August 26

Today marks exactly 6 months since leaving home!!...in some ways the time has gone by incredibly fast and in some ways it seems like I've been out here for an eternity. Oh! This sister is getting transferred!!!!! More on that later, but I'm way excited. And before I forget, I won't be e-mailing next Monday because it's Labor Day.

Anyways last Monday night Sister Clark (we did another exchange) taught this guy in the park. He's Hispanic (obviously)...anyways, it was an awesome lesson. He has a lot of questions and it looking for direction in this life. We committed him to baptism, but no date. During the lesson he asked that if Christ was perfect, why did he get angry and force all the tax collectors and such out of the temple? He asked "isn't that a sin?" Then I got to tell him my incredibly awesome definition of sin (not really). Sin is doing anything against the will of God. So as a missionary, there are things that are a sin for me that aren't for another person who isn't a missionary. Anyways, I learned a lot from answering his question. My favorite lessons are when I feel like I'm learning along with the investigator. We are seeing him again tonight which I'm really excited for.

Sister Clark helps me to see miracles in the work. We had an incredible day on Tuesday. We just talked with everyone and not at them, but with them. That night Sister Jones and I taught another guy on his porch. He's in his 20's and he approached us one day a few weeks ago. At one point I looked up into the clouds and just thought about Heavenly Father (yeah not totally focused on the investigator which was kind of a mistake on my part). We talked with him a lot about our Heavenly Father. Nothing is better than testifying. Sometimes when I'm teaching, I feel God working through me. I'm grateful I'm learning how to teach people because it is such an important skill. I'm grateful I can be an instrument in His hands. Tuesday I felt like His servant and there's no better feeling in the world. Unfortunately, so far, those types of days have been few and far between.

We've been in contact with this girl for several weeks. Her parents are both less-active members in North Vernon and she left home because she isn't getting along with her mom. She's living over here in Seymour. Well she had a baby last week and we stopped by to see her on Wednesday. It broke my heart to see the type of environment this baby is going to be raised up in unless something changes. She was sleeping when we went over there. She's too perfect. All I wanted to do was take her and put her somewhere else. It provides me more motivation to help her mother, so that one day this little girl can have the blessing of the gospel in her life.

So on Friday we went to follow up with a potential but she wasn't there, typical story. We had made plans to go see a couple of other people but I felt like we shouldn't leave yet. So I told Sister Jones we were going to knock a few doors. I think we was pretty confused. So on the third door we knock, no one answers, and then a car pulls in the drive way. I absolutely HATE this scenario, it's so awkward. Anyways, this lady gets out of her car and we start talking to her. She couldn't really talk to us then because someone had just driven a car through her shed in her backyard. But we set up an appointment for the next day! After we stopped talking to her, I turned to Sister Jones and said "we can leave now" with a smile on my face. The lesson with her the next day went really well. She asked to borrow a copy of the Book of Mormon before we even offered it to her. The sisters have another appointment with her Wednesday night.

We had a last minute zone meeting on Friday to talk about working with members. Oh yeah!! We went to Texas Roadhouse afterwards, by my request. I ate so many rolls I wasn't even hungry to my actual meal. It was a little difficult to keep the elders in line....sometimes I wonder about 18 year old missionaries haha.

Ok....misconception number one in missionary work. Missionaries do missionary work and they find people to baptize through tracting.

WRONG!!!!

Members are missionaries. They find new investigators and then missionaries teach them because they have been set apart, have the authority, etc. Unfortunately changing the mindset of members takes a lot of time and it can only be done one at a time. We taught a member family on Sunday. I was totally honest with them and said that if they don't like having a small ward they need to invite their friends to learn about the church so they can get baptized. If you want a bigger ward, do something about it! You can't force people to move into the ward but you can invite the people you know. Ok I'm done.

Church was weird...haha. I hated not knowing if I was actually going to get transferred. I had a pretty good idea that I would be leaving, but didn't know for sure. Bro Crail came to church! I don't know if you remember anything about him. They are a part member family. Sister Fullmer and I taught them a few times but then we stopped seeing them because they wouldn't keep any commitments. I think my boldness about coming to church finally got to him because he agreed to get a ride (before he refused to get a ride from anyone). We talked to him for a little bit after church and he said he would come next week. He told me that he hoped I would die in Seymour; I told him it wasn't happening because I still had a year left and that would mean I spent 11 our of 12 transfers here. I was just so glad he finally came!

So this week I was listening to a talk by Elder Bednar called "Pray Always". He explained how before the temporal creation, God had created everything spiritually. Our morning prayers should be the spiritual creation before our temporal day. I still don't exactly know what that means, but I've been thinking a lot about it. Prayer is something that I'm really trying to understand more and my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Sometimes He feels so far away, but then I read from the scriptures and I begin to feel better. I also listed to a talk about grace by Brad Wilcox. He compared grace to talking piano lessons. A mother will pay for a piano and the lessons for her child. She asks that her child learn to play. When the child accepts the gift that she has provided, they don't pay the mother back. Learning the piano doesn't pay for the cost of the piano or the lessons. That's how the atonement works. We don't pay back Christ when we repent and access the enabling power of the atonement, we are simply accepting the gift that He has given us. That's something else I've been pondering a lot.

So transfers...I feel kind of bad that I'm so excited to leave. But let's be honest, this place kind of has some bad memories for me. Sister Jones is training; she's pretty nervous. I told her she's going to get a visa waiter so they can teach all the Hispanics! It will be sad to say goodbye to some people though. Unlike in YSA, I was actually here long enough to develop relationships with some people. But that's missionary life. I'm so grateful for a new start though. I've learned a ton these last 4 1/2 months and I wouldn't trade them for the world, but they've been incredibly hard. I'm excited to apply what I've learned in a new area.

Have I ever told you about the bugs in Indiana??? So gross. Mosquitoes everywhere and there are big bugs that I've never seen in my life. First picture is a bug that joined Sister Clark and I for daily planning...I may have actually screamed when I saw it haha. The second one is a bug we saw last night. The other pictures are our district picture (they all came out blurry) and Texas Roadhouse.