Trust in God

As usual, it has been a very good, very busy and very fast week. I feel like we have been running around all week trying to get to appointments in with all our new investigators as well as all of our Choir practices for the performance last Saturday. So even though things have been feeling a little chaotic, that's alright! We had lots of fun and a great week, so I think that's the important part.

 This week started out with the b-day of sister Sosoter! Which ended up being really fun! We surprised her with a cake,

 took lots of pictures, 

 and some of the members brought her some spaghetti and fried  chicken, 

 so I think we ended up with a pretty good Filipino-style b-day, just add some karaoke and it would be complete.

In addition, I also started this week out a little stressed, because the Elders in our district asked us to give the workshop at our district meeting this week. To me, that sounded like a terrible idea because they are all so much more experienced than us and we always learn so much from them.  So I honestly didn't feel like we really had much to offer...

It kind of felt like that moment when you get cornered at church and are asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. In your head, you are thinking "NO WAY" but what ends up coming out is a very reluctant "okay", after which you always regret by the time you get home from church. 

That was basically my feeling about the whole workshop thing. But it actually didn't go nearly as bad as I had anticipated. 

Sister Black and I both studied the doctrine of Christ (our topic) during personal studies and were super surprised when both of us came up with nearly the same idea, it definitely made it a little clearer about what we should share.

In addition, the Elders in our district are really nice, so even though I was feeling super shy about the whole thing, it actually ended up going well. I think we all ended up getting something out of it, sister Black and I didn't crash and burn! We're still breathing so for me, I would call the workshop a success.

We taught the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, holly ghost, endure to end) but I used 3 Nephi 27:14-16 to teach that the doctrine of Christ is meant to LIFT us, so we should always be focused on lifting our investigators. We came up with a couple of acronyms:

Live

It

Find

Teach

And said that we live the gospel by fulfilling our purpose: "Inviting others to come unto Christ by HELPING them to receive the gospel..."

We had an acronym for HELP too:

Humility

Enthusiasm

Love

Pananampalataya (faith)

We focused on how each of these elements is related to the gospel and why we need to develop these attributes, it went really well!

Friday and Saturday we basically spent the entire day at choir practice since our performance was Saturday night, and I don't think I have ever sang so much in my life! (Except when I was trying to show off my mad skills to Sister Stackhouse)

I just had to keep reminding myself of what Sister Black had told me that first practice: "It will all be worth it in the end". And to be honest, I think it was. We had lots of investigators/members show up to the performance, which I think will do some good for our area. I'm really excited to go back and see what our investigators thought about the performance. I know for me, I was definitely feeling the spirit.

 Speaking of the spirit, this week I really felt it! Of course I have been blessed with many experiences since I started my mission where I have felt the spirit in a lesson: giving me words I didn't have and a greater capacity to do what the Lord has asked of me than I thought possible. But this week, the spirit felt different, it was something I had never experienced before: a small but more consistent feeling of warmth that seemed to follow us from lesson to lesson through our the week. It was amazing!

I felt so calm and peaceful and it was easier to know what to say and teach because I knew the spirit was there. For me, it was a very good experience which helped me to remember why I am here. I love serving and am so grateful to be here. Yes, some days are really hard but it is the days like the one I have had this week where despite all the chaos, I feel that calm, quiet and still peace that the spirit brings that I am the most grateful to be here.

 Making ice cream!  There are tons of little homemade ice cream carts all over the place here and so they showed us how they make the ice cream and let us help, it was super fun... even though we weren't very good at it, lol :)

  For anyone who might be struggling with a testimony or with a decision, just read the Book of Mormon and I know you will find and answer. It is true, it is the word of God and it is a Book of answers made specifically for us. No matter what our struggle, problem, addiction or question the Book of Mormon has the answer.

And when it comes down to it, just trust in God. I know he has a plan for us and as long as we are doing our best to choose the right, we will always end up exactly where we need to be.  Because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can comprehend. Not only does He love us enough that He gave his only begotten son: Jesus Christ, but he also loves us enough that he gave us our agency. He loves us enough to let us make choices, even when those choices might be wrong because He knows what we have the potential to become if we so choose. So just trust in Him, do your best and everything will work out in the end.

I love you all and hope you had a great Easter week and will have a great week to come.

Sincerely, Sister Matheny