November 29, 2010

Count your Blessings

KUMUSTA!!

Okay, LOVED the Thanksgiving pics!! HAHAH hilarious!! Thanks for those! I'm glad everyone had a good time, it sounds like it was a day of fun and food :) My Thanksgiving day was full of walking and rejection--love those days. The weather is cooling down a little though, that's nice! The mornings and nights are BEAUTIFUL, perfect weather....but during the day if there aren't clouds it's still super hot! Okay so we had a ward home evening on Saturday and I taught them missionary tag--holy cow, i just can't get over how much fun that game is to these Filipinos! haha, we were all laughing SO HARD! They always ask me for games to play...and i can never think of any so if you could send me some fun ideas of games we can play in a large group of people, inside or outside that would be helpful! Also, object lessons since we are the ones who give the lesson and we want to make it fun, i need ideas for those!

Alright, so in the mission you have really high awesome days and also very low miserable days....this week we had both! There is definitely opposition in ALL things! So, Thursday was the hard day, i was definitely not on my game, and was getting really frustrated with myself trying to teach lessons that just weren't flowing, our contacting wasn't successful at all, it was just a rough day for both of us. I was glad when it was over. THEN, Saturday we had planned to contact a referral that we were trying to contact for the last 3 weeks and it just never worked out. Bishop had given us the referral and then kept saying next week, next week....i was thinking that this guy was just not interested, why do we keep trying?! well, it was set for sat night that we would go to his house with bishop at 6:00, but our ward home evening went over and we didn't end up getting to his house till 7 and there were lots of cars outside so i was thinking, "let me guess, next week?" Well, bishop went inside to check and then came out and was like, okay he's inside. So we walk inside and much to our surprise.....there was about 15 people all sitting down in the living room waiting for us.......ummmmm can you say INTIMIDATING?! It was a family of 7 plus some cousins, aunts and kids. Whoa, we sat down and were just laughing and didn't even know what to do or think! we introduced ourselves, broke the ice a little then bishop said the opening prayer and during it, i never prayed so hard in my life!! We have 15 people we need to meet the needs of in one lesson, awesome.....i prayed that we wouldn't mess anything up and i prayed that no matter what, the spirit would be there in whatever we said. Holy cow.....can i just say, success! It turned out SO GOOD! They all listened intently, answered questions, read from the scriptures, I was able to speak Tagalog and even when i used English i don't even think they noticed. We walked out of that lesson with 12 new investigators.....monumental i tell you. Our goal a week is to get 10 new investigators and we surpassed it in 30 min! The Lord has truly blessed us for our hard work this transfer. i can't thank Him enough!

So, in my studies this week i read Sis Beck's talk in April conf and one line really stuck out to me that i would like to share. She said "There is much distraction and not enough peace and joy" so many thins in our life call or our attention but are we taking the time to ponder on and enjoy God's creations? Are we giving heed to that one who is not calling for our attention, but merely whispering for it? I know deep down inside us all is a yearning and a want to have peace, love, happiness, acceptance. Maybe this yearning is buried deep under years of doubt, hurt, discouragement, and busy lives, or maybe it's at the forefront of our every thought. Whatever the case, we all have it, we have it because we were first created spiritually by our Heavenly Father. we are His spirit children and our spirits know what its like to live with him. They know there is more being offered to us than what is before our eyes. the lord commanded "Be still and know that I am God" We will know Him when we stop and listen to what's inside of us. We will have more peace and joy if we do this. I have not the slightest doubt about that. I cannot get enough about the Plan of Salvation. i am learning SO MUCH about our purpose here on earth and the potential we all truly have within us. This life is just a preparatory state for the next life, just as our premortal experience was preparatory for this life. We all passed the tests and trials in order to come here, and now we are just faced with different tests. And our loving Father has promised us that He will be with us throughout this earth life. There is another quote I found that i jsut love by Brigham Young:

"I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our Heavenly Father, or the great Elohim. You are well acquainted with him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in his house and dwelt with him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know. There is not a person here today but what is a son or a daughter of that Being."

I KNOW that when we give ourselves time to consider our lives, where we came from and where we are going, the Spirit of the Lord will speak to us and bring to our remembrance that which we already know about ourselves and our destinies. We will find that we know God. How great is His eternal plan for each of his children?! I love being a missionary, i love that is is an opportunity the lord gave me to learn and grow and prepare for my future, and for eternity.

Our Heavenly Father loves us all, and He is always there for us :)

God Bless you all, I hope you are happy and doing well!!

Love always,
Sis Carroll

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