Everyone Knows Someone in Colorado: Week 36: 4/21/14

April 21, 2014

Longmont, CO

A funny thing about my companion. One of the things I love about Sister C is her phraselogy, just the way she says things tends to make me laugh. The way my face looks tends to make her laugh so we get on well. So here are a few of my favorite quotes from recently:

"Sister DeFord, I really like you, but I wouldn't want to be your trainer...I kind of feel bad for Sister Z" Apparently I like to be in charge or something ;)

"We could spend the afternoon doing area 4"

(me) "Well....unless nobody's home"

"But if nobody's home we can just start over!"

"Sister C, I like you"

(Hermana J) "I really want to go to a dinner where I don't speak the language just to see what it would be like"

"Awkward. Really awkward" Sister C doesn't speak any Spanish ;)

"Are there anymore goals we should set?"

(me) "Of course!"

"Well good gracious do you want to talk about them now or do you want to go to bed?"

Weekly planning is not the bane of my existence, but I do get pretty tired during it, and it always seems to have to be finished just before bedtime, so I am really tired.

Funny is not limited to Sister C however, we continue with a little girl from the ward:

"My friend got picked on by a boy who is 7...He said he is going to marry me when we get older. But I'm not going to--he drank coffee before!"

And more marriage advice from Tom:

"There are a lot of frogs out there. If you are really quiet, you can hear them ribbet"

Now, do you know what is not funny? When you get behind on updating the area book (Good advice from Stake Conference this weekend: if you want to improve at something, make it a habit. We are working on it!) and are looking for some details on a lesson you had, and think 'oh, I will look in my journal, there might be something there!' and the only thing you wrote for the day is "Today, oddly, most things went as planned. Weird." ......Thank you self, that was a lot of help.

What did not go as planned this week included getting an HQ referral with a nonexistent address and fake phone number. Also not planned was the referral we got from a member for someone who is currently living with his family and has had a lot of things happen in his life to bring him there. We were able to have two lessons with him this week, and he is someone who is excited and ready to change his life. That is a good thing, because this is a gospel of change. Another great point made at stake conference is that is our whole purpose in life was to get back to our Heavenly Father, we never would have left. Instead, our purpose is to change to become like Him. That is a lot of work, but the benefits are incomparable.

The Atonement, which we have had the opportunity to focus on more directly this week, is meant to change us. The reason it is not simply enough to say we accept God, is because in Atoning for our sins Jesus Christ did not relieve us of our agency. We have to choose, and become the kind of people who look to him as our Savior. This is not a church for those who are comfortable or content or looking for something which the world would say is 'easy'. I would think though, that a life underlaid by the peace of righteous living along a covenant making (and keeping) path is much easier than one with no steady footing and unsure ends.

I just want to throw in a reminder as well, that it has been encouraged that members of the Church should know the names of the people who the missionaries in their ward are teaching. When this was announced there were several members of my ward here who approached us and asked about who we were teaching, I assume this happened in other wards as well. However, who we are teaching now is not all the same as who we were teaching last month or even last week. Like our lives, this work is not static. Ask your missionaries again, continue to be involved in the lives and if nothing else, the cheering section of those within your ward who are contemplating these large changes in their lives. They need all of the love and support which they can be offered.

As for other adventures of the week:

And we visited the Longmont museum last week. And I dressed up as a buffaloe :)

The Easter Bunny has been leaving us presents all week, including these sweet bunny masks :)

Oh and the adventures of being a missionary and not knowing how to spell someone's name! So this investigator's name is said like Calvin, without an 'l' so is it spelled Cavin? Or is it spelled Kavin to be like his brother's name which is Kevin? Was this clever enough to look like a 'C' or a 'K' depending on what he expected to see?

The Easter Bunny who goes to my house (see brothers, the Easter Bunny has it covered) sent us some fun things this week too. Which turned into a throwing purple grass around party :) Which turned into Sister Carbno put a large pile of it on my pillow, that I put in her pillowcase while she was in the bathroom ;) She came out and says "Wow, I thought you were going to put the purple stuff all over my bed or something, instead you cleaned it all up!" I stayed very quiet until...haha bedtime!