March 28, 2016

We had some really great lessons with our investigator Maureen this week! We went over earlier this week and helped her clean out her dining room for Easter dinner after we finished she made us some lunch and we were just sitting there talking then Sis Black asked Maureen if she could give her 20 year old self any advice what would it be she said i would start now everyday looking in the mirror and telling myself i was beautiful, she said she wished she would have starting doing that sooner in life. Then she told us that she wished we could see ourselves the ways she sees us. It was really sweet she is always taking care of us because she knows we are away from home and wants to make sure that we are safe and happy.

We also had 2 other lessons with her in members homes and they went so well we taught her about the commandments and talked about fasting, tithing and general conference- she committed to do it all! Having members help is the best its so nice to have a members testimony supporting ours and most of the time our members are so smart they end up teaching most of the lessons for us haha. 

 

So we went on exchanges this week with the Weston 2 sisters it was my first exchange as a sister training leader and i think it went really well! I was with sister Pearson who has only been out a month or so, its so weird when you realize that you arent the youngest in the mission anymore! So we challenged our whole zone to pass out all of our Easter initiative cards this week before Sunday and since we dont get to contact/tract very much we had a ton left so guess what we did on our exchange? Yup we passed them all out! It was actually pretty fun and i felt like a normal missionary for the night! After we passed them all out sister Pearson and I treated ourselves to Brazilian food at this cute little Brazilian bakery down the street from the office! it is so yummy! 

In Nashua New Hampshire they had their big Savior of the World production, it happens every 4 years and they spend around 6 months preparing for it! I was so excited because they asked us to set up a display and watch the performance! So we went to set up a display and got a call from the Springfield Mass Elders asking if we could come set up for one of their members birthday parities i was super bummed cause that meant we didn't get to stay for the Savior of the World production. We went to the party in Springfield and it was fine there were a bunch of non members but to be honest they were no interested... well i was so annoyed but i wasn't about to miss the Nashua performance for nothing so I went up to one of the girls there and said "hey we have some displays and videos set up out in the foyer want to check them out?" she kind of rolled her eyes but her member cousin was sitting next to her and said "yeah then you can see what i believe" it was really cool we took her and showed her some videos and taught her the restoration and she was actually really nice to us afterwards, it turns out she is baptist and was just baptized that past week haha but oh well now she knows a little bit more and sometimes thats all we can do.

There was also a family history event in Brewster that we attended it was very interesting i never use to enjoy family history but now i love it! its so fascinating! 

Alright now for Easter Sunday! We woke up early and went to our chapel to set up some displays. The relief society asked us to set up our Jesus Christ display for their lesson, it was really good we showed some videos for them and they had a kind of "silent: lesson where we all just sat and listened to music and sang a couple hymns and wrote our thoughts on what the saviors resurrection means to us and what we thought God wanted us to know that day. It was really nice. As we showed some of our videos like the Hallelujah one, my favorite thing is to look at people's faces as they watch the videos you can actually see the spirit touching their minds and hearts, its amazing. We also got to set up our new Sabbath day display!!! it looks so good, i'll attach a photo. 

Well after church we stopped by the office to work on the ipads a little before dinner it was such a nice surprise to have a package from home with notes from my cousins in it thank you so much for that! 

After the office we headed to Maureens to help get dinner ready! she surprised us with Easter baskets, and she got us little nurf guns so we had an all out battle with her two sons it was so much fun! We got dinner ready, she had tons of family over they were all a bit skeptical of us at first especially because Maureen told them we were her 16 year old sons nannys as a joke...   but in the end i think they really liked having us there. Maureen's mom who is straight from Ireland was there too she is such a funny little old lady and kept offering everyone wine and introducing us by our first names it was hilarious she was just walking around like "oh have you met Lucy and Sophia?!" I guess its better than what Maureens son refers to us as... nuns.

Key Principle:

Recently I have been paying close attention to the lyrics of hymns I especially love the sacrament hymns, its an easy way to focus on the meaning of the sacrament and immediately draws your thoughts to the Savior. One line i found that really stood out to me this week was in Hymn #197

"The very foes who slay thee, have access to thy grace."

Let the distress from previous hours fall away is grace is sufficient for all.I dont fully understand the magnitude of the atonement and probably wont in this lifetime but just the idea of it is enough to keep me going. 

love you all and make this week full of "son" shine  

P.S. 

Happy April Fools day everyone dont forget to pull some pranks i still remember the best/meanest april fools joke i ever fell for Uncle Dillon's mayo filled doughnuts... i still cant eat creamed filled- thanks for scarring me.