Feb. 22, 2013
Oh hey there Ferb!
"It is not enough to want
to make the effort... it's in the doing, not just the thinking, that we
accomplish our goals." -President Thomas S. Monson
I am so so sorry that this email has taken so long to get out to you!
Tuesday
we were jam-packed with teaching &service time, then Wednesday was
filled with training & interviews with President & Sister
Weaver, then yesterday we were homebound with the FLU! Sick-nasty-nast.
Anywho - we are currently still banned from full time missionary work
through at least tomorrow in order to completely obey Mosiah 4:27. So
consequently we are at the Clifford's house (Sis. Clifford is the RSP,
Bro Clifford is the 1st Counselor...Amanda & Katie ((YW)) are two of
our most major fellowshippers! Anywho, we are at their house getting
our "Best 2 Years" on & emailing the fam! ...and gettin all those
germy-germs out of my bedding. They are SUCH a blessing.
Anyway, so we are NOT pressed for time & I actually
realized that if we go in to email in the library, & print off your
letters, then go over to the non-internet computers, type the letter on
word, then save it on our jump-drive, then go BACK on the internet
computers to send it...we have all the time in the world to write you!
BOOM! Beat the system! Woo!
Okay, SO life this week...has been GREAT! Well, kinda. I'm trying to think of all that has happened since I wrote last.
Let's start with this...
The quote above from President Monson comes from this Mormon Message:
which I told Elder Bowen to have you all watch.
It's on the #2 dvd I have & we ended up accidenitly sharing it
at a dinner appointment, but I had never seen it & it was GREAT!
I
ended up sharing my testimony on how important missionary work is,
& how much of a fight it is to accomplish what you want but that it
IS possible.
And hey! Remember the story President Almond shared when I was set
apart?! ((Goal of 50 consecutive free-throws)) Well, check out how many
Tyler has swooshed! :)
It was just such a great reminder to me
that this IS possible & I can accomplish all The Lord has set forth
for me to. It hasn't come in the easiest of lessons to be learned, but
does it really ever?
This week we have been able to see so many miracles!
We
are teaching a boy named Bob, he is 18. We knocked on his door & he
told us how a couple years ago he read the Book of Mormon (which he
rented from the school library) & was beginning to meet with the
elders - then over the next couple weeks transfers happened, and 2 of
his siblings ended up in a fatal car accident & told us how his
entire family pulled away from any source of church at that point. He
said he still wasn't interested in meeting with us, so we left our card
& testified how the Gospel changes lives & CAN bring so much
peace & hope into our lives IF we choose it. Well, a couple days
later we got a text from BOB!! He wanted to get involved in
"humanitarian work" so from there we were able to start talking to him
& invited ourselves over for a lesson! From there he said he WANTED
to read the Book of Mormon again because he didn't do it for the right
reasons last time. Then this week we had another lesson (with Amanda
Clifford who drove us down there) & we taught about reaching out to
others & the BOM. He said he wanted to get involved with the youth
group, welllll this was Wednesday which meant MUTUTAL NIGHT! And guess
what the YM were doing?! Service project! Woo! So we stopped by his
mom's work down the street, had her sign a permission slip (she is SUPER
nice...we are trying to teach the whole family!) then went to the
church to meet the young men. We arrived at 5:05, they were meeting at
5:30...sooo what does that mean? OH! Perfect timing to get a Church Tour
in! Woo! We took him around the building, showed him the font & put
him on date to be baptized on the 16th! Then he went with the boys
& came back to play crab soccer with the rest of the kids. He loved
it! He texted us yesterday at like 4:30 & asked where we were for
his lesson. HA! Such an awesome kid, he just thrives on the gospel. You
can see the light & the change in him!
His next door neighbor, Mike we knocked on. When we
came to his house he walked up to the door in a shirt that said "What
part of 'GO WAY' do you not understand?" Thought that entered my mind,
"Oh THIS is going to be exciting" And it WAS! But for completley
different reasons. We taught him lesson 1 right then & there, put
him on date for the 8, he said he would love to read the BOM, then came
on a Church Tour with us & the Ward Mission Leader on Tuesday night.
Then yesterday Sis. Gurr & Sis. Clifford went & taught him the
WOW since I was a little pre-occupied. But I guess it went great! He
soaks it all in & is just READY for this in his life.
Both Mike & Bob are coming to Church on Sunday & both are planning to come to Elder Lonas' baptism tomorrow!
Such
a miracle, and in THIS area the fact that they are next door neighbors,
(right up the street from us) is a miracle in itself!
Did I tell you about the Williams family?
Well, I guess I will!
We
were tracting up near Zion's Camp & we went to one last house. It
was super dark, no flashlights with us, incredibly cold...but we decided
to go to ONE MORE. We had already placed a couple BOMs on the street,
so we wanted to try another.
