We'll just start off with Monday: We went to L's [fav member in Franklin] and washed our car for our upcoming zone conference that Friday. It rained later in the week though so we were outside at 7 in the morning giving our car an extra wipe down so it would look clean!
Speaking of Zone Conference... it was stellar! Always love to hear from President and Sister weed! And we had some excellent training on lots of different ways to find new investigators! Much revelation was received, and a lot of hugs given :)
"Sister missionaries, sing as they walked and walked and walked and walked..." We do love to walk and sing at the same time. So I thought this song was appropriate :) If you have no idea what song this is, it's a primary children's song about how the pioneer children were walking a lot yes, but they were so happy too to be going to Zion. So yes it can be hard to walk all the time, but we love it because we get to help people learn about Zion!
Miracles!
Miracle #1 J [investigator caring for her sick mother] is doing so well! We brought her a big Book of Mormon, she was so pumped! She's all like "I can finally read!!" Yus. Then we also introduced her to the app and showed her how to listen to the scriptures. She was so ecstatic about that because she says her eyes do get tired so that will help her lots! She is so excited to get to church soon and she is bringing a lot of her family with her! Wahooo
[Lisa says: Here is info about these great phone and tablet tools: LDS Gospel Library Mobile Apps
Also, if you haven't tried the audio features, that Sister Poulsen is talking about, on the Gospel Library scriptures yourself, here is the tip: With a page of any scriptures open in the Gospel Library app, click on the circle with the headphone icon hovering at the bottom of the screen. That will open a control window to let you play, rewind, and fast forward the narration of that page. You can also use the little ellipse - three dot icon - to open another menu that will allow for making it read the next chapter continuously, changing the voice from male to female, and for speeding up the rate - this is especially nice for me as the narration tends to lull my mind a bit unless it is 1.5x speed. Fun stuff!]Miracle #2. We were trying to call a member to sing them Happy Birthday. Sister Olsen pulls up the number and it starts ringing. Someone answers "Hello?" We start singing! About 2 lines into the song... Sister Olsen stops and starts laughing uncontrollably. I, confused, looked at the phone, to see we have called the completely wrong person! So we stop singing and I pick it up and apologize and explain the situation. In the meantime, Sister Olsen is rolling on the floor dying. I am trying to remain calm as I talk to this lady. On her number ID it says she is a former investigator, so I introduce who we are. She said "Oh hey!" I grab her address and set up an appointment for the coming week! So even though it was a mistake, I think it was intended to happen! Maybe this lady is now ready to receive the message, all because of a few missed buttons! Thanks Sister Olsen, you're awesome!
Yes, I hit my 11 month mark... only one more to go and it will be a year! Holy what? It's pretty crazy.
Then yes I also hit my 20 year being born from my mother’s womb mark. That was even crazier! I keep looking in the mirror saying "Is that really a 20 year old?"
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! They were truly loved and treasured! I feel more mature I guess you could say, but I also feel the same young spirit inside.
Yesterday we had stake conference! WOW it was awesome! We had a member of the 70 come, Elder Titera. He was such a sweet man, just so humble and full of the spirit. Last minute a few speakers had to cancel on them, so Elder Titera, with the spirit, asked a few people to come up and just simply bear their testimonies. It was truly inspired.
What they had to say was wonderful! They had a recent convert speak about how the Book of Mormon had blessed his life. And another sister who had been blessed by the temple in her life. Then Pres. and Sister Weed spoke on water, and how it is a cleansing agent. Of course, they related it to baptism and how it cleanses our sins. It was wonderful. Then elder Titera talked about faith, doubting your doubts, and living within our privileges. It was a wonderful meeting!
Thought for the week: It comes from the stake president here in the VA Chesapeake Stake. He said "As we draw closer to who He is, we become who we truly are." This statement was just super cool to me. That as we learn more about our Savior, and come unto Him, He changes us into our true selves, that being who God untended for us to be. So if you are questioning who you are or where you are going, The Savior is the answer. Go to Him and you will come to yourself.
We have a super busy week coming up! Lunch bunch with the RS ladies on Tuesday as well as visiting R [10-year-old preparing for baptism] in the far away land of Boykins. Then, on Wednesday, we have the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast and a conference call that evening along with meetings into the night. There is lots of service planned for Thursday. Then Friday, we are having our district meeting at 8 in the morning so we can have interviews that day at 10. We also have to visit someone in NC and it's pretty much on the opposite end of the world so we are going to be using a lot of miles that day! And Saturday is blank... phew. Thank goodness. So yeah!
Hope y'all have a very blessed week, catch ya next week!
Sista Poulsen XOXOXO
Bonus note about the panda postcard: This pic has a sweet story. It was late at night before my birthday. We got out to get the mail, and on the ground was this letter! I felt the spirit say "God says Happy Birthday." HAHA it was so cool! It was God's birthday card to me :)
