Wednesday, March 29, 2017

I'm Such A Pile...

Monday, 13 February 2017

Dear family and friends,

This week was crazy! We had so many service opportunities, and then on top of it, we had a two-day visit to Peachtree City (two hours away from Snellville, center of the mission)! I am proud to say that my hands are blistered and my knees are bruised! ;)

Missionary slang! ;) Well, one of the words that we use to describe a missionary who is being lazy is a "Pile". Haha! We raked a yard that was loaded with leaves (in our beautiful 60+ degree weather haha), and decided it would be fun to be "piles". You'll see in the picture, haha. :D

This week we had a visit from Elder Maynes of the seventy! We had the amazing opportunity to attend two conferences that he spoke at! (Hence the two visits to Peachtree City.) All of the things he shared basically answered all the questions I have had lately, and they also helped me to see things from a different perspective. One of the biggest things I learned is to "filter". 

As missionaries, finding is one of the hardest things to do. Our mission president even said that finding is the work in missionary work. It can be extremely hard. And some missionaries spend most of their missions just finding! But the more we are out, working hard and seeking to find those who are prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel, the more we are helping the Lord to hasten His work. And the deeper our conversion becomes.

Filtering goes along with finding. Every day as we are out finding, we do our very best to find those who are prepared. When we find people who allow us into their home, we get excited and do our very best to keep them in our teaching pool for as long as we can, so that we don't have to go out and find nearly as much. (This is a general thing that happens to a lot of missionaries.) But the problem is, very frequently we end up wasting a lot of time doing this. Those who are prepared to accept the gospel will show it by keeping their commitments (such as attending church and reading the Book of Mormon). 

Filtering helps us to make sure we are keeping the honest seekers of truth in our teaching pool and "filtering out" those who aren't. (Hope that makes sense.)

We've found a lot more success as we've done this! Though it is hard to be finding constantly, it is so effective. And it doesn't mean that we just have to be out knocking doors all day. Sometimes it means just talking with everyone we see that day. :) The more we work, the more the Lord blesses us with mercies! :)

RAY OF SUNSHINE! 
-Cynthia was definitely a tender mercy for us, because we had been struggling to find investigators that were actually seeking the truth. She opened the door and immediately welcomed us in! And as we taught her the Restoration (on first contact!! :D), she had many questions and even told us that she had a copy of the Book of Mormon! She told us that she would read her book, and she was also excited to look up President Monson! It was an amazing lesson and we could feel that the Lord had prepared her for us. :)

Y'all, the gospel is true. Hard work brings miracles. 

My challenge for y'all is to do something for the Lord this week. Be hardworking and do your very best to achieve it. I promise that as you do so, you will feel closer to Him and you will see miracles in your life!

Keep smiling. Keep moving forward. Keep on keepin' on! Have a blessed week full of miracles! Y'all are amazing. :)





Beautiful Norris Lake :) We enjoyed a peaceful moment there, just sitting in silence and enjoying God's creations :)








#Immafaerieprincess






Spring is already here


Leyba's groundhog piles... ;)

Leyba Babe-a :D




Random fun stuffs :)


Bag of shame...

Pile selfie



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