I hope you all are doing well this week! Things have been going well here and we've been seeing some neat miracles as well as some sad goodbyes with some of the people we're teaching.
On a positive note, here are some miracles we saw this week:
Gwendalyn - We were out for a walk the other day and passed by a girl sitting on her porch. I called out to compliment her on her leggings and we had a neat conversation with her. Near the end of our short conversation I asked her name and she asked ours. I told her my name was Sister Bliss and explained that the "Sister" part was because we're missionaries for our church. She perked up and mentioned that she'd been talking about Mormons just that morning and told us about her trip to temple square in Salt Lake and mentioned that she has a Book of Mormon! We offered to call and share some more about it and she accepted!
Nathan - He was a guy who came to fix our dishwasher and ended up stuck at our apartment for like 4 hours fixing it! But he was super friendly and we got to chat with him about his beliefs for awhile and gave him a Book of Mormon at the end. He doesn't want to take the lessons right now, but he said he sincerely wants to read it and will reach out with questions in the future. We get that a lot and nothing happens, but I'll count it as a win for quarantine!
Terri - We've been calling everyone in our old areabook and we found Terri, who was taught once by the missionaries and then lost somehow. But she excitedly set up a lesson and asked us if we could tell her if she'll be able to see her family again one day. We briefly testified that she would and set up a time to tell her more about the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing!
Brother Xing - We had a neat lesson with a less active who has been struggling as we've been meeting with him. We read The Living Christ with him and invited him to pay attention to the spirit as we read it. We later found out that he doesn't know how to feel the spirit! We got to testify to him of what the spirit is by sharing Galatians 5:22-23:
"But the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
My spiritual thought of the week is a little odd since we're in quarantine, but I've been thinking a lot about what diligence is and isn't. My district leader and Sister Training Leaders have both expressed concern with our schedule (we were pushing ourselves way too hard and barely had time to take a breath from 9:30 am until 10 pm. But we've fixed that because the Sister Training Leaders forced us to Sister Coleman is killing it though and will NOT be told to slow down, so we're having a blast doing as much as we can). But I have been led to think about what diligence does NOT consist of.
In Doctrine and Covenants the Lord commands Joseph Smith to be diligent in translating the Book of Mormon, but he also says:
"Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end." - D&C 10:4
Being diligent means to be consistent in working hard. But it doesn't mean to be consistent in OVERworking. While we may be in quarantine, I know that many of you are still busy, and some of you are now somehow busier than ever. But don't forget that you can do more good by working at a good steady pace continuously than you can by pushing yourself until you hit a breaking point where you can no longer work for a time. The Lord expect effort from us, but he doesn't expect perfection or that we work ourselves to death, as I've had to remind myself!
I love you all and hope you're doing well!
Love,
Sister Bliss
PICTURES!
*I have begun a collection of all the masks I've been given. This is my favorite one so far!
*A picture of us during exchanges! We had a nice meal together
*Sister Coleman and I took a celebratory picture after meeting Gwendalyn
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