Hattiesburg, MS - Week #19

The bishops wife in McKennah's ward called home to us to give us the status update of her allergies....she put our voices on speaker for McKennah to hear!

 

MOM! 

Hearing your voice on the phone was torture! I wanted to so badly tell you everything that was going on! It was a tender mercy for me to hear your voice again. I can only imagine a few more months from now talking to you guys on skype. That will be a way cool experience to see! I cannot wait to not only hear your voices but to see your faces! I look forward to it! I am doing very well! Training is going great, I am just a little stressed. Training a brand new missionary is pretty hard, especially when I am so new! I guess it is a good thing because then I can relate to her better. She is super quiet..I am trying to break her out of her shell! I wanna help her be herself and ENJOY missionary work! It really is so fun! We get to choose what kind of experiences we will have. I am trying to teach her to be exactly obedient and to show her what kind of blessings come when we are exactly obedient. I am trying to teach her how to teach by the spirit. I have 3 main goals. 1) STAY HUMBLE - I am trying to stay humble especially when good things happen. I want to be humble so I can be teachable. My next goal is 2) WORK HARD - President Ezra Taft Benson says that " I have often said the secrets of missionary work is WORK! If a missionary works he will get the spirit; if he gets the spirit, he will teach BY the spirit; and if he teaches by the spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, Work, Work- There is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work". This is why I have a strong testimony of missionary work. This is why I am here! Everyday my goal is when lay down at night and pray to my heavenly father, I want to be able to tell him that I gave it my ALL that day, and if I didn't give it my all that day, then I would make a commitment to my Heavenly Father to do it the following day. Every night I reflect on my day and think of ways that I could have been better, or how could I have served this person better, ect. I love not thinking about myself. I don't wanna leave my mission, it has changed me in so many ways, I am forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve him. I have definitely gained a better relationship with him since I have been here and I LOVE IT! My next goal is 3) BE KIND - When the savior came to the earth he taught us to "love one another as thyself". This is the greatest commandment. He also taught us that "Charity is the pure love of Christ". And that Charity is the greatest attribute that man can obtain. The reason why it is the greatest, is because it is not selfish. To have Charity, we need to serve one another, bear each other burdens". Our baptism covenant is our first covenant that we make with Him, and what is the first thing that he asks of us? In Mosiah 18, it talks about our covenant, and we promised him that we would "mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and then stand as a witness of God". We promised our Heavenly Father that we would have Charity. Isn't this so cool? So, those are my 3 goals. 1) be humble 2) work hard 3) be kind. I love you mom! I hope everything at home is great! 

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone had an awesome labor day and spent it family and friends. We had a crazy week this past week. We just had transfers, Sister Kendall is now serving in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I am staying here in Hattiesburg training a new missionary! Her name is Sister Abril and she is from Arizona! She is way funny and such a good missionary, I am looking forward to serving with her and learning from her this transfer. I have so much to be grateful for, I have seen a lot of tender mercies this week, and I am so grateful that the Lord is aware of little Hattiesburg. He really does know what we need and this really is his work. This week I have just been focused on Sister Abril and trying to help her feel comfortable. We have some appointments super soon, and so there is not a lot of time on the computer this week, but I hope you all have a fantastic week! I can't wait to hear from you all next week!