Monday, February 24, 2020

2/24/20 (no subject)

Hello friends and family!

Sorry, it's a really long email, but I'll give you a cookie if you read till the end. (You may have to wait about 8 months though)

So last week I decided not to write a weekly because I woke up really sick and slept as much as I could throughout the day. But this week I'm feeling great, so I get to update y'all on two weeks now.

So transfers have come and gone and Sister Morales and I are both still in Miamisburg. But we did have to say goodbye to a couple members of our district who left us, which was sad as always. So we got a couple new district members, including a new district leader, Elder Rodriguez, who came out with me, but from the Mexico MTC. Sadly, Sister Morales and I had to miss our first district council to go to the doctor because Sister Morales is slowly being killed off by her allergies and she needs medicine to survive. (It's not actually that severe. She just had allergies and Ohio is really bad with allergies so the poor thing has been sick and miserable) We also missed our first district Council of last transfer when I was sick, so we have a rough streak going. But the most exciting part of transfers is that Sister Gallup is now one of my Sister Training Leaders! Sister Gallup was one of the sisters I roomed with in the MTC and she's one of my favorite people ever, so this transfer is going to be a party.

Two random exciting thing from this week include:
1. HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BROTHER LOGAN! ðŸŽ‰ It was so much fun to call home on his birthday and hear about everything he was doing that day. I love you so much Logan and can't wait to actually spend your next birthday with you ðŸ’–
2. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with Cheryl and Georgia and I cried the entire movie ðŸ˜‚ It was so good! Georgia kept calling people the devil when they'd be mean to Joseph, and Cheryl was surprised because she never new Jospeh Smith was murdered. It was a really neat experience for them and we had a cool conversation after about how blessed we really are to live in the time we're in. Especially with all the technology and tools that the church has access to in order to help further God's work.

We put our friend Matthew on date for baptism this week! He's been so amazing to teach and he has a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of March, which is so cool. The other day we were planning his lesson and I was asking what we should teach him and Sister Morales jokingly said "Let's teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite him to be baptized." I paused and responded, "Wait, I was actually going to say let's do that..." So we prayed about it and decided to invite him to be baptized on March 28th, which happened to align almost perfectly with his goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon. During our lesson he was even the one to first bring up wanting to possibly be baptized into this church. Matthew is really talkative and kind of all over the place, but when I looked him in the eyes and asked him, "Matthew, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" he went quiet for a moment and very sincerely said "Yes, I will." It was a very surreal moment for me and I'm so excited for Matthew and his decision to be baptized. I'm also so excited for his girlfriend, Sister Lenart, who's been really excited and so much help to us in teaching and encouraging him (not that he needs much encouragement to read the Book of Mormon. He's been making her drive everywhere so he can just keep reading).

I had a neat experience this week is seeing that "Light" that everyone talks about us having as members. I remember growing up hearing that we have this light to us, but always being confused because I didn't really see a difference. I've seen since then just how different we really are from the world and how much of a light so many people around me are, but I got to see a neat change in someone we met with this week. A few weeks ago we reached out to a woman, Sister Ferrell, who had joined the church a few years back but couldn't make it to church anymore because she couldn't get Sundays off work. When we met her she asked if we would start coming over to study with her because she wants to start understanding the Book of Mormon better. We went over a couple time and read with her and she's been really neat to meet with, but she never got around to reading during the week when we weren't there to read with her. Last week we stopped by to study with her and she opened the door and my first thought was "Something's different about her". She didn't look any different or act any different, but something radiating off her FELT different. Upon starting our study, we soon discovered that she had finally been able to sit down and read a chapter on her own earlier that week and had taken notes as she went. It was so neat to feel this big change in her after she took such a seemingly small step. But because that step was taken in faith and was something she truly desired and plans to continue progressing in, her entire countenance was brighter. 

I've loved seeing how just reading from the Book of Mormon changes people. Whether you're pulling out buckets of insight from it like Matthew, or simply finally remembering the difference between the names Nephi and Lehi like Sister Ferrell, the Book of Mormon can do wonders in your life.

COMMITMENT OF THE WEEK:
I have done one of these in awhile, but while I'm on the subject, I want to invite each of you to study from the Book of Mormon this week! 
If you're already studying for 2 hours a day, great! You're doing better than me. Try finding some way to improve your study a little bit.
If you haven't picked up the Book of Mormon in a few days, a few weeks, or even years, try picking it up again and pay attention to the way it makes you feel.
If you've never read the Book of Mormon before, I would invite you to try picking it up. I promise if you will read it, ponder on the words it contains, and sincerely pray to know if it is the word of God, then you will be able to receive an answer. It may not come all at once. In fact, answers to prayers usually don't happen suddenly. But I've felt so much peace in my life and comfort and strength that I know come from the Book of Mormon. While I may not be able to explained exactly how I know the Book of Mormon to be true, I can honestly say that I do know that it is true. And if any of my nonmember friends would be interested in hearing more about the Book of Mormon or about what I and thousands of other teach as Missionaries, I would invite you to reach out to your local missionaries or a friend that's a member, or send me an email. This message will surely change your life if you do.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
-Sister Bliss

PICTURES!
-Me and Logan on his birthday!
-I got a prompt in a missionary journal to write down everything I keep in my bag. So, while cleaning out my bag I wrote down everything I pulled out... I have no idea how I keep so much stuff in my bag, but my companion and I found it hilarious ðŸ˜‚



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