one of the speakers and their talks, but I think I will just mention Russell M. Nelson's talk for now. It absolutely brought me to tears to think that women of this generation have been spoken of since Adam and Eve and that they have a divine purpose and have been saved for these latter days. He described us to be strong, valiant, courageous, wise, kind, and many other attributes. But what I will never forget is that he said we don't see ourselves the way we really are. With angels on each side, we hold the responsibility to usher in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. How important we must be and how ready we need to be for difficult challenges ahead.
I know that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet who leads us and loves us. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and he is at the helm of His Church. I know that His gospel has been restored through Joseph Smith, and through the power of the Holy Ghost he was able to translate the most treasured book that I hold so dear to my heart. I know my family has been sealed together in the Temple for time and all eternity, and I will do everything I can to be worthy of that blessing as well. I also look forward to the blessing of being a mother when the time comes.
Have a good one! Love y'all!
Hermana Moss :)
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