It is currently snowing outside. It's warmer today, about -5 with windchill, so we're excited about that. And Sunday will be the warmest day at a nice 31. Not even above freezing, but I'm considering just wearing a jacket. You have no idea how nice 31 feels after 3 1/2 months of 10 to -60 weather. Spring can come anytime now and I will be fine.
This week, again, we saw many different miracles. It's amazing how involved the Lord is on the details of our lives--we just have to pay attention! Karla is progressing well. We have her on date for baptism in March, but not quite sure what week yet. But she is so hungry and thirsty! She reminds me on Enos when he explains, "And my soul hungered". That's what she has. She reads in the Book of Mormon everyday for an hour just because she wants to and gets so involved in the story that she can't put it down. It's really quite amazing to watch her progress and learn more. She asks questions, honestly trying to understand what we are teaching. She follows through on commitments, and so it is so inspiring to watch her grow. She wasn't at church yesterday, but we're meeting with her tonight and can ask her why.
Yesterday, we got the glorious news: Next Sunday, 2 ward missionaries are going to be called and set apart! WOOHOO! We haven't had ward missionaries the whole time we've been here and they are greatly needed. One is going to be Jose, which he will EAT up because he loves coming out with us and always asks us when he can go out with the elders. So he will love that and then the other one is Drew Tonini, who got back from his mission on Tuesday. So he's very gung ho about it all. He's like "If you want me to go try potentials with you or go tracting or anything, just give me a call! I will do anything for the missionaries." I want to be a ward missionary when I go home. I do kinda feel bad for him, though. He served his mission in Riverside, California and had to come back to Minot in the middle of February. Haha. It's an adjustment for sure.
Sister Jensen and I have found a correlation relating to how many lessons we get in a week. We have found that when we focus on the people and just wanting to bring them closer to Jesus Christ and have a sincere desire to help them change, we get a lot of lessons. But when we focus on the numbers and getting a lot of lessons, we don't reach our goals because our minds and hearts aren't in the right place. So that's why this week we only got 13 lessons (which is the highest we've ever gotten before though). We were focused on the people this week at the beginning, and had 11 lessons by Thursday with 9 more appointments on Friday and Saturday, but then we looked at the numbers and only 2 of them went through. We have remembered this lesson and will apply it into later weeks. We are here to teach people, not lessons. So we are also here to focus on them, not on the numbers.
This week with Jose we weren't able to actually meet with him, but last night we got to have him over with us to a member's home for dinner and then we watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". And it is so POWERFUL! I hadn't seen it in a while, and it was cool to be there when Jose could watch it. The Spirit was so strong! At the end, I lost it, just like I always do and after the movie, everyone was all worried about me because I had cried at the end and I was like, "I'm fine! It's just a sad part of the movie!" Haha so it was funny. But yeah. Powerful movie. Also yesterday, Jose was able to help with the Sacrament. He didn't bless it, but he helped pass the water and bread to the deacons. It was cool to watch because he was beaming. The less-active we are working with in 2nd Ward, Jennifer, is also doing well. To explain, we got in contact with her through Jose. He referred Jake and his wife to us, and so we went and stopped by and because Jake works crazy hours in the oil field, we got permission to start working with Jennifer and helping her. She is a sweetheart and she is way fun to be around. She's a convert of about 4 years and she wants to come back to church, so we are just helping her to feel comfortable to come back.
Remember: You can tell if you are truly converted or not by your desire to share the gospel! If you are converted, you will talk to people and you will not fear because you won't be able to bear that they don't have the happiness and peace you do! It is possible! Becoming converted isn't impossible!
I know this is a shorter letter, and I am sorry, but these are the highlights and I hope it brings you a joy that the work is working. Don't get discouraged by the wickedness and evil in the world: we already know who is going to win! Good is going to conquer evil, so we don't need to worry! We just need to prepare! "And if ye are prepared ye shall not fear."
We taught an object lesson to an 8 year old boy who wanted the discussions before he was baptized. So we taught him Keep the Sabbath Day Holy this week. We got a nice big serving of vanilla ice cream in a bowl and explained that the ice cream represented Sunday. We asked them for what good things they can do on Sunday. For Church, we added chocolate syrup, for scripture study, caramel, for repenting, Reese's pieces, for prayer, gummy worms, etc. So it made a delicious sundae. Then we asked what bad things we could do on Sunday. We said "Clean", so we sprayed windex on it. They said, play video games, so we put a crushed up CD in it. We said do yard work, so we added grass in there. For laundry, we put in a dryer sheet, for shopping we put in pennies, and for recreational activities, we put in tuna fish. We then stirred it all up, covered it in whipped cream and asked who wanted to eat it. No one would, for some odd reason. We asked why, and they told us because of everything that was in it. We explained, "But you went to Church and repented and read your scriptures! You did good things!" They then made the connection that to keep Sunday holy, we must refrain from doing anything bad. We explained that even one thing can mess up your Sunday, just as just tuna fish in their ice cream would have ruined their sundae. It was a fun lesson and it got the point across. The best part was: we got to eat ice cream afterwards! p.s. This makes a fun FHE activity! Yumm!
I love you all!
sister leslie.
