It has been such an amazing week! I just love being a missionary and am so blessed to be here! I still sometime have "ah-ha" moments where I am overcome by the Spirit as I realized the amazing blessing I have to be a missionary. I am so grateful to be here testifying of our Savior, Jesus Christ!!
To start off the week, we went to the Gila Valley Temple on Tuesday and it was incredible. It never ceases to impress me how strong the spirit is there - even just on the temple grounds. Our session was PACKED with amazing missionaries and saints and I learned so much. Something neat is that during the session, a prayer was said for this area of Arizona that it might receive rain. On Saturday, our 100 degree temps dropped to 75 and it rained ALL day! There is power in prayer, I promise! I love the temple and am already counting down to when we get to go again:)
We had another college-student dinner this week. Pancakes, pasta, and turkey meat were all part of the menu...yummm! Good thing I"m not picky :)
This week Sister Hardy and I did exchanges with some of the other sisters here. I got to go spend the day with a temple square missionary from Fiji, Sister Taito! We rode bikes all day and laughed a ton! She is so funny and I'm already planning a trip to Fiji to visit her! She said she has some fijian rugby-playing friends that she'd love to set me up with...:)
Efe is doing amazing. I literally have never met anyone so strong and faithful. He came to a baptism on Friday and LOVED it. He has already started planning his baptism and is currently looking for a "salmon-colored suit" to wear...oh boy. haha The next day he decided to tell his family that he was getting baptized (they knew he was taking the lessons but didn't know how serious he was.) and it has been a war ever since. They are all against it and have threatened to disown him is he goes through with it but it isn't phasing Efe. He is as strong as ever and says he knows what he has felt and what he knows and is willing to do anything to follow Jesus Christ. Amazing. It has brought out a lot of questions from his siblings about the Mormons and we have had some really cool teaching opportunities. His brothers in Nigeria are going to go find missionaries to answer their questions!
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony Meeting for us because next week is our Stake Conference and it was GREAT! We had 4 investigators at church and ALL of them have baptismal dates!! Ricky (the chinese guy) came and we were all sitting there listening to the testimonies and next thing we knew, our investigator was walking up to the pulpit to give his testimony! He talked about how he knows that we should follow the example of Jesus Christ and that we will be blessed by doing so. It was awesome!
Sister Hardy and I are getting along SO well. We are a lot alike but different enough that it keeps things exciting:) My abs have been hurting because we laugh so much!
OH! I got to see my Los Reales Branch this weekend because they were in the stake center during a baptism. It was crazy how at home I felt with them. I found out that one of the less actives we worked with a TON is going to go to the temple for the first time on May 10th! I miss Mexican people!!
Camron sent me this when he first got off his mission and I found it recently. Read, apply, and change.
David O. McKay's inspired rules for a happy and abundant life:
1. Develop yourself by self-discipline.
2. Joy comes through creation--sorrow through destruction. Every living thing can grow: use the world wisely to realize soul growth.
3. Do things which are hard to do.
4. Entertain up-building thoughts. What you think about when you do not have to think shows what you really are.
5. Do your best this hour, and you will do better the next.
6. Be true to those who trust you.
7. Pray for wisdom, courage, and a kind heart.
8. Give heed to God's messages through inspiration. If self-indulgence, jealousy, or worry have deadened your response, pray to the Lord to wipe out these impediments.
9. True friends enrich life. If you would have friends, be one.
10. Faith is the foundation of all things--including happiness.
Pretty good food for thought (AND action), no? Well, family, the gospel is true. God loves us. Christ overcame physical and spiritual death and because of that - WE CAN TOO! We are so blessed! I love each of you and am so excited to talk with you in less than two weeks!!
Hermana Stewart
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