Transfer 3 Week 5

WEEK FIVE?! Man. So weird to think that this transfer is FLYING BY at a very rapid and almost scary pace. But that is one of the blessings of serving a mission I ‘spose.
Exciting things that happened: KENNY WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!! What a blessing it was to be a part of his journey to becoming closer to God. HOLY MOLY!!! And he was so great, too. Like, for realz. And I am SO THANKFUL that Julie and Ryan were able to make it to represent Sister Mack!! AND they took pictures.
Hmm…last week we had Zone Conference. It’ll probably be the last one for a while—they are now only quarterly. Strange, huh? But I am proud to say that my streak of singing at EVERY Zone Conference was not broken—Sister Johnson and I sang Come Thou Fount and played a guitar/ukelele duet. It was super awesome and the spirit was there, even though it wasn’t necessarily the BEST time we’d ever done it. It was still really nice. It was strange though, because this is the first transfer where I had FRIENDS leave to go home. Elders Ray, Anderson, and Koch all went home yesterday. Elder Ray’s homecoming talk is this Sunday, so y’all should go. I told him my parentals would go and give him hugs and so he should be prepared to tell them only amazing things about me.
Hmm…another huge thing this week—Sister Johnson and I gave talks this past Sunday in the Southern Hills ward. Now in the process of preparing, I had no idea what I was going to say. We weren’t given a topic, but the typical thing that most missionaries would speak on would be, oh, I don’t know…missionary work. So I was planning on doing something about the email Dad sent me—Faith is Power, Obedience is the Sacrifice, Love is the Motive, and then there was another one but I can’t remember what it was. Anywho, I was planning on doing that until Wednesday night. I was giving the spiritual thought at a recent convert’s house and was reading out of Alma 43 about how the Nephites had so much to fight for in regards to their liberties and such—like family. And in verse…47? It says something about defending your family even unto bloodshed. And I was talking about how awesome my family was and how I would take the bullet for any of them (except Jordan because I haven’t heard from him in forever…jk), and then I knew, in that moment, I was supposed to talk about families on Sunday.
Soo…Saturday night comes around and I finally get down to crunch time—the time when my best work comes outta me. And you want to know what my outline said on my paper?
n “Family is ordained of God and therefore the MOST important social unit in time and eternity
n God has established families to bring 1) happiness to His children, 2) allow them to learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and 3) prepare them for eternal life
n Alma 37—small and simple things
n Alma 56—Stripling warriors
n Alma 43—familes thing
n Alma 46—title of liberty
n D&C 18—how great our joy—apply to family
And that’s it. Funny thing is I talked for 30 minutes (you see, there was no one else on the program besides my comp and I and she spoke first and spoke for 20 minutes. Oh, and the “speaking” time started at 10:20ish, so we had quite a while to speak) and I didn’t read the last 2 scriptures because I was out of time. But it was the most amazing thing ever to speak by the spirit. For 30 minutes I spoke by what the spirit prompted me to say. It was super amazing. I was a little panicky when I was sitting up in the pews because I TRIED to write more down on my paper—but I couldn’t for the life of me. But then I remembered that fear is the opposite of faith, and so I prayed REAL hard that the Lord would speak through me. And He did. And I found out that one of the members of the bishopbric—his father had just died a couple days prior. He came up to me and thanked me for my talk because it was exactly what he needed to hear. It was humbling to know that the Lord used me as an instument in His hand to bring comfort to those who stood in need of comfort.
I’m pretty sure this is one of the shortest emails I’ve done in a while. But time is pressed today in the world of a Sister Missionary—there are naps to take, letters to write, and more naps to take—all before 6:00!!!
I love you all very, VERY much :o)
Hearts and candy,
Sister Mack