Hey y'all!!
This week has been another great week in the world of Camden!!
It started off with right after emailing last week we got a call from our Bishop asking us to go with him and a few other members to do more service in Columbia! We had just enough time to make a quick trip to Walmart for food and run to our apartment to tidy up and then change into service clothes! We spent the rest of the day continuing to clean!
Tuesday we had interviews with the mission president! We talked a lot about faith and how when we rely on Christ then our faith has the power to cause righteous things to happen! We related it to the story of the Brother of Jared from the Book of Mormon. How he is praying and His faith is so strong that Christ is no longer held within the veil and the brother of Jared gets to talk with Him face to face.
Wednesday we spent the entire day in Columbia again doing service! We made it back and I got ready in 15 minutes (including showering and blow drying my hair) so that we could still make it to the Book of Mormon class we hold every Wednesday night!
Thursday we did service at the Library that's right across the street from us and then taught a lesson to a lady named B! She is loving reading from the Book of Mormon and has lots of great questions!
Saturday we talked with a lady who moved here about 6 months ago! She was baptized in the 70's when she was a nurse in New York. Between work and religious differences with her husband she fell out of the habit of going to church. She was very excited to have us there and loved talking with us! We read a conference talk with her! She lives on a ranch now and owns these horses and loved telling us about each of them! I loved getting to hear all her stories!
Sunday we went to church and are continuing to meet more and more members! After Church we went with a member, Sister Lewis, to go visiting teaching with her! It was exciting because we got to go all the way to the top of our area, which was an hour away! Because of the limited miles we have we thought that we would never get to go to that part of our area and visit the members up there, so we were really excited that we got to do that! We had this funny realization that the city of Columbia is closer to us than the top of our map!
And now we are back to Monday!!
A Spiritual thought for this week actually comes from my studies this morning! This morning I was continuing my journey of reading Jacob 5. This chapter is where the prophet Jacob is relating the allegory Zenos gives of the olive trees. The very basic outline of this allegory is that there is a vineyard of olive trees and the Lord of the vineyard is pruning and grafting and nourishing the vineyard to produce tame olives. At one point in this allegory all of the trees are producing wild olives. The Lord of the vineyard says several times "what more could I have done for my vineyard?" It hit me very strongly this morning of how that is what Christ says over each of us. Because He Atoned for us He knows what we all go through in our lives. He knows all of our pains, mistakes, weaknesses, and sorrows. And He went through that for all of us so He could literally do everything for us. He knows exactly how to help us, it is just up to us to turn to Him. There are times in each of our lives when we fall short and Christ is standing there saying "What more could I have done?" He doesn't want to lose any of us. He wants us all to return Home to Him. That is the strength of His love. So I would invite all of y'all to read the chapter Jacob 5 this week and think about how the Lord of the vineyard works hard and individually on each tree. And notice the repeated number of times He says he does not want to lose any of His trees.
I love y'all so much! Thanks for all y'all do for me!!!! I hope y'all have a blessed week!!!
Love always,
Sister Amy Bennett :)
Sister Harvey and Sister Bennett unintentionally matching for church
Sister Bennett and Sister Harvey serving in Columbia
