Joyeux Noel everyone!! It was practically Christmas here this weekend, since we had the most AMAZING General Conference EVER! Seriously though, how incredible was that. I think it's safe to say that this was indeed a special conference. It was one of the first conferences where I think I can count on one hand the different number of subjects of things discussed. And since these topics aren't assigned, we know loud and clear the messages the Lord is really needing and wanting us to hear right now. I know I personally learned a lot about prophets, the sacrament, the keys to having a happy home, how to help the needy, and how to really be so firmly rooted in the gospel that I can truly become more like Christ. The biggest difference for me going into this Conference was that I prepared myself. I didn't realize how much I took Conference for granted growing up. I had thoughts like: "yay! we dont have to wear skirts! pajama time!" I'd come off of a week of school, show up in front of the TV on Saturday morning, sit down, and watch. After it was over, I'd think to myself "that was good!" and then I'd forget about it. What a waste!!!! You can't just show up to conference. It takes preparation. I went in this time having prayed for weeks in advance about certain questions I've been having, asking God to please open my heart and mind so I would be receptive to the answers when I heard them. Those words that were spoken are now scripture. Maybe people would take it more seriously if we put those words in black leather binding like our Book of Mormon. Because that is the equivalent to what it is. In fact, according to an Apostle of the Lord, "the words spoken by living prophets are more important to us than the words of dead prophets." Not that the scriptures are useless, those are essential to read as well, those words still apply to us today. But what is said to us today, is modern day revelation, and therefore applies to us even more. God still speaks to us today, He is still writing His holy scripture to us today. It's just that now today you can access it online, on TV, in the Ensign, etc. How blessed we are! The preparation made all the difference, and I learned loads of things. I figured out a lot of things I need to change about my weaknesses, and I found a lot of ways to improve my strengths, and made lots of goals for now and for the future. The key after hearing all that wonderful stuff, is to now act. To change. We all have something we need to improve, so suck up your pride, and do it! "It has to hurt, that's how you grow." But I promise once you make those changes, as hard as it may be at first, you will feel so much happier afterwards. So, as far as other stuff from this week. Not too much to report on. Since we now have a CAR we spent a lot of time going to distant areas and trying to talk to as many people as we could, people who might have never met missionaries before. Boy did we find some gorgeous areas...I am so lucky! We also had a cool experience as a Zone this week. One of the elders who has been AP for the past few transfers, who is in his last transfer now, just got moved to be our zone leader for this transfer. No one understood this, for one, he is the greatest missionary ever (President wrote an entire ode to him in the last newsletter) and never has an AP not ended his mission as an AP. But President said he couldn't deny the inspiration he had to make him our zone leader, as much as he didn't want to move him. So, President then had our new zone leaders come to each apartment in our zone and dedicate them. This is the only zone that that was done in. When our zone leaders came to dedicate our apartment, our new ZL told us that President told him that every missionary who is currently in our zone, the Geneve Zone, are his best missionaries in the mission. He sent is AP to be a ZL there because he wants us to be the model zone to the rest of the mission. They dedicated our apartments just to have an extra added measure of strength and protection for the missionaries in our zone. So that was a very humbling experience. We had no idea Presient had that much confidence in us. Felt pretty good to hear! The last cool thing of the week was a lesson we had with our dear Albanian amis. At the end of the lesson, we asked them to read the BOM this week. He replied by saying he has to make finding a job his priority right now. The Spirit took over, next thing I knew my mouth was moving and words were coming out. "I" promised that if he put God first, if he showed his faith by reading the scriptures and praying, that he would find a job. His eyes filled with tears after that, and he just said "thank you." It was very cool to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to help one of His children. One last update, our awesome little French amis is progressing well! He came to 2 sessions of Conference! Our 2 African amis had some conflicts this week and were also a little flakey, so we didnt get to see them, so we are going to have to push their baptismal date back. Please keep praying for them! I love you all and thank you so much for all you do! Love always,Soeur Shields
|
map
Archives
November 2015
|