How the Weeks Fly By!
I am amazed at how quickly the weeks are flying by! It seems like we just came, and it's almost the beginning of September. New missionaries come in each month at the beginning of the new month, which means a new group is coming coming in this week! Even though we've only been here 3 months, we're not the "new kids on the block" anymore! Especially because now, we're working on the floor and helping people! I have a story about that but first the picture of the week!
YEA!!!!! Last Friday, at our "Hail and Farewell", we got our British Pins! I've said this already, but I'm saying again, that means we've finished our Apprentice manual, and the England/Wales part of our Journeyman manual. Terry said just today, that he didn't know when we came on this mission we would be attending college again! I know I've said this before too, but we're the only zone in the mission who can wear anything like this connected to our badges. (The sister missionaries who are assigned to Temple Square actually have a flag of their home country, about the same size of their badge, attached to the bottom. Rarely do you see a USA flag on sisters on temple square.) I think it's a church wide policy, but missionaries are not allowed to put anything on their badges. I can understand that, because I'm sure lots of girls would start adding "embellishments" to the badge and take away from what it is meant to represent. Terry has his flag pin too - but the men just wear them on their suit lapels. The women attach them to their badges.
Ok - my story for being on the floor. I was so excited but nervous to start helping people. I was absolutely 100% positive that someone would ask me a question I had no clue how to answer! HAPPY - JOY - ELATION!!!! My first question from a patron was successful! I saw a lady sitting at a computer looking around so I asked her if she needed help. She looked at the computer for a minute and then looked at me and asked, "Do you know where Sister Rose is?" I absolutely knew the answer and I told the lady "YES"! Grinning from ear to ear, because I knew the answer to my first question, I found Sister Rose and brought her to the lady at the computer! How's that for a success story! Actually, I have been able to work with people and answer some of their questions. Terry, on the other hand, is a PRO! He jumps in with both feet and is so good at helping people find the things they need. I think he still has that motto in his head: "We (I) can do anything!" and he does!
One thing we've found out is that when you have a small - very small apartment, and no yard to take care of, it's easy to get all your work done. Saturday, we cleaned the apartment, ran a few errands, came home, and looked at each other! That was the first time in years we just looked at each other and said, "Now what?"! We had a nice relaxing day and watched a movie!
The following is a little long, but it's such a good thought I want to include it in the Blog:
The Holy Ghost - Our Gospel Positioning System (G.P.S.)
My sister and I took a trip back east a few years ago to see some Church and American history sites. We flew t Kansas City and rented a car. The car had a GPS or global positioning system. We had never used one previous to this trip. The voice that spoke to us was female, so we decided she needed a name. The model name of this particular GPS unit was "Never Lost", so we shortened it and named her Nev'L - spelled N-e-v-apostrophe-L.
At first we weren't sure we could trust her, but soon we accepted the fact that she probably knew where we wanted to go. We learned to pay attention to her as she told us which lane we needed to be in, how far the next exit was, which way to turn.
Then we came to a place where we thought we could get to our destination quicker if we took an earlier exit, so we took this exit and found out that we were wrong. Soon we were lost and didn't know how to get back on track. At first it seemed that Nev'L was also confused, but soon, without any instructions from us, she re-calibrated our whereabouts and started directing us again. We never questioned her wisdom again.
Later when we were relaxing in our motel, we discussed our new-found friend Nev'L and the things we could learn from her. We came to the conclusion that we have our own GPS - a Gospel Positioning System. We call Him the Holy Ghost.
1. We learned from Nev'L that we have to turn on her GPS and keep it on.
* The same with the Holy Ghost - we must always be tuned in.
2. With Nev'L we had to tell her where we were at the beginning of our trip and where we wanted to be at the end of the trip.
* However, our Heavenly Father already knows where we are and where we should be going, so we don't tell Him, we ask Him - and we can received guidance and answers through the Holy Ghost. In this decaying world there is too much at stake to just get by. We need to be led by the Spirit. We need to know where we can turn for answers, for protection, for peace of mind, for knowledge. We need to know where to find the truth in this world of falsehoods.
3. We had to learn how Nev'L was speaking to us, We had to learn her voice and what she meant. For example - "on the right, in two miles" meant we had two miles to move over to get in the right lane for the correct exit. She always warned us ahead of time, so we could make the turns or exits correctly.
*How does the Holy Ghost speak to us? Usually it is a thought or a quiet voice that we feel rather than hear. If a thought comes that is for our benefit, edification or safety, it is probably from the Holy Ghost. Whatever it is, we have to learn how to listen. If we don't, we are going to miss a lot of messages from our Heavenly Father and possibly take a lot of wrong turns in our journey.
4. We learned from Nev'L that we had to follow her instructions if we wanted to reach our destination and not get lost in the process. We couldn't second-guess her directions. Sometimes we would see signs along the way that we thought would take us to where we wanted to go, but Nev'L wasn't saying anything. We had to just keep going and wait for her to speak to us.
* Sometimes we have to wait for the Lord to speak to us. He knows best which path we should take. We need to be patient and not get anxious if we don't get answers right away.
5. A very important thing we learned from Nev'L is that if we did not follow her instructions but decided to follow other signs which took us on the wrong road and got us lost, she did not shut off and abandon us. She would recalibrate our whereabouts and start directing us again, leading us back to the right path.
* It's the same with our Heavenly Father - He will not abandon us. The Holy Ghost is there to guide us if we are willing to listen and to follow directions.
Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to succeed in this life. They know we will make mistakes, but They are ever ready and willing to be our guide and protector if we will let Them. They will bless us with optimism and wisdom when there are challenges around us. We can make difficult decisions and face problems, be protected, feast on the truth when we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Ghost - our own personal GPS - Gospel Positioning System.
Well - that's the past week in a nutshell. Kind of a quiet week. We'll see how next week on the floor goes. We love what we're doing, and feel blessed to be here. I was bemoaning the fact that after the reunion everyone who didn't live close had to go home. One of the people in our zone said that they heard the following statement, and it made me feel better. It was said when someone was missing their family and grandchildren. "Would you rather be home blessing your children or would you rather be here serving a mission and having the Lord bless your children?" I must admit that I had to think about it for a minute because my first reaction was to be selfish and choose the first. Then I realized that the Lord is blessing our family and I'm grateful for that!
Hugs and loves to everyone who reads this!
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