First, a quote from Zone Conference:
"Strength doesn't come from what you can do, it comes
from overcoming the things you thought you couldn't."
I just really liked that quote. It's from a hallmark card
for boot camp so I can't take any credit whatsoever, but there you go :)
It was a pretty good week! Start of a new transfer, so who
knows where I'll be in June, but for May I am staunchly placed in Vidalia :)
It's gonna be a pretty good transfer.
Highlights from the week:
One of the less-active members we've been working with is
officially a returning member! She's come to church every week for the last
month except general conference and she watched both sunday sessions at home.
It's so cool to see her progress! Her goal is to bear her testimony in may and
it's totally AWESOME! Also, the Elders' investigator is making leaps and bounds
right now. It's really, really cool to see how much she's grown in 6 weeks. She
is just trying to recognize the Spirit right now to make sure her desire to be
baptized is also the Lord's desire. We love her SO much and she is going to
make an amazing member :)
Zone conference was really good, but probably a bit boring
unless you were a missionary. That's why it was all missionary :) We actually
had a new area open up in our zone, so we had some extra missionaries in our
zone conference this time! It was really good, though. It was President's very
last Zone Conference with us, since the new mission president comes in in July,
which is kind of crazy.
Performances went pretty well this week, and there's some exciting
things that are still a little bit under wraps so once they're official I will
say more :) stay tuned!
The easter egg hunt for primary was pretty awesome. The
missionaries got to hide the eggs and I got to watch and take pictures of all
the toddlers (seriously there were like 10-15 of them) look for eggs. Some of
them filled their baskets to the brim, and some of them only got a little bit
but were perfectly happy with what they got. We hid over 500 eggs I think. It
was super fun :)
Sunday was really incredible. We watched Because of Him in
gospel principles, because we were teaching, and then very fittingly talked
about repentance. We went over to the member's house we ate Thanksgiving at,
and now I know the rest of their family a lot better so it was a lot more fun.
We had easter pizza for dinner at our ward mission leader's house, and then
went and talked about how weird pregnancies were with one of our very pregnant
less-active members who is one of the most awesome people I know.
That was pretty much it! Hope y'all had an amazing week. I
will leave with what I shared with everyone we work with:
"He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities...and with His stripes we are healed." Happy
Easter. Because of Him we can all be healed no matter our circumstances.
Love y'all! Have a good week and let me know if there's
anything I can do from way out here in Louisiana/Mississippi!
Sister Steele
Also, here's something I found in companion study, for all
y'all prospective/return missionaries (I'd say current but I don't think this
letter reaches any current missionaries...but if for some reason someone gets
this, it's you, too!)
It goes for anyone who has sacrificed to live the path the
Savior has set. I'm just a missionary and that's why I have this outlook on it.
But liken it to yourself!
We may not have been Peter and just walked away from our
nets immediately to serve the Lord. But when the mission age was lowered, how
many young adults started their papers as soon as possible, put their
availability date as close as they could? We left our nets--our schooling,
relationships, jobs, friends, and family--to serve the Lord. We might not have
forsaken everything for the rest of our lives, but we did leave our nets. The
Lord doesn't require us to give up everything we have for the rest of our
lives. We are asked to dedicate our hearts to Him, and because we did, our
lives are changed forever. We chose to walk with the Savior through both the
good times of the Mount of Transfiguration to the bad times of Gethsemane.
We've all been there on our missions, in some small way. We've all sacrificed
to be out here, and because of that, we get to be among the few who answered
the call to "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." That's
the legacy we get to follow! No, we're not Peter, James and John. But we are
disciples of Christ!
Sister Steele
Also....I might have
realized how much I say y'all now...and it's kind of scary :) Oh, well. No
judging.
