Summer is here. And they literally cancelled church yesterday because it was "too hot" Puh-lease. We all just need to take a trip to Texas or Arizona and get our blood adjusted. Hehe but I have a pretty rockin sister missionary shoe tan line. So no worries. Dreams do come true. Plus it was THE FOURTH OF JULY. Whoop whoop. I got to show sister Markl how we Americans celebrate by making her American flag pancakes on our split and topping it off with a half melted Reece's cup. (And yes I did that without Pinterest.) Gotta keep up those talents. So what if they were half raw... I think she enjoyed her first taste of our American festivities and I told her we will have to celebrate a Swiss holiday at some point.
I have to say minus the melting in the heat part of this week, I would give it a solid 10. You all know how I have been working on trying to love people more fully and rely on the spirit. Well actually I am working on a lot more than just that... That is always elder beans advice to me in our callins literally every week when I tell him my goals "okay sister Heywood. I want you to pick one thing to work on this week. Just one." But that doesn't really work out too well because there are just too many things to improve on. Too many people to help. Time is ticking and peoples lives need changing! Hehe but yeah.
It started off a little rocky just with one of those wo is me moments
when I was just feeling a little lonely and just had to have a little
heart to heart with Heavenly Father and right after I finish my prayer I open my scriptures randomly and read "now we see that God is mindful of every people whatsoever land they live in." Alma 26:37 and that gave me just the push I needed to know that he was there right by my side helping me along the way. I love prayer. Yesterday I was translating for a couple of the people we teach and that is always really good for me because it forces me to really focus on what everyone is saying and I swear there was a rule written somewhere that if you were going to give your testimony that day it had to be about an experience with prayer. It was such a testimony builder to me as each person stood up one by one and shared experiences small and large from lost earrings to lost children about the power of prayer. Do I take that for granted? Far too often.
We were a little early to one of our appointments this week and
decided to Kringle a couple doors before we go in and we get to the
last one and she moves the curtain and looks out the window and we just stand there grinning from ear to ear
because-we-have-the-happiest-message-to-share-with-you-if-you-will-just-open-the-door
and she looks at our name tags and then at our faces and then at our
name tags again and then opens the door. And right off the bat she
makes it clear that she doesn't want to talk to us even after we
testify and I just felt like we needed to push her a little bit and so
we pipe up "may I ask you, what do you think the purpose of life is?" And she takes a deep breath and just looks at me for a minute. One of those soul searching looks as if she was trying to tell if she could trust us or not. And then she begins to open up about her husband dying and how she has lost her purpose without him and everything. And we just listened. And then it was as if she all of a sudden realized what she was doing and she closed up. "I am at peace with where I am." Umm... Obviously not! You need this! Oh man. But we were able to squeeze some testimony in there and I really think she felt something. Just a couple more heart softening conversations and she will find what will bring her more purpose and joy than she could ever imagine.
My week was full of experiences like that. It still continues to amaze me how many people open up to two 20 year olds. Such a testimony to me that it is not us. That was having the spirit of the lord with us helping to bring this message of hope to so many people living in a hopeless world. Oh how grateful I am to have the solid ground of the gospel to stand on. The power of prayer. And knowledge that brings so much more purpose to everything I do. I am forever grateful.
3 cheers for being a member of this church.
xoxoxoxo
s. heywood