This week, again, we saw many different miracles. It's amazing how involved the Lord is on the details of our lives--we just have to pay attention! Karla is progressing well. We have her on date for baptism in March, but not quite sure what week yet. But she is so hungry and thirsty! She reminds me on Enos when he explains, "And my soul hungered". That's what she has. She reads in the Book of Mormon everyday for an hour just because she wants to and gets so involved in the story that she can't put it down. It's really quite amazing to watch her progress and learn more. She asks questions, honestly trying to understand what we are teaching. She follows through on commitments, and so it is so inspiring to watch her grow. She wasn't at church yesterday, but we're meeting with her tonight and can ask her why.
Yesterday, we got the glorious news: Next Sunday, 2 ward missionaries are going to be called and set apart! WOOHOO! We haven't had ward missionaries the whole time we've been here and they are greatly needed. One is going to be Jose, which he will EAT up because he loves coming out with us and always asks us when he can go out with the elders. So he will love that and then the other one is Drew Tonini, who got back from his mission on Tuesday. So he's very gung ho about it all. He's like "If you want me to go try potentials with you or go tracting or anything, just give me a call! I will do anything for the missionaries." I want to be a ward missionary when I go home. I do kinda feel bad for him, though. He served his mission in Riverside, California and had to come back to Minot in the middle of February. Haha. It's an adjustment for sure.
Sister Jensen and I have found a correlation relating to how many lessons we get in a week. We have found that when we focus on the people and just wanting to bring them closer to Jesus Christ and have a sincere desire to help them change, we get a lot of lessons. But when we focus on the numbers and getting a lot of lessons, we don't reach our goals because our minds and hearts aren't in the right place. So that's why this week we only got 13 lessons (which is the highest we've ever gotten before though). We were focused on the people this week at the beginning, and had 11 lessons by Thursday with 9 more appointments on Friday and Saturday, but then we looked at the numbers and only 2 of them went through. We have remembered this lesson and will apply it into later weeks. We are here to teach people, not lessons. So we are also here to focus on them, not on the numbers.
This week with Jose we weren't able to actually meet with him, but last night we got to have him over with us to a member's home for dinner and then we watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". And it is so POWERFUL! I hadn't seen it in a while, and it was cool to be there when Jose could watch it. The Spirit was so strong! At the end, I lost it, just like I always do and after the movie, everyone was all worried about me because I had cried at the end and I was like, "I'm fine! It's just a sad part of the movie!" Haha so it was funny. But yeah. Powerful movie. Also yesterday, Jose was able to help with the Sacrament. He didn't bless it, but he helped pass the water and bread to the deacons. It was cool to watch because he was beaming. The less-active we are working with in 2nd Ward, Jennifer, is also doing well. To explain, we got in contact with her through Jose. He referred Jake and his wife to us, and so we went and stopped by and because Jake works crazy hours in the oil field, we got permission to start working with Jennifer and helping her. She is a sweetheart and she is way fun to be around. She's a convert of about 4 years and she wants to come back to church, so we are just helping her to feel comfortable to come back.
Remember: You can tell if you are truly converted or not by your desire to share the gospel! If you are converted, you will talk to people and you will not fear because you won't be able to bear that they don't have the happiness and peace you do! It is possible! Becoming converted isn't impossible!
I know this is a shorter letter, and I am sorry, but these are the highlights and I hope it brings you a joy that the work is working. Don't get discouraged by the wickedness and evil in the world: we already know who is going to win! Good is going to conquer evil, so we don't need to worry! We just need to prepare! "And if ye are prepared ye shall not fear."
We taught an object lesson to an 8 year old boy who wanted the discussions before he was baptized. So we taught him Keep the Sabbath Day Holy this week. We got a nice big serving of vanilla ice cream in a bowl and explained that the ice cream represented Sunday. We asked them for what good things they can do on Sunday. For Church, we added chocolate syrup, for scripture study, caramel, for repenting, Reese's pieces, for prayer, gummy worms, etc. So it made a delicious sundae. Then we asked what bad things we could do on Sunday. We said "Clean", so we sprayed windex on it. They said, play video games, so we put a crushed up CD in it. We said do yard work, so we added grass in there. For laundry, we put in a dryer sheet, for shopping we put in pennies, and for recreational activities, we put in tuna fish. We then stirred it all up, covered it in whipped cream and asked who wanted to eat it. No one would, for some odd reason. We asked why, and they told us because of everything that was in it. We explained, "But you went to Church and repented and read your scriptures! You did good things!" They then made the connection that to keep Sunday holy, we must refrain from doing anything bad. We explained that even one thing can mess up your Sunday, just as just tuna fish in their ice cream would have ruined their sundae. It was a fun lesson and it got the point across. The best part was: we got to eat ice cream afterwards! p.s. This makes a fun FHE activity! Yumm!
I love you all!
sister leslie.
Me with "Bear" (the Noel's dog), before he went to his new home. I'll miss him a little bit,
but I won't miss him sniffing my behind.
What "Mo" told us the actual temperature was Saturday morning around 10:30. Yikes!
Me, Sister Jensen, Elder Plitt and Elder Probert (Minot 2nd Ward Elders)
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