Counting My Blessings!! October 9, 2010

Well our p-day is back to normal. This week went by really fast because we had p-day on Monday and now today is our p-day again so we had a day taken out of our week but I think Heavenly Father knew what he was doing. This week, no matter how short it was, was a stressful one. Living with another companionship can create a lot of drama that really is not necessary. This week was drama driven and I hated it! It makes me realize how much hold Satan can have on us when we get mad or frustrated and how much one companionship or person out of the four of us can affect the whole bunch. It really creates a void in the apartment and a bad spirit that can last for days, as it has done this week. It seems that I'm being tried and tested on every hand with every sister in the apartment, even sticking up for another causes contention. It just has been a very hard hectic week because you cannot teach without the spirit and nor would I ever try. It is the same thing in the home one person brakes the chain and ruins the day. Needless to say extra prayer on behalf of my roommates and companion would be amazing. I just want to do the work. It gets hard when all you hear is negativity all day long, no matter how positive I am or how much I try to change the subject or let it roll off, it starts to break down my spirit and I give into frustration. Even bringing up that I don't like it causes more drama because people just will not let go of their pride. Pride ruins everything and gets you know where!


I'm really starting to understand what it means to FIND joy in the journey. My prayers have becomes less of a plea for help and more of gratitude for the things that I do have and love. I have listened to the motabs version of "You'll fall asleep counting your blessings." I love that song for many reasons but it helps me to get through the hard times when things are tough to realize and know how truly blessed I am. Now I say it every transfer that this one I think I'm going to grow the most, but it is true and I do grow in many different ways and this transfer will be no different from the rest. I hope to get a lot of laughing in this transfer and a lot less tears, unless they are tears of great joy.

The missionary life here is a little different. It's like we have our own little world down here and we don't have the same schedule as everyone else. The branch is doing much better and a lot more helpful. We decided the best way to do some kind of service is to bake cookies and bring to them with the new pass along cards. The plan was to also teach them a lesson about teaching friends through using the new website mormon.org, and have them put up a profile.

So we only have bikes and people live so far away, so we got going early and put dots on a map to find them and took off, all three of us. We biked almost 7 miles and no one was home. lol It was a very crazy day but we are going to finish our list since we didn't get it done, it takes a bit longer on a bike but it was way fun even though sister Johnson's bike is going crazy and sister cutlers chain keeps coming off. In fact on our way home sister Cutler was trying to go up this huge hill to our apartment and we usually try to go fast so that it's done before we know are legs are burning when all of the sudden sister Cutlers chain came off and flung her with her bike sliding on the pavement into a parked car. Luckily she didn't break anything. We were all freaking out asking what was hurt and she wasn't talking so I helped her up asking the same question and through tears and laughing she said "my pride." lol it was a scary but funny moment. Don't worry I'm very safe on my boy bike. It was a crazy day. Sister Cutler scraped her left arm really bad along with a huge bruise on the side of her upper leg and her ankle is swollen and cut up pretty bad. We had to ice it and wrap it up. It has slowed our work down a bit because she needed to rest and recover but we are still working hard. We still ride our bikes even though our buns are bruised from the bike ride. I was so sore. lol man it told me how out of shape I am and how I need to work harder. This place is up hill both ways. lol literally~ SO this week has been crazy and stressful but full of hope and faith for the next week and this upcoming Sunday.

Our teaching pool has become a zero because they all dropped us this week but we have some referrals from pass along cards and salt lake as well as from the ward so next week should be full of excitement. Plus Yogi, who is from china, dropped us because we are girls and he didn't want to start over but we called him the other day and he said he tried to stop by the institute to see us and it was locked and he wants to meet us. So I took it as one more of Gods little blessings that I can count before I go to bed. I really do love this place and seek everyday for inspiration on how to talk to the students who are very smart by the way, but the spirit is smart still, so I don't worry, but most people don't believe in God nor do they care what we have to say. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say after we tell them our message, "I drink too much for that." I tell them that they shouldn't drink at all and they say "what is the fun in that." so I'm continuing to learn what to say as directed by the spirit.

I love you all so much! I'm so excited that Kenny is doing so well in school with his straight A's and don't worry, I wrote Kellin, Daniel and McKenna a letter. Hopefully it helps. I love everyone and give them a kiss and huge hug for me!

Till next week, ~ I'll be (writing) seeing you

~Love, Your Sister Missionary~