So one of our investigators, Angelina, still calls me Sister Ingham. As in "eeng-ham". She sometimes gets it, but it's still funny aha. I have a nickname :) Sort of.
So this week was AWESOME!!! So many fun things, new experiences, miracles, and blessings this week.
I'm going to tell you about the cool things first, so I have enough time to elaborate on my TOTALLY AWESOME week. Sorry if it is kind of long, I hope you like reading.
On Monday night, we had Greek food, and it was so good! They were Pitas with chicken (with a different kind of seasoning, I'm not sure what kind) and some Greek dressing, Feta cheese, anyway. It was pretty good.
Wednesday was Zone Meeting, and I got to meet all of the new faces in our zone!
Elder Rassmussen- (Looks like he's 13, but apparently has been out 16 months)
Elder Baker- Douglas/Bisbee District Leader (Espanol) Who Is a former drum major and pit person!!!! I guessed he was a former drum major by the way he conducted the music, and he's like yeah! How did you know?! So we had that in common and it was cool, because he said his favorite was marimba and he primarily played that in pit. :)
Sister Diderickson- Played basketball in college..... so she's really good
Sister Quinonez- new sister in Douglas
And then Elder Wyman (ZL) and Sister Jones (STL)
We had a cool training on how to better achieve Standards of Excellence in our key indicators, and follow up from Zone Conference. We talked about how we can use the Christmas video more, so we set a zone goal to share/show the video 150 times in a week. We are halfway through the week, and as of Sunday morning, we were at 70 views! Go team!
I was called to give a spur-of-the-moment testimony at zone meeting, so that was good, I guess!
So on Thursday we had our first Christmas party, in Sierra Vista 2nd ward. The two wards shared decorations, and servers. So, people from Hereford ward served the food at the SV2nd ward, and vice versa, so they could all sit with their families.
The decorations were LEGIT. Seriously, like almost the amount of time and effort that went into Lacey's wedding. even the ceiling lights. Down to every detail, it was perfect.
Really good food too.
Friday we had our 2nd Christmas party, for Hereford ward.
Super good food, We had smoked brisket (as in somebody smoked 50 pounds of brisket in a smoker for something like 17 hours). And pulled chicken, cornbread.... sooo good. These people down here are dedicated to these things...
We met a couple nonmembers at the party! It's funny, because as a missionary, you hear "nonmember" and suddenly you forget how to socialize.
We visited Anna, and she was home! We have to continue working with that one. But we won't give up just yet.
Saturday We did a blitz in our area, and all of the Elders came! Elders Whittle, Garcia, Jeffery, Ludlow, and even the zone leaders! (Judy and Wyman) We were so grateful. So we went out around1:45, and tracted a couple streets in Sierra Vista. And we actually had some successes! But guess what. As soon as we approached the first door we knocked on, it started SNOWING. We tracted in the snow. New missionary experiences! It was freezing cold outside, (well, 37 degrees). Sadly, that didn't give us much more luck than if it wasn't snowing. But of all of the times, it only snowed when we tracted. After that, it stopped.
We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was SO awesome! Probably one of the best ones I have been to. Did you know that to have a stake conference, a member of the 12 has to authorize it? Elder Greer got a letter from President Nelson, calling him to go down and have a Stake Conference in Sierra Vista, AZ on December 12th, 2015. Isn't that crazy?
We had Elder Greer from the 70 come and speak to us in all of the sessions. I learned so much! In parts of it, it was more of a discussion, where there were comments from the congregation.
The main points/my favorite points covered were:
1. The importance of councils (Ward, family, and personal councils)
2. MUSIC! Sing the hymns with confidence and spirit! This is your time to sing praises to God, whether you have musical capabilities or not. Show Him that you are serious in your praises. Music is so important, that in a 70 minute time frame, we can have up to 6 times for music in Sacrament.
We tried it out. And it was powerful. I even felt a little out of breath and lightheaded, but it presents a whole new spirit.
