These are memories of the fireworks last year--taking goonish pictures, also mom napping in a cute way.
A really kewl Scandinavian Chateau style house.
Entertainment at our Zone Conference lunch by Sister Coley, who is very talented with the ukulele.
And lastly, a shrine thing on the side of the road.
Family Dearest!
I'm so glad to be writing you! This morning has been good. We're almost done with our laundry and then we're going to Jersey City to have fun with some of the other sisters.
We have been continuing to go about trying to find people to teach. I feel my skills are getting rusty. Actually though, we are teaching people, just not anyone who wants to learn more. One lady we ran into was watering the flowers of someone we went to visit who was apparently on vacation. We talked with the lady, Edie, for about an hour. It started as talking about the family and how wonderful they were, then into her old job as a police woman and the people she'd help. She said so many of them need help, not to just be thrown in prison, but need help learning to be better and to see the good in themselves and grow to be the person they wish they could be. And then that naturally led into talking about Jesus Christ and repentance and so forth.
I was studying this week about repentance and how marvelous it is. Really, it's an invitation to become like Christ. I used to think when prophets in the scriptures would cry repentance to the people it seemed overzealous and kinda harsh. But repentance is how you shed those things that hold you back from seeing Heavenly Father again. It doesn't do any good to just say you've repented, but it needs to be a change of heart and of your actions. You may fail multiple times on your way, but as long as you continually strive to change and work on it, to become who He knows you can become, then it's okay. It's so amazing and such a wonderful gift!
Anyway, back to Edie. She got disenchanted with her church growing up--a lot of it over how they dealt with repentance and how they interpreted scripture. So she chose to just stick o the Bible and quit going to Church. At the end of our hour, I felt prompted to give her a Book of Mormon and bear my testimony of it. I do love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true scripture and the word of God. She has a sincere heart and I know she could find out the truth of the Book for herself. We will be stopping by again soon to see how she is.
We also had Zone Conference this week. It was amazing! We had a presentation from the medical missionaries over the Northeast Area Missions. I think they cover 22 missions. Anyway, they told us how we could deal with stress, and the emotional toll of mission life. They passed around a sign up sheet if anyone wanted to talk with them one on one. I signed up and later in the day talked with Elder Christensen about Popsy. He said to help with trying to grieve out here, since I haven't really, I should set aside a little time each week to remember Pops, cry if I need to, pray about it, and so forth. And that would recharge me and help with the work I need to do out here. We also talked about what is important to have a testimony about as a member of the Church.
The rest of the Conference went well and we said goodbye to some of the many missionaries leaving this month. Apparently July and August we're losing a lot.
And lastly, I want to say how much I love the Book of Mormon. This morning I was reading and something struck me as strange. I finished the chapter, still feeling unsettled. I thought, well, maybe I'll just go the the Bible now or Preach My Gospel. And then I felt like I should read into the next chapter. I found as I read, my concern was dissolving, and then it was answered. Heavenly Father knew I had a question, and He answered it through that Book. I know it is true and I love it.
Oh yes, the Fourth of July. Uneventful. Sister Marley and I didn't know until the day of that we could stay out late to go to fireworks. Apparently the rest of the missionaries knew because they all went to Jersey City, across the harbor from New York City, and watched the fireworks there. We couldn't make it in time to get good parking, so we decided to clean our car, and our vacuum broke. So we played a game, and went to bed early. All in all, a pretty relaxing evening.
I love you guys. Here's a squeeze from this ol' gal!
Sister Miss
