My Mission and Before

November 18, 2013

Hello loved ones,

Gosh it has been a good week and I wish I could just share with you EVERYTHING that I have learned this week. Seriously it has been fantastic. So much to learn love it :)

First things first though. I feel great. My health is so much better. I am finished with my antibiotics and I really do feel fantastic. :) It's so great. SO GREAT! And I am breathing just fine. Thankyou for your prayers though. I really have felt each and every one of them. So grateful for you all really.

 

Well as you all know I have been struggling with perfection, because you know that's what I strive to do is to become a perfectionist, not a good thing. Anyways. We had actually gotten this book called "Adjusting to Missionary Life" last transfer and one of my goals from exchanges was to read this book. Holy cow. Changed my mission. There are so many things in there that help you really understand that yeah a mission is hard but with the Savior and his atonement and then with God's help you can do it. You can achieve success. It has this huge section on different trials of missionary life and you just read it once a week and go through different points where it has suggestions of what to do. So with my struggles it told me to start reading the characters of Christ. Oh my world. :) It's been amazing. Everyday with studies I basically have to yell at my companion across the desk because I am so excited to share with her all that I have learned. Seriously I am that excited every day to share with her EVERYTHING! She laughs at me a lot but that's okay sometimes I get a little excited :)

I studies the characters of Christ a lot my first couple of transfers specifically Love. I really needed to understand Love and I still do. But I kinda didn't read as much about the other characters. So I really have been studying and reading about all of the Characters of Christ. I realize that even though I am a representative of Christ I don't always show his qualities, his characteristics. Part of my study was on Virtue which has been so COOL. Obviously we know what Virtue is but really knowing what it contains and how to apply it has been a really fascinating study. In Preach my Gospel it talks about how when we are virtuous we try to control all of our thoughts and really only think of pure things. After I read this I realized how my thoughts drift so much and not necessarily on bad things, I just do concentrate all the time on things that I should. Maybe I'm not focusing in on the spirit or on what I am doing. Maybe I'm not completely thinking of what my purpose is. Maybe I'm not thinking exactly of Christ and what he did for me specifically. It's very much made me try to control everything that I think of. It has made all the difference in the world. Really concentrating on my Savior, how much he loves this people, on my purpose to serve these people and my companion I really can feel how the spirit is working with me. What great blessings it has brought already. :) I love sweet tender mercies from the Lord and answers to prayers.

 

Well with the language... I mean I feel comfortable talking to people and yeah I can talk and say a lot, but I just do not feel fluent. I still have a hard time understanding grammar principles and how to apply them and use them, and it's just been hard. This week though as I was praying to Heavenly Father I made a resolve with Him to try even harder to really work on everything that I want to say and how I can say it. So on Sunday I really came in with a notebook and a pen to write down how they say certain things and words I just don't understand. I really really really really TRIED to understand everything they were saying and HOW they were saying it. It was one of the best sundays on my mission. Sacrament was amazing, sunday school, and relief society. So beautiful. I remember as they were blessing the sacrament and passing it around, first of all I understood and second of all I felt as though they were speaking English. I don't know if that makes sense? To me I feel that it means so much more to me in English then it does in Romanian. But as speakers came up and spoke and as I spoke to others I felt as though I was just speaking. I mean I know it wasn't all grammatically correct but it felt so good :) Loved those moments.

 

Well this week we met with a few investigators and we also met with Andreea. Seriously Andreea :) I love this girl so much she is just this light here in Constanta. We first met with Andreea and she wanted to know more about the Plan of Salvation because she has a talk next week so we talked about it and we really talked about how we can apply these things in our lives. I talked about Grandma and how when she died in my first transfer I prayed ALOT to really know that I would see her again, and I know I will. Sora Newell talked about how everything will be made right with the Lord. Then we asked for her testimony. She looked at us and said how she just wanted to be with her ENTIRE family even those she doesn't know. She told us that she had started a bunch of her own family history work... she is the new family history coordinator. Didn't know if I said that already. She also told us that she can't wait until she can go in the temple and do ordinances for them. Seriously she is amazing. And secretly SHHHHH she said she is planning on going on a mission. :) Made my ENTIRE WEEK! :) I love this girl really she is AMAZING. De fapt she just called to make sure we had a lesson with one of our investigators she can come too :) LOVE HER!

 

We met with Alina this week too. She is such a quite tender soul. We literally went over the WHOLE restoration. She really seemed to understand it and we asked her to pray and read because we want her to know for herself that what we said is true. She agreed and said she would do it that night when she gets home :) We then asked her when she knows that Joseph was a prophet called by God and the Book of Mormon is true if she would be baptized by someone having authority. She was a little hesitant but super willing and said yeah when she does know she will :) She is so great. We are actually going to meet with her tonight with Andreea. Something that was interesting is that as I was talking about our purpose as missionaries and how we know that it will make her even more happier. She just seems so happy and so I stopped and said," well your already so happy but I know that it will make you even happier." She just looked back and said," Well actually I am just always really happy to meet with you guys. I just feel so loved." Made me tear up a bit. She also kept talking about how she didn't really know her purpose here and what she was supposed to do. We are definitely talking about Plan of Salvation tonight. I can not wait :) Abia astept!

 

Spencer: Well you will be in the Phillipeans by the time you get this :) So excited for you. I can't wait to hear about all the service you will be able to do there. You really will open the way to their hearts :) Love you.

 

 

Love you all and I pray for you everyday!
Sora Stewart