Hello family!
Before I forget, Happy Birthday Scott and Craig! I can't believe you boys are turning 19 and 16 this week! What the heck!? The idea of Scott getting his mission call this month and Craig DATING and DRIVING is enough to make my head spin haha. But I am excited for you boys. Hope you have a fantastic birthday! Sending lots of love from your very favorite sister in the whole world :)
It's been a pretty good week in South Euclid! We enjoyed our beautiful spring weather that's been going on this week, but was disappointed to wake up Sunday morning to a lot of snow. Oh well! We are being optimistic and just going to say that this is the last snowfall of the year. I'd be okay with that!
Oh, quick update on my first area, Chardon. First of all, I don't think I mentioned this last week, but Liam got baptized! Do you remember me telling you about that 10 year old who was in a part member family? Well he got baptized and his dad was able to perform the baptism! Liam really wanted me to speak at his baptism and Bro. Potter said he really wanted me to be there, but I wasn't able to go :( But it does make me feel good just knowing he got baptized and to know that I haven't been forgotten!
On the sad side of Chardon, Brother Calandra died this week. :'( He is the one that G&G Watson know, and he and his wife were SO important to me (he's the one who gave me that book that I sent home a few months ago). I can't imagine how Sister Calandra is doing, being a widow twice now. The funeral is today. I'm not sure if grandma and grandpa know, so if you could pass that on, I'd appreciate it.
Back to South Euclid, things are going really well! We have set 6 baptismal dates for March, but lifestyle in the ghetto is really so different than anything else, so we're not sure how solid those dates are. We have seen a lot of progression in investigators though. We had a mom and two of her teenage girls come to church yesterday and they had an awesome experience. The daughters, Mishurrel (pronounced Maa-shur-ell) and Kaleina, have baptismal dates and have come several times before because their dad is a recent convert. Of course, the dad didn't come to church yesterday because he knew his baby momma was going to be there! ohh man. Good ol' Cleveland. haha. Not sure how we'll work that out, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We also have a few other investigators with a lot of promise, including an investigator named Chris. We have to go slow with her because it's a big change for her, but she is praying and reading her scriptures and seeing the peace that comes into her life as she does so, and she DEFINITELY needs that peace. It's so cool to see the happiness coming into her life.
Chris wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but she did come to the chili cook off on Saturday and she had an AMAZING time! I did too! It was way fun, although I left with quite the stomachache! We have 7 missionaries serving in our ward, and they made Sister Decker, Elder Andersen, and I the judges of the cook off--one from each companionship. I ate 20 different kinds of chili and 10 kinds of dessert! Ughhhh... It was yummy but seriously, couldn't they have sent me to a mission that would make me lose weight, not gain 20 pounds in one night?! haha.
We had zone conference two weeks ago and President Sorensen said something that has really been on my mind since then. He said that the blessing of being obedient is simply obedience! We don't need to expect anything else from the Lord beyond that. I thought that was interesting. Especially as a missionary, I hear stories about miracles happening when missionaries were obedient and I have to say I don't always see that. But there is definitely truth to what President said. When I go to bed at night, I know that if I have been obedient that day I have made the Lord proud and I am doing what I came on a mission to do and there are blessings in store by being obedient, although they may not come the way that I anticipate or expect. It's the same way with life not as a missionary. We still have commandments and things that we need to do, but we are obedient because it is what the Lord has asked us to do, and He will bless us, but it will be in His time, in His way. Until then, the blessing of obedience is simply obedience. Just food for thought.
Well I love you all! Have a fantastic week and Happy Birthday Scott and Craig! :)
Sister Maughan
No comments:
Post a Comment