NOVEMBER 23, 2021 — SIX MONTHS A MISSIONARY

Six months down, one year to go! I don't have a lot to say this week other than the Lord has strengthened and stretched me this week. Everyday as I use the Atonement, I become a new creature in Christ. We can use the Atonement in all aspects of our lives! Through Christ's Atonement, I can learn Spanish! I'm more kind! I'm more understanding of others and have a genuine desire to connect with them. He'll always take your efforts and magnify them.

This week, we went to watch Music and the Spoken Word in the Conference Center and as we listened to the beautiful music my thoughts were drawn to the Savior. To the life after this life. I was sitting there just crying (embarrassing yeah) imagining choirs of angels singing praises to Him and how amazing it will be to meet Him in person one day. That is what I'm most grateful for this Thanksgiving. Jesus gives me every reason to be grateful!!

 

Luke 2:10 

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

JOY TO THE WORLD!!! I’M GRATEFUL THIS THANKSGIVING FOR CHRISTMAS!!

Also I got a package from my best friend Kirsten today in the mail and AND MY LIFE IS MADE. She is an angel on earth and is leaving to serve in Chile in just over a week! I am so proud of her and just love her so dearly.

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

We went to the Draper Temple today :))  

It's so beautiful and we got to do sealings! We did proxy ceremonies it was so special because the "sealing" ceremony enables families to be sealed together for eternity. It is one of the greatest blessings of the gospel, for your family to be together even after this life. 

Not a lot of craziness this week except I saw the Gibbs family from home!! Natalie if you're reading this I love you!! It was so fun seeing your fam!! 

The only other actually I remember something crazy from this week is that a random dude came to the roof of the Conference Center and just started taking his clothes off. . . the Sisters called security p fast. We get a lot of crazy people here at Temple Square but I guess there were crazy people at the temple during Christ's time too haha.

A passage that stuck out to me though from this week is Mosiah 24:14-15:

"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

   And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

The Lord truly will yolk Himself to us. Our burdens will feel light upon our backs when we let Him lift them! **see Matthew 11:28**

So let Him lift you. It's a lifelong pursuit of yielding up everything to Christ. To be humble enough to say, "I can't do this alone" and give everything you are, or aren't, to Him.

I love y'all dearly!  Have the best week.

NOVEMBER 11, 2021 -- TRANSFERS

Hola mis queridos! 

I am so filled with love this week. With a joy I never thought was possible. With such gratitude and appreciation for our Savior. For the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It changes lives.

We have met so many people this week. It seems as though the Lord is putting people in my path that were meant specifically for me. SO MANY SPANISH PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ON TEMPLE SQUARE LATELY and my Spanish is exponentially better than it was when I started. I'm gonna eat those words though when I'm in Argentina and a total "gringa" :)

We taught our friend Ron this week and we talked almost exclusively about the Atonement. We read an excerpt from the talk, The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope together and I'm not a crier but when I read this for the first time I was just an absolute water fountain. It gives a really beautiful analogy about the Savior that really connected with Ron and reaffirmed our knowledge and testimony of Christ.

"Some years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley told something of a parable about a one room school house in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no teacher had been able to handle them.

Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, ‘What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response.

“A day or so later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. ‘The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’

“As Little Jim came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. ‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“The boy took off the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the boy’s licking.

“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked.

“After five strokes across Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!”’”⁸

President Hinckley then quoted Isaiah:

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. …

“… He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” 

This touched my heart on a different plane this week. Ron even told us, "I don't know where you came from! You are answering questions I've had for my entire life." God is working harder than ever to bring His children to a knowledge of His love for them and their divine heritage. The understanding that you are a beloved child of God and that Christ came to earth FOR YOU changes your perspective and in turn can change your life. I've seen that this week and the sheer joy I feel is incomprehensible. This truly is the Lord's work. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2001/10/the-atonement-our-greatest-hope?lang=eng

The link to that talk^^

I have a new companion and I love her very dearly already. Her name is Sister Garmon.  She is from Georgia and she is an absolute sweetie. If you feel so inclined, send her a kind email at gillian.garmon@missionary.org

Thank you for your love and prayers. I feel them every single day and know that they are coming right back your way from SLC, Utah. <3 

Pics include my old companion Sis Munns, my new companion Sister Garmon, and Christmas beginnings at Temple Square...!  

NOVEMBER 4, 2021 -- I met Elder Gong an hour ago!

Not clickbait! Sister Munns and I were walking back from Temple Square and saw Elder Gong wearing a trench coat and mask. . . we almost didn't recognize him! But we stopped and said Hi! and he was just so sweet. An apostle of the Lord right before my very eyes!!!

Other highlights include:

I met my niece Alice Mae Tracy! My brother Jon and his wife, Erin, live literally a block away from me and I ran into them about a week after Erin had little Miss Alice! I'm so grateful for the newest member of our family 

We had a devotional from Brad Wilcox! On Halloween, because Temple Square was closed, Brother Wilcox came and spoke to our mission. It was so amazing and I voice recorded it so if any of you wanna listen I'll attach the link!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uB4puLS4GJO_17lmEkk0VeH7-U6pDlC_/view?usp=drivesdk

Served at the Humanitarian Center. It's so cool because this building used to be a Remington Arm's Ammunition factory but was repurposed as this outreach facility! We give tours there but in free time we got to quilt :)

There was a rainbow! Enough said I guess lol.

I made Sister Munns dress up as Princess and the Pauper with me for Halloween hence the blue and pink dresses. My pink coat FINALLY got to see the light of day because it was finally cold enough! The weather has been too nice for coats!

Sister Munns and I gave a Relief Society lesson to about 180 people. Kinda intimidating but also an awesome experience! It was based on Doctrine and Covenants 127:2,4. We talked a lot about trials and rejoicing in Christ through them. A little portion of verse two says:

"But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it. "

I'm grateful for deep water. For tribulation and a knowledge of the Lord! Who always delivers us out of it in His timing.

I love y'all! Have a beautiful week! Also transfers are this week so I'll have a different p-day next week! And a new companion! Exciting, but also sad because I love Sis Munns