bittersweet. But we ended up gaining five new missionaries, one new to
the mission! So I am not the baby of the mission any longer. We are
determined to make this transfer awesome, especially since we lost
some awesome people, sooooo we decided to do a zone olympics :) Today
we came up with the theme "Sweet is the Work" and we're gonna do the
moving the cookie from your forehead to your mouth with no hands
challenge, blowing a bubble with a piece of gum hidden under a mound
of whipped cream, and doing a pudding drop on our companions' faces.
Needless to say, were pretty dang excited.
Now for the nitty gritty.
We have to push back Terry's date :/ We think it's word of wisdom
issues, but we haven't seen her in a few days. She's been having lots
of stress and back pain. A few days ago she texted us saying to call
her. So we did and found out that she accidentally left something on
her stove and nearly burned her kitchen down. When the inspectors came
afterwards, they noted that she might have asbestos. She can't go back
in until she meets with whatever department people again. Plus, she
had an anxiety attack the other day and landed in the ER. I do not
know how that woman is still going. She is preparing for 3 court dates
and has no money. She's basically all alone too, besides her cousin,
who has problems of his own. Lots of prayers for Terry.
We had those massive pancakes with the B family again. Guess who
finished her whole one and the side of potatoes that came with it?!?!?
That's right, this sister did :) I think Justin (the dad) was
impressed. We challenged them to hold family prayer together each
night. It was cute because they were talking about how that might be
hard since their dad comes home late at night. Their ten year old was
all like, hey we can call him and put him on speaker phone! There is
always a way folks.
Tammy took the news of not being able to be baptized for the next
while like a champ! We taught about repentance and she was right
alongside us! She was telling us her experiences with each step and it
was amazing to see how she has so much peace because of it. Repentance
brings forth joy and a desire to be more like our Savior. Many prayers
were answered during that lesson, as she took the news well and didn't
kick us out. It ended up being a very joyful lesson.
Peter's sense of humor is coming out more and more. So we didn't see
him at stake conference so we couldnt flag him down to sit with us. We
met up afterwards and he said he sat in a random row, that he lost his
two little girls. We were all like what the heck Peter, what little
girls? He's like they're sisters and they usually sit with me. That's
when I caught on that he was talking about us. That's Peter for ya.
We're not sure if Cecil is all quite there anymore during lessons.
They usually end up going in circles and are kind of frustrating. He
contradicts himself a lot and gets off on random subjects. We're
pretty bummed, but are hoping that we can do service throughout the
week for him by reading him the Book of Mormon.
Ok so there's this family that we are working with and they are the
greatest thing ever. Alexis is a returning inactive member. Her
husband is named Ryan and he has a 5 year old daughter named lily.
We've been teaching them for a little while and have really gotten to
see Ryan's desire to be baptized, they want to be an eternal family so
bad. They've been coming to work when Ryan is off work (which is a
miracle because he works two retail jobs which don't get much Sunday
time off). We get to have FHE with their family and our ward mission
leader's family. Ryan and Alexis seem to be branching out a little,
because Alexis doesn't really like meeting new people. This is a huge
step for them! We're planning on getting Ryan on date by tonight.
Some days I miss being able to get out and do none missionary-y stuff
like hang with friends, listen to regular music, or see my fam jam.
It's tough, but it's comforting to know that what I'm doing isn't
wrong. I get to devote this time to service. I get to stand with my
Savior's name on my badge all the time. I just have to keep reminding
myself that, no matter how hard things get out here and how much
easier it would be to turn around and go home, this is where I need to
be. People have made sacrifice for me to get here and I'm having some
truly incredible experiences. I get to see how people's lives are
changed by the gospel. I get to look at people and see some of their
eternal potential. It makes me excited to be a part of people making
covenants with their Heavenly Father to make it back to Him.
I read up on blessings of the temple this week. We're working with a
returning less active member on helping her feel worthy to enter the
temple again. She feels ready in all of the interview question
categories, except she feels that she needs to clear up some of her
own feelings before she enters in again. We shared the talk, "See
Yourself in the Temple" with her. She said that it was just what she
needed. She's excited to work on her heart so that she feels worthy to
go back to that sacred place. I love how in that talk we read,
"President Monson has stated: “Until you have entered the house of the
Lord and have received all the blessings which await you there, you
have not obtained everything the Church has to offer. The
all-important and crowning blessings of membership in the Church are
those blessings which we receive in the temples of God.” Then he goes
on to say, "It is our great desire that members of the Church will
live to be worthy of a temple recommend. Please don’t see the temple
as some distant and perhaps unachievable goal. Working with their
bishop, most members can achieve all righteous requirements in a
relatively short period of time if they have a determination to
qualify and fully repent of transgressions. This includes being
willing to forgive ourselves and not focus on our imperfections or
sins as disqualifying us from ever entering a sacred temple." We need
those blessings and we can get there through repentance. Never
underestimate the true power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
I love being a missionary.
Love,
Sister Thorum
The old crew again
random antelope pic with tucked in shirt for biking
sometimes you need a bunch of popcorn for nightly planning
Ryan, Alexis and Lily
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