Aug 4
What a good week! It was amazing to see the change that came as soon as SIster Booms and I made the decision to go forward with our focus on the members, service and bonding :) opportunities presented themselves left and right. PLUS! As a result, I'm sure, we have dinners scheduled for every night but Wednesday this week! Which is good cause we don't really eat dinner on Wednesdays cause it's insanely busy. AND! We had our branch bbq/open house this Saturday evening and it went really well! We practiced giving tours to our mission leader, president grat and sister potempa on Wednesday so we'd be prepped for Saturday haha and it was great! We only gave two tours but! We had at least 8 non members and 5 less actives! Plus! one of those non members was a guy we met at the grocery store the day before and invited! Hahaha that was pretty cool! :) We gave him a Book of Mormon and gave away a bunch of Finding Faith in CHrist videos. Our whole goal with this tour was to show people that we believe and worship Christ. SO! We stopped at every picture in our building, explained what Christ was doing in it and them we typed up the scripture refrences on the bottom of our general tour sheet :) WHICH! We had the schedule of our church meetings and activites on. We had all of our family history class, mutual, RS activities, etc on there and I really think it went well! PLUS! The Coley's made funnel cakes SO! Obviously it was fantastic haha. OOH! Good news! SIster Booms and I did NOT eat Chinese food ONCE this week!!....we accidently forgot about a lunch at the Chinese restaurant with Hilda (my favorite recent convert..shhhh :) ) Seriously, that was bad but I think I just blocked that out subconsciously because my body couldn't handle it hahah. SHe's super sweet though and we've rescheduled for this week :) ......good.....hhahha sweet people. But ya! Our plan is going super well. Some members are super prideful and stubborn and wont let us serve them when we show up to the house but I just tell them " Well, we'll be back next week at this time so have a list ready" hahahahha sometimes I'm so stubborn, but hey! They are too and I think they like it....hopefully haha we'll see. :) So, with our new focus we have had TONS of chances to serve literally just placed in our path. It feels SO good to be on the path that GOd wants for me right now. There's such a difference. Before I was feeling really anxious and lost and frustrated cause I didn't feel very happy and I felt like I was wasting Heavenly Father's time and Satan was really working on me but good ol prayer, Sister Booms and an inspired Branch mission leader helped get me back on that path that God needs me on. I know that this experience isn't the only one that I'll have in life where I get a little of the path and start feeling lost, but just as He has shown me out here on my mission, there's ALWAYS a way back to him and true happiness is ALWAYS around the corner, the corner that leads to CHrist. I am so SO grateful for this chance I have to strengthen the members, they need it too. I think I forgot that they're the minority out here and they too always have to be prepared to be questioned and their testimonies always have to be strong cuase there's no "Mormon zones" out here :) They are amazing and strong. They are teaching me way more than I am teaching them. What a great work this is. I KNOW that GOd hears and answers our prayers. Sometimes I like to question that fact and I'm always proven wrong. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I'm so blessed to be in Berryville and to have a wonderful family and friends back home. I lov eyou all and challenge you all to look for the blessings God places in your life everyday. By acknowledging his hand in all things, our faith increases and strengthens, and we are more prepared to testify with boldness that we DO in deed KNOW our Savior lives and loves us. I love you all!!!
Love you forever,
Sister Moreno
P.S. Sister Booms wrote this home to her family after she went on an exchange with one of our sister training leaders tehehe I'm so mean :)
Sister Moreno pushes me out of my comfort zone, and then throws the comfort zone down the street so I can't get back to it. And as scary as that is, I'm SO GLAD she does it because it makes me grow. She expects me to try my best and to be a good missionary and she knows I'm capable of that. And I love having that because it reminds me what I know I can be as well. I'm so glad I got a trainer who teaches me right and who makes me grow and who wants me to be the best missionary I can be. She has such a strong testimony and she understands that this is the Lord's work and that it's his time we are spending right now and we can't be wimpy missionaries. It doesn't matter what you want when you're a missionary. It only matters what God wants, and He needs missionaries he can trust to be obedient and to do whatever he needs done. And Sister Moreno is awesome at living that way. And at training me to live that way. And for reminding me every day that that's how we should be living. Being with a companion who didn't let me even TRY to do anything made me realize how blessed I am to be trained by a truly great missionary!
And President Shumway sent this to me today about our new plan for Berryville:I absolutely LOVE
I absolutely LOVE your mission plan! Seriously...That is a wonderful plan and I know the Lord will bless you to have happiness and success.
I'm so grateful for your righteous desires and I know the Lord is "well pleased" with what you are doing. don't you give a second thought to your indicators. They aren't important!
Get to know those members and they will grow and blossom right along with you.
I LOVE YOU!!!
much love
PS
I'm so grateful for your righteous desires and I know the Lord is "well pleased" with what you are doing. don't you give a second thought to your indicators. They aren't important!
Get to know those members and they will grow and blossom right along with you.
I LOVE YOU!!!
much love
PS
P.P.S. We are going cupcaking tonight with one of the active memebrs in our branch hahahah I'm SOOOOOO excited!!!! It was my idea! We're gonna make cupcakes and surprise deliver them to other members hehe I love forcing people into friendship :)
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