^ Cool story: Apparently before conference, when the choir was practicing, Elder Perry would run up and down the stairs, and when he got to the top, he would stop the choir, just to say how wonderful they were. Elder Scott would sometimes get up, and walk over to the choir, and face them when they sang, because the TV on the stage didn't do it justice.
"When you sing, you need to have a little bit of baptist in you! Make the windows shake!"- Sister Greer
3. When we understand the "WHY" we do things, we start to care about the "HOW". He talked about why the chapel is so sacred, and why sacrament meeting is so sacred.
4. The world doesn't have to get any more wicked. It already will. So stop praying that it will, so the Second Coming will happen. What we need right now is a righteous people. And what will separate us from the world is our understanding of the Sabbath.
Did you know that every once in a while, members of the twelve and other leadership meet together to discuss concerns of the people in the church? They have a meeting where they ask a question, and discuss one with another their thoughts. We got to watch a couple of those, because they were recorded, and it was really cool to see them counsel together the concerns of members, each response being thought out and genuinely concerned.
The topics they discussed in this one were:
Sabbath Day Observance, Reverence, and the Sacrament. There were some really cool insights given there, and specifics on how we can improve.
Quote from President Russell M. Nelson: "Christ came to pay a debt He didn't owe, because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. If we can't see ourselves in that debtor's prison, we don't understand the Atonement."
They talked about in Handel's Messiah how the money gained from Handel's performance was all given to free the debtors in prison. Cool analogy!
On Sunday we had another awesome session!
"If you are lukewarm, God will spit you out". Don't be wishy-washy, don't play both sides, choose THIS DAY whom ye will serve. Appeal to the Lord to increase your understanding. Don't be like Laman and Lemuel who murmured because they did not understand.
"As you love others, it shows in your countenance! Our countenance shows where we are at with the Lord. You cannot hide it. It will shine through."
Did you know that the Brethren can see which scriptures are most marked in the Gospel Library? Kinda cool! The #1 most marked scripture in ALL of the standard works is Helaman 5:12 (figures) but it's so true! That scripture is so solid! (You know, like the foundation we should build on? :))
"If we build upon the Rock of our Redeemer, we cannot fall, because He WILL NOT fall."
"If you think it's up to your Grandma Sally to do all the family history work, you're missing the point. Family History work can give you the strength to get through each day. Your burdens will be made lighter, and you will receive peace. If we don't turn the hearts of the children and fathers, the entire creation was a waste."
The First Presidency's challenge for us right now is to " Make Family History work the FOCUS of Families" at this time. They knew that this is what would strengthen families right now.
Elder Greer's invitations to us were:
1.Become converted to the Lord. Don't just become united to the church. You need both. Put Christ as the center of your life.
2.Sustain and Follow the Prophets and Apostles. (even in Sabbath day observance!)
3.Consider the gifts that Heavenly Father has given you, especially as you exchange gifts one with another.
Consider on these: 1. The light of Christ and Gift of the Holy Ghost 2. Knowing the Plan of Salvation "There are many exit ramps off the plan. Stay on it." 3. Having a calling and most importantly, 4. The Gift of the Savior Himself. All that is unfair in this life can be made right through the Atonement of Christ. If you receive not this gift, we will not have exceedingly great joy, or a need to rejoice.
Something I thought was cool: "Why do we not sustain full-time missionaries publicly in church? Do you know why?" I never thought about that! He says, "I don't know." But he has one reason that could be the case. He says: "The reason I think missionaries are not sustained before they are set apart is because the Savior Himself sustains them. He supports all of His missionaries." That just makes me feel so good inside! The Savior Himself sustains us.
Anyway, that was most of my week, at least the good stuff! Now I don't have much time left haha. But this week was great :)
Have an awesome week!
Love,
Sister InmanAlso, Here are some pictures you can put in the blog.
We were trying to do pictures with the props and there was this random kid that kept photobombing us, and wouldn't leave. Cute kid, but we have no idea who he is hahahahaha. Look at his face. x)
I got that side saddle though :)
And the skirt from a previous Sister who didn't want it! jackpot!
It's SNOWING!!!! And we were cold. But we were happy about it.
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