We're Just Flyin' By

Hey everyone!

It's been a great week. My health has been doing a lot better from that one incidence last week. It's actually warm today--about 60 degrees? I mean it when I say one day it feels like Spring and the next the temperature drops to 0° and it dumps a foot of snow. I don't know what's with that...but anywho...

Even though this work can be tough, Sister Patterson and I are bewildered at all the good things happening. We are still working as hard as we can and are still adjusting to the work handed from the Elders, but we are grateful for how busy we are. As Sister Patterson described, we may look like two burnt holes in a blanket when we come home--exhausted beyond words, but feeling the Lord's satisfaction for what we've done in this area. We have our moments of laughter as well (the time to shake usually takes care of that) and I'll admit, I'm proud of what we've been accomplishing here in this ward. :)

To start off...holy bucket, Anne Marie is progressing like wildfire. We've been teaching her, giving her study assignments with reading guides, integrating her more in the ward ,and making sure she understands everything she learns. She continually yearns to learn more. She started reading from page one of the Book of Mormon, and we only assigned her one chapter with reading guide questions. She's now almost done with First Nephi, has been keeping all commitments, is coming to church, will was happy to accept the invite to teach yoga to the young women this Wednesday, and much more. She has also been defending the faith through the testimony she has gained. We are so happy for her progress! She wants to be baptized, but has some personal barriers she needs to get through, so keep her in your prayers if you can.

The family of the two kids we are teaching also came to church yesterday. They are so excited to be baptized and are now asking their mom questions left and right. Sister Patterson and I love teaching them, and we know these next few weeks of preparation will fly by.

One thing Josh will learn is the work can become stressful, but I still remember my friend Cori, who served in Peru's words of advice she wrote..."There are two types of pain as a missionary--the pain of effort, or the pain of regret. Make sure you do your best so when you look back on your mission, you won't have those regrets." That's stayed with me, and it takes practice, time, and patience step by step as we can only do our best. I'm working on trying to turn stress in to faith as the hard work to try to allow all areas of the process of conversion to work together for those we teach.

This last Tuesday, we began a new occurrence for the whole mission--we had our first Webex call--kind of like what we did for the snowstorm, but it was more like a Skype session, and it's going to be held once every month. During this Webex call, President Packard emphasized how we need to become stronger spiritually, which includes needing to do better at becoming a "Book of Mormon Mission." He assigned us to start a new paperback copy of the Book of Mormon, mark every reference to Jesus Christ--names given and times when He or prophets spoke of Him, as well as His attributes. Since then, Sister Patterson and I are seeking ways to use the Book of Mormon more in our teachings, whether it be through simple testimonies to people or at lessons.

 One example that Sister Patterson and I have referred to is the story of the Brother of Jared, as his faith led him to seeing the Lord touch the stones. We built on one of Elder David A. Bednar's talks we watched in the MTC. As He did with the stones in front of the Brother of Jard, the Lord touches lives individually with his own finger. First of all, though, the Brother of Jared put his faith into action and asked the Lord if He could provide light in a way that was never done before. He also, as said in Ether 3:4, prepared the vessels beforehand for the stones. We related this to how we can have faith in the Lord and others. What may seem to be "only rocks" can be influenced and shine, as we show our faith in the Lord for Him to help them. We strive to strengthen our faith and believe the Lord can do miracles and touch lives that may seem impossible to be influenced. And, like the Brother of Jared, we can prepare our vessels, ensure we are ready to accomplish His work, and allow others to shine from what we have prepared.  Well my attention span is dwindling since there's a lot to get done this p-day, so I better go.


 Have an awesome week! 
-Sister Roy