Monday, July 18, 2016

The brighter our hope, the greater our faith!

Hey y'all!!!
This week was good, but another busy and crazy week in the missionary world!!!!
 
Monday: we had a lesson with S and S! We made gingerbread with them, which was a huge success! And then we read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the children's bible and talked about how sometimes in life we are put in a fire/oven (hard experiences) but these hard experiences allow us to change and become better people. Just like the heat of the oven caused the dough to become delicious gingerbread cookies! haha :) It was a really good lesson!
Tuesday: we had our district meeting and I gave a training on the importance of having members with us at lessons! After that we saw R. We had a good lesson with him on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There was one excitement with that lesson... we were teaching him on his porch and a stray cat decided to join us. During the lesson I accidentally backed into the stray cat and scared him and then got bit pretty hard on my leg! Then we sang at Golden Age and in the evening we had a lesson with the M. family! We taught about the importance of studying the scriptures every day!
Wednesday: Because my cat bite was still stinging and because it had drawn blood, the mission nurse had me go to the urgent care to get it checked out. No worries... I don't have rabies and I get to keep my leg haha! But they did put my on an antibiotic so that was Wednesday's adventure! We went early though so we could be back in time to still help out at the soup kitchen! After that we had a really great lesson with M. on the Plan of Salvation! In the evening we had a lesson with a lady named R. and then had our visit with Sister K.!!!
Thursday: In the morning we had a visit with a part member family (K. and R.) and talked about prayer! Then we had yoga day! yay!!!! Then we had a lesson with B. on faith! He had a friend over who joined in the lesson and said he might come back for another one! So that was cool :) Then we sang at Golden Age! In the evening we met a lady named B. who let us right into her house and we got to teach her the Restoration and she talked about how she's really interested in learning more! Wahoo! Then we had a lesson with K. and read Alma 5 with her!
Friday: we had our weekly planning! In the evening we had a good lesson with L. where we read 3 Nephi 17 with her.
Saturday: In the afternoon we had a good lesson with B. where we read Enos and talked about the importance of prayer! In the evening we had a ward activity where we watched The Legend of Johnny Lingo! It was pretty exciting hahaha :)
Sunday:... the day we had been waiting for all week! We carpooled with the Gaffney sisters to Spartanburg (so we meet at the Boiling Springs building and then the Gaffney sisters rode with us) to the big meeting that had been announced last week! They made some pretty big changes. The Cowpens branch was dissolved and that area was then divided up to 4 different wards. And then.... they split the Boiling Springs ward! So now there is the Boiling Springs ward and the Inman ward!!! Wahoo!!!!!! Who would have ever thought that Inman was a big enough city to get it's own ward haha ;) Well obviously more than just the city of Inman is in the ward, that's just the namesake! So now Sister Coleman and I will be covering that ward by ourselves and the Elders will be covering the Boiling Springs ward by themselves. It was great because the way it worked out we didn't lose anyone we are teaching and our area got a lot bigger so we will be getting some new people to work with! It's all very exciting! After the official meeting, our mission president met with all the missionaries to help direct us in the chaos haha ;) So that was good! Then in the evening we had a lesson with a lady we met a few weeks ago named P. Then we had a really good lesson with J. and K. about 1 Nephi 16!
So this week was good and full of lots and lots of adventures!!!
Spiritual thought for the week in a quote by President Uchtdorf from the October 2008 conference.  "Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith. When frustration and impatience challenge charity, hope braces our resolve and urges us to care for our fellowmen even without expectation of reward. The brighter our hope, the greater our faith. The stronger our hope, the purer our charity." Hope is something that I have been learning a lot about on my mission. I love that hope is not something unsure. That hope is the Gospel is a trust in Jesus Christ and helps us realize that no matter our situation right now, if we rely on Christ, it can and will get better! Hope helps us in all things in our life and I am grateful that through Christ we can have hope.

I love y'all so much and I hope y'all have a blessed week!!!!! Y'all are the BEST!!!
Love always,
Sister Amy Bennett :)
 
At the Insta Care... yes cat bites do hurt and bruise!

Baking gingerbread Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego!


Our District awkward "family" photo