Well, I must say, this was a pretty awesome week!
On Tuesday we had zone training. One awesome thing that we are asked to do is:
1) find a trait or two that you love about your companion
2) define the principle behind the trait
3) share an example of how they exemplify this trait
4) find 1-2 scriptures that go with it
5) think about how you can emulate it
So! Everyone should do it! Either with a spouse, a sibling, a best friend, or a mission companion. And then share it with them and with me :)
Thursday was temple day! Hermana Wong and I could hardly contain our excitement. But really. We have been waiting for this day for a very long time :) And it was fantastic! The temple really does have such a special spirit even if you're just walking on the grounds. I was in heaven the whole time and just loved every minute of it. I sat in between Sister Hanks and another senior missionary and they were both talking to me the whole time and I just trying to take in everything and enjoy the peace. And Sister Hanks said she felt bad for me because I was in an "old lady sandwich" haha! I seriously love her so much! I don't know what else to say about it besides it was just what I needed and I wish we could go every week!
This is what President Hanks said in his weekly email. I thought I would pass it on because I loved it!
"1) As we attend the temple it is good to focus on the covenants that we are making with God. Depending on how you count them, there are 4 or 5 major promises. They have to do with us placing our lives in compliance with how Heavenly Father has asked us to live, with maintaining devotion to the cause of truth, with charity and love, with disciplining ourselves, and with “being willing to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive…Jesus Christ.” (J.E. Talmage).
I ask you this… who best lived a life that demonstrated each of the covenants that you and I made in the temple? The obvious answer is the Son of God. Was his not the most obedient, loving, unselfish, completely committed life to ever grace the earth?
So, to me, the Temple is really about the Savior.
Sometimes we go to the temple looking for some new and great insight… and perhaps the greatest insight that lies right in front of us all along is that the temple is really about us making promises to God, that we will comport our life in some small way to be similar to the life the Master lived while he was on the earth.
2) A second idea comes from the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in DC 109: 22-23. I think it applies directly to you… the Disciples of the Alabama Birmingham Mission!
“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days.” (DC 109: 22-23)"
I ask you this… who best lived a life that demonstrated each of the covenants that you and I made in the temple? The obvious answer is the Son of God. Was his not the most obedient, loving, unselfish, completely committed life to ever grace the earth?
So, to me, the Temple is really about the Savior.
Sometimes we go to the temple looking for some new and great insight… and perhaps the greatest insight that lies right in front of us all along is that the temple is really about us making promises to God, that we will comport our life in some small way to be similar to the life the Master lived while he was on the earth.
2) A second idea comes from the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in DC 109: 22-23. I think it applies directly to you… the Disciples of the Alabama Birmingham Mission!
“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them; And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days.” (DC 109: 22-23)"
I pretty much died of happiness when I got the letter with the notes from all the fam in it! All the spanish, and exciting updates, and southern phrases. All of it was buenisimo! And I could not even handle the fact that there are new scripture mastery!!!
Pretty sure Hermana Wong thought I was crazy, but it's a big deal to me!
So you better believe that when we had media time this week I looked up all the info about it and printed out the new page and calculated how many new ones I have to memorize. Like 8 from each standard work so that's about 32 scriptures! Not bad right? It was interesting to see the themes of the new ones and how they relate to what's going on in the world today. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into it, but really...how can you love the scriptures too much?
We actually spoke quite a bit of spanish this week. It really is so helpful just to be able to get some experience using it.
This week I noticed a lot of joy. I guess I just recognized how the people we're teaching truly are changing and as they are coming closer to Christ, they are becoming more happy! And they can see how living the gospel really does make their lives more simple and that their day goes better. It is awesome! And it makes me so happy too! I feel like recently we've really been helping people to understand their purpose and as we explain that they are children of our Heavenly Father who loves them so much individually, it affects the way they see themselves and helps them to realize that they have infinite worth and potential and that we're here to help them every step of the way. Some people really have no idea why they're here or who they are.
Christy got baptized this weekend! She could not stop smiling from ear to ear :) She was SO happy! And she said she couldn't sleep at all that night because she was so excited! After she got confirmed the next morning, she said she felt like she was floating on air. This is what it's all about. The blessing of the Holy Ghost is inmeasurable.
The M girls are getting baptized this week and hopefully the dad will make that decision soon! The mom was so excited to tell us at church on Sunday that her husband had told her the night before that he needed to prepare to take her to the temple.how precious is that?!! So many good things are in store for that family :)
And last but not least...
We worked our way up the calling tree to ask President a few questions. And guess what...he said YES to all of them!!!
1-We get to go to the McWayne Science Center in Birmingham next week on preparation day with Sister Rich
2- We get to go to the temple again on my birthday (the big two-one...still trying to get over that one) to do baptisms with the young women including hopefully 5 of our new recent converts that are that age. What better place to spend your birthday than the Lord's house? If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited :)
3- ALEJANDRO IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!
Not even kidding. He's been to Sacrament Meeting twice and since he's been ready for months to get baptized, the waiting game is finally over! We're just going to be working with him to make some commitments about reading a conference talk or something when he can't make it to church. Our first Hispanic baptism! And what a huge blessing this is! Besides faith and fasting and prayer, the one thing we can take away from this is...when in doubt, just ask.
More details to come! The work is going well and we are loving life and all our mucho investigadores! Elder Oslapas likes to call them future members :)
In the words of President...Birmingham B is ON FIRE!!!
con amor,
Hermana Blackner
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