We knocked on the door & got a, "Hey sisters! Come on in!"
which is usually code for uhh active members...FALSE. His name is Chad
Williams & has been less active since he was 13 years old & the
Priest Quorum beat him up one Sunday before Sacrament Meeting :( His
girlfriend's name is Rachel Smith, who is not a member, and neither is
their son, Skyler (8) & 1-month old Isaac - SO cute! They told us
that they are getting married in August this year & have been
looking to get more involved in Church. Well....we can DEFINITLEY help
with that one! They invited us to come back on Monday for dinner &
FHE - so, we did! It was awesome! His sister ended up showing up RIGHT
when we started the lesson (bawling her eyes out) & said that SHE
needs to come back to church as well. Turns out their father died this
summer & he was the only one who 'dragged their butts to church' but
that they missed it. THey told us every time the missionaries showed up
he automatically asked, 'when ya'll comin to dinner??' So he (Chad)
thought it would be the right thing to do to ask us the same thing as
his dad would. (not to mention the DAY we knocked his door was the day
he recieved a pacakge from his sister including the photo slideshow from
his dad's funeral AND his priesthood ordination certificate AND his
primary graduation certificate.) The Lord is just SO smart. He really
does watch over us, & IS with is ALWAY. (in EVERY WAY)
Okay, so now moving on to the health nish because I
know you & know you are worrying - but I figured it would best
coming from a real person & not a computer screen...plus the fact
that I couldn't email till now would have been a big problem. Anywho, I
the ulcers are still far away - it's just been a problem with eating
again & the last thing I want is for Heavenly Father to prompt me
that I have served what was needed & miss it. Don't want this to end
up being an Alma 29 situation here. But I also didn't want this to be a
1 Nephi 3:5 situation when the Lord needs me to prove it to be a 3:7
situation. Catch my drift here? I sure hope so, because I'm still pretty
out of it. Anyway, so the prompting came Satuday that we should do a
fast so I invited you, my companion, Elder Bowen, Elder Lonas, and
anyone from our district who would like to join in. Unfortunately, they
didn't want to but that's okay...I'll understand it one day. So we began
the fast after dinner Tuesday then Wednesday we had our training &
interviews with President & Sister Weaver...ps- I LOVE them! They
are just terrific! They're 2 questions that they frequently have to
report back to Salt Lake on are:
1. Still want to be here?
2. Still feeling well?
Answers?
'I want to be here more than anything.' -pause- 'but I haven't been feeling the greatest.'
Complete
sorrow filled his eyes & mine, so we concluded with talking more
frequently, praying harder than ever, setting little goals (Every 12
DAYS we have a big celebration! Woo!), and being okay with WHATEVER the
Lord's timing is. Then he asked if he could give me a blessing...uhh
DUH. Then we went on our merry little way.
OH! But he was SUPER impressed that even Lonas & Bowen wanted
to join in the fast & they aren't even my DL or ZL...& was
irritated with my leaders here...I got some bownie points scored &
some chastizing points scored I guess because the whole district out
here has been super nice since..HA!
Ps- just a random fact-becasue I am technically considered a 'trial
missionary' I HAVE to have a new companion every transfer so I most
likely will be transferred on the 5th :( I LOVE Belfair, but up for
wherever I am needed most.
So, then yesterday I woke up with flu-like sypmtoms at 6-7am, &
threw up evey 45 minutes like clock-work up through 10pm....which is
about double the time that other missionaries have experienced so they
were worried it may be something way more severe BUT in order to treat
something more severe I would have to have been sent home. So the Elders
came &gave me a blessing at around 4...then got worse &
worse...then by 9 Sister Weaver called & said she would give me an
hour to decide if it was time to go in have my parents meet me at the
hospital. So Sister Gurr & I prayed harder than ever, I handed over
my will - put it in HIS hands & automatically every single sypmtom
vanished.
Pretty safe to say I AM still needed here.
Whether through the weekend or through April 16th or through the year...I will find and fulfil my duty in this mission.
(Oh
yes, & President Weaver said he has absolutely NO control over
where I will serve if I can continue on. That he just gives either a
thumbs up or thumbs down to the Quorum of the 12, then it is completely
out of his hands & they decide from there where I am to go)
The point of all this, is that he IS there & even though you KNOW it's where you need to be, doesn't mean the fight it over.
Just
as President Monson says, & as Tyler Haws fought for - 'It is not
enough to WANT to make the effort...it's in the DOING not just thinking,
that we accomplish our goals.' & I'm not giving in without a fight.
Even when it's down to the wire & all you can do is get on your
knees, GET ON THEM. As Preach My Gospel says, 'Love the Lord & serve
him the very BEST YOU CAN.' The VERY BEST YOU CAN-I'm giving it my all -
no matter how long it is. Miracles happen. Thank you for fasting. Thank
you for inviting the miracle. Thank you for keeping me out here.
I love you, I pray for you.
Keep being silly for me!
Ps-
I LOVED dad's email that you are singing bow chicka wow wow :) I read
that part to the Cliffords & they were dying! Yeah...pretty sure I
have the coolest mom ever.
& I LOVED the story about Grammy & the Temple, she has been
on my mind a LOT this week too. I know she's closer than ever when I'm
out serving. It's always such a comfort.
Squeeze the littles, keep sending pictures - I LOVE them!!!
Tell them I will be back for sleepovers, turns & dates soon enough :)
Have fun with the missionaries tonight!
I
really miss Graham - we see the Gig Harbor & Bremerton Zone
missionaries every Pday (well, this week was just the Gig Harbor Zone
& we went to Zion's Camp & played,but typically we get together
with both) which is always a blessing to see Elder Lonas - tender mercy.
He's a rockstar.
Let me know if there is anything I can do!
OH! & i got my package the other day :) Thanks mom!!
Oh
AND I told Bowen to grab whatever scrapbook paper of mine he wanted
(under my bed in the big tubs) & a planner (in the bonus room either
on the bookcase or in one of the boxes or I can send out a blank one or
two) Just remind him if you catch this before they come over. I will
try to send out some pictures!!
LOVE YOUR STINKIN' GUTS!
Sister Givens
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