Hey Yall!
This week has been one of the best weeks of my mission!! So much good has been happening! Its crazy how one week can be so bad and the next its great! Haha this might sounds a little weird but I love how life is like that. Just think about it we have to have opposition, so if you realize that then when your having a hard time, you are grateful for the good in your life, then when the good comes you feel on top of the world! But we wouldn't feel that way if we didnt have hard, sad times in our life. And then we can realize how great our God is to us!
Haha and i digress... Anyways, this week it has still been the bi polar weather. There is a saying for the weather in Missippi, "If you dont like the weather, just give it an hour.." haha how true that is, the weather here changes so quickly! Our branch still has its struggles and sicknesses so if yall could keep the people of the New Albany branch in your prayers that would be great! We are starting to have blessings though, even if they are little blessings at a time, im very grateful to Heavenly Father because he still knows we are here:) This week we have stayed busy, like always, but we got to go see members at there house that we haven't been able to get out to. We have had the branch president and elders quorum president come and take us out to different places. We sat down and coordinated with the branch president for a while trying to come up with a game plan that will help the members become more committed to the gospel, and i think we got one. We are gonna focus more on family home evening, and also Im putting together a call-tree, its a dumbed down version of home teaching and visiting teaching so that people will have responsibility, it will help the branch be more unified, and we can get more information this way instead of us as missionaries and the branch president trying to call everyone on the roster. So im excited for new things to come:)
So many good things have happened though. On Thursday when we went out with the elders quorum president we tried seeing a few people and not one door answered. I was feeling really bad because i dont like members to come out and then have nothing get done. But we tried another door. It was a less active. He answered and we got in and got to talk with him for a little bit. His name is Jorge! He was so nice and to make his life story short, his mom found the missionaries when he was 9 and he got baptized with her, he went out with the missionaries all the time and he loves the church. He is going through a hard time in his life right now and said his goal is to seal his family together!! We are gonna go back and help him in this hard time of his life! Im so excited to get to know him more and to help him! Thats what a mission is for, is to help others. We have also been helping other less actives, recent converts and investigators.
On Saturday we got to go to the Memphis Tennessee Temple!! Yes that is defiantly out of our area haha but we got permission from Prez Hanks to go with our branch to help give them support. The Tupelo stake, our stake, goes to that temple thats only an hour and a half away, instead of the Birmingham temple thats 3 hours away haha. It was so much fun though! I got to do baptisms and confirmations for 4 of the youth in our branch that are all recent converts of less than a year! There were 2 boys and 2 girls, one of which was going to the temple for the first time. It was so neat to feel the special spirit of helping those beyond the veil receive these ordinances!
When we came back from the temple, we got a call from the sister missionaries in Pontotoc. They had been teaching a man named Dany and he all ready to be baptized but he worked on Sundays as a waiter and they didnt have enough people to work to let him off on Sundays. Then he told the sisters that he just needed more time. So that was all a couple months ago to the last 3 weeks. Then they got a call this week from him saying he wanted to get baptized on Sunday!! He used to live in Pontotoc but moved to New Albany. So we called him and met with him Saturday night. I had never taught him before so I was given permission to be able to interview him. Then he came to church on Sunday then next day and loved it! We were able to baptize him Sunday night:) and we will confirm him next Sunday. He is such an amazing man! He is from Honduras and just wants to help everyone! He will be such a blessing to our branch!
So needless to say this week has turned out to be just what i needed:) We had district meeting this week and I wanted to share with yall what i shared with them. Its about sacrifice and consecration. When I was studying about this and pondering I came up with a quote with the help of the spirit, "Sacrifice brings forth temporal happiness, consecration brings forth eternal joy!" Now both are good things, but the later is what we need to achieve. When we consecrate we not only give up things, but we give them up in our heart and mind as well. When we are consecrated, we give the Lord the only thing He doesn't already have, that is our heart and will. When we give that to the Lord, He will in return give Himself to us! (I got some of that from "The 4th Missionary" By Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge) Think about it, Christ literally gave his life for each and every one of us individually, so why should we not give our lives to him? Its something to think about. And some easy steps to living a consecrated life are as follows: Faith, Repentance, Making and Keeping Covenants, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and probably most important Enduring to the End. Now ask yourself, what does Enduring to the End mean to me? There in lies the answer to a consecrated life!
I hope that even in the tough times of life you can still see the Saviors footprints in the sand. He is the one who carries us! I hope yall have a great week! I love you tremendously! Remember to always be happy! Dont let Satan win! Kick him in the dust!
Love Elder Hall:)
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