Called to Serve: #blessingsfromabove

Now that I am looking back at what happened this past week, it feels like it all happened a month ago. The whole time thing on the mission is a real struggle haha. I have to write everything down, or else i forget! My planner has become my best friend :) Its a life saver for sure. Its color coded and such, so that just makes Sister Wood happy! :)

Tuesday was a great day!! We have district meetings on Tuesdays. We talked about developing Christ-like Attributes. Which was the spirit pretty much slapping Sister Wood in the face. It was exactly what I needed to hear. We did the self evaluation in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. I highly reccomend that to EVERYONE! It is so helpful in so many different ways. Obviously, some things apply solely to missionary work, but most of it can be applied to civilian life :) It is a life changer for sure. Everyone should do that every once in a while!

Later on during the day, I had the though to text President Smith to check up on some paperwork for our investigator Ermilisa. A few minutes later, he text us back telling us to call him right away. So we called :) He said that our timing was perfect because right before he got our text he was pulling up the paperwork on his computer. We answered a few of his questions and then the paperwork was sent off to the First Presidency to be approved. Then a couple hours later, we get a call from President Smith. He told us that that was the fastest Approval from the First Presidency that he has ever seen! So Ermilisa was cleared to be baptized!! YAY!!!

We were so excited, that we just had to call Ermilisa and set up a time to tell her in person. Later on in the evening, we told Ermilisa the good news! She now has a Baptismal date set for October 17!!! I am so excited for her!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ certainly has changed her life! She is a completely different person! She just radiates light! It's amazing to see!

What was most exciting though, was that Ermilisa went to an LDS service when she was out of town! She told us all about her experience. She shared that the Sprit had whispered to her that she needs to learn about tithing and fasting. When she said that, my jaw literally dropped! It was crazy because a few days prior, i had the strongest impression that Ermilisa needed to learn about tithing and fasting so she could begin to experience those tender mercies that come from keeping those commandments. It was awesome! That just showed me how prepared she really is! We taught her about tithing and fasting and she committed to live it! #blessingsfromabove! There is one thing that is a struggle though... her baptism is the same week as transfers, so hopefully I dont get transferred. That would be really unfortunate! Just pray that I can stay! :)

Wednesday we had an appointment with the Wilgus Family. Jen Wilgus is such an amazing lady! I love her to death! We had originally planned to teach her the Restoration, but felt like that wasn't what she needed when we got there. We talked about the importance of church. We invited her to church, but decided that it would be best if we gave her a church tour first before she really committed to coming because she is not a huge church go-er. We set up a church tour for wednesday (tomorrow) So we were pretty excited about that. She said something that i thought was hilarious. She said " all the other missionaries are going to be jealous that your the ones that will get me to go to church!" that just solidified my thoughts and feelings about her being ready for a change. I can tell that she recognizes that she needs God more abundantly in her life. I can't wait to see where the Gospel will take her!

Thursday was quite the day. We have weekly planning on Thursdays. Its a long process, but really good because we are able to identify the needs of our investigators and less-actives and plan how we can help them. We had lunch with a member at a Japanese Buffet called Chow-Tyme. It was super good. Sister Peterson LOVES sushi, so she was in heaven!

After lunch we needed to get an updated map of Pensacola, because the one we have is ancient. So my first thought was to go to Barnes & Noble to look. I suggested that to Sister Peterson, but she was just like "why would they have maps at Barnes&Noble?..." So that idea was shot down pretty quickly. I just assumed she was right, becuase she is super logical and an engineering major so i pretty much felt stupid for even suggesting that because she was just like " no sister wood, No.." haha so we spent literally 2 hours going place to place to find a stupid map of Pensacola. Then we crossed paths with this guy at walmart who was like, " i bet they have some maps at Barnes & Noble!" He called them for us and sure enough.... they had maps there. So we drove to Barnes & Noble to get the dumb map haha. So the lesson that i learned thursday was to just trust my own ideas, because really they come from the spirit. Sister Peterson learned to not shoot down my random ideas haha. Because wasting the Lords time is not a good feeling!

Friday was another good day. We had a lesson with Ermilisa. Sister Nicholson, the Relief Society President, came with us. That lesson was just what Ermilisa needed! I now have a huge testimony of how important member present lessons are! Ermilisa recieved some council from Sister Nicholson that as missionaries, we cannot give her. #blessingsfromabove

I took Sister Peterson out to dinner to celebrate her 1 month mark as a missionary. Month marks are a pretty big deal in the mish. So we celebrated! She really needed that too!

Saturday started out pretty rough, but in turned out good in the end. Sister Wood may or may not have had a break down in front of her greenie haha. But what is awesome about companionships, we are able to help eachother. So Sister Peterson was so patient with me and told me some things that were super comforting. I was super stressed and feeling like a failure as a trainer because i felt like she hasnt been learning anything from me except " what not to do as a missionary" but i found out that wasn't true. Satan was just working hard to push me down, but the Spirit told Sister Peterson just the right words to say. So that was a huge break through in our companionship :)

Later on Saturday, we had dinner with some potential investigators. They made us Korean food. It was super good!! Their little girl wanted me to hold her so bad. It was so hard to resist picking up this cute little two year old. Insted she just held my hand and walked me around the house haha it was pretty great! We shared our testimonies witht them, and left them with the Restoration Pamphlets to read over before our next visit.

Sunday was a awesome!! Ermilisa, and Dianna came to church! Two less-active members that we visited this week came to church as well. The talks in Sacrament Meeting were sooooo good. The Lord has a special way of making Sacrament Meeting just for the people we are teaching :) Ermillisa and the Less active sisters stayed for all three meetings! That was a huge accomplishment. We also visited Brother and Sister Stairs and talked about the Restoration. We are working on rekindling their testimonies. Brother Stairs had a lot to say, so that was a good sign!.

Sister Peterson and I then drove to Fairhope Alabama to stay the night with the sisters there. We had to take one sister to the airport on monday and spend the day with the other sister so she wouldnt be alone while waiting for her new companion to arrive. That was fun to be in Alabama!! Fairhope is a super cute little town!!

Looking back on this past week, I have been able to identify the Lord's hand in every aspect of the work. It is truly amazing! I know that this Gospel can and will change people's lives for the better if they are willing to accept it. I have seen it work miracles. Our Father in Heaven is just waiting to bless us! All we have to do is show our faith and ask him to help us.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the Keystone to our religion! It explains so simply the plan that Heavenly Father has for us! I love to read it everyday!! It has such a special spirit about it. It certainly does change lives. It has changed mine, that is for sure!