Thursday, June 30, 2011

progressive post:My Mission Life!

  As I pondered about what area to write about in my progressive post, I started to think about all my area's and what I've learned in each one of them.  Now that I'm coming to the close of my mission I've been reflecting back on my mission a lot.  I've thought about the things that I've learned, felt, accomplished, failed at, and grew from.
    In Vacaville, My first area, I experienced a lot of trials! But they all helped set the tone for the rest of my mission.  I also learned a lot about prayer.  Something that I did not like to do at the beginning of my mission was to do weekly planning, in fact I hated it! At one point I hit my peak and took a little brake to go into our room and kneel in prayer and offer up the feelings of my heart to my Heavenly Father.  Asking him to help me to like planning, and from then on it has been a blessing to plan, I feel much better about my week when I can plan for the things that are going to be coming up in the coming week.  Those trials helped me to rely on my Heavenly Father.  Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."


Bessy and I, when we were doing service at a pig farm!
    In Fortuna, I learned not to judge people.  I went to Fortuna with a preconceived image of what it was going to be like there... I've never lived in a small town or ever visited one, so I was thinking like "hillbilly" type people, like the worst things about small towns they show on t.v.  But when I got there I found amazing, wonderful children of our Heavenly Father.  A very close family.  I felt truly blessed to be rebuked by A loving Heavenly Father, that he taught me that doesn't matter if you are from a small town or a city, God loves his children. Moroni 7:18
"18 And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged."

   Santa Rosa: I learned a lot about relying full heartedly on my Heavenly Father.  Sister Beefelt and I "whitewashed" into an area in Santa Rosa, Whitewashing means they took the 2 missionaries in that area out and put 2 different ones in, instead of just taking 1 out and putting another one in.  So we were both new to the area, the area was "struggling" a bit and just needed an extra push for missionary work to get going.  We worked very hard! to get the work going, to help the members get excited about doing missionary work.  It came over time. 




had some of my favorite dinner apointments here!
 Fort Bragg:  If there was any place I did not want to go in the California Santa Rosa Mission it was Fort Bragg... It was way more tiny than Fortuna, I heard crazy stories about people feeding you really nasty food there and people were strange... So I reluctantly went to Fort Bragg, I LOVED IT there!! The people were amazing, although sometimes we did have really terrible food, but that doesn't matter, that shouldn't change my feelings about it.  A phrase that came to my mind as I thought about my time there was "come what may, and love it!" And thats exactly what I did! Not only was it a beautiful little town, but the people were amazing as well. 

Petaluma: to be continued... I still got 3 weeks left to find my purpose here.

In closing, I love being a missionary! And working hard! I've learned so much on my mission it is hard to fit it all into one blog post, so I will probably continue to blog about my mission for the rest of my life! I will now be passing the Progressive Post to Hermana Martinez.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Armour of God!

   A few weeks ago Sister Tu'ifua and I had dinner at one of our member's homes, they have like the coolest house ever!! so many things to play on or with, from Alpaca's to a trampoline 50 feet in the air, and a water tower to run up and down on!
  They had this really awesome armour like from way back in the day when they did jousting and sword fights, but it was made by one of the members.  So we had the opportunity to do a little photo shoot with the armour! it was so awesome,
here are some of the pictures from it and a Scripture to help you understand why we thought this was so awesome!

Sister Tu'ifua


Sister Kenemore

1.Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God


 
We had so much fun putting on this armour and taking pictures with it.  I was able to reflect on how important it is to keep all the armour on, to make sure we are protected from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet.   My favorite piece of armour is the shield of faith, because that is your defence, that is what we use to protect us from the blows of our opponent, Satan.  May we all be able to hold strong to our shield of faith.  I know that as we do so,that we can withstand the temptations and attacks from the Devil.