December 02, 2013

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

Alma 34: 32-34

Sis. Gale and Sis. Ure Helping Sis. Whitted decorate for Christmas service

Well the news is out, I am training!!! It has been so fun! Sister Ure is her name, and sharing the gospel is our game! ;) She is awesome and is a lot like me, so we get work done! She is fresh off the plane; in fact, she reminds me of myself because she asks the same questions that I asked when I was first out here. We have worked really hard with her memorizing the appropriate scriptures. We study them in the car, as we're walking, and then every morning and night. She has already passed off 3 of the 5 things. I told her that I am going to make sure that she is ahead because it will pay off in the end. She works really hard! She got really sick on Thanksgiving, so we had to call it an early day. Then we went out later on Friday because she still wasn’t feeling all that well. But she is doing a lot better now. She is from Saint George, Utah. She actually lived there with her sister most of the time. She is the youngest of 11 kids and the 9th to go on a mission. Her mother died when she was 10, so she moved to her sister's. 

Sis. Gale and Sis. Hyer the night before transfers. Sis. Gale is the new Senior companion and trainer, Sis. Hyer will be a trainer.

The baptism service for Sherri’s daughter this past Saturday was great! It was awesome to see Elder Merkley and Elder Peterson again. I miss them... isn’t that sad?! Elder Merkley pulled me aside and said that that baptism only happened because of me. I thought that was the sweetest compliment. I love seeing people enter into covenants with the Savior. The light of Christ begins to shine through their eyes. It’s a cool transformation to witness.

Sis. Hyer and Elder Peterson are being transferred; the other two are staying.

This week was actually pretty slow. As much as I love the holidays, it puts a damper on things. People are so tired and not really wanting to meet or even talk. Almost all of our appointments fell through, and a lot of the member’s weren’t able to go out with us. I don’t blame them, but it just made missionary work this week that much harder. 

Sis. Gale and Sis. Hyer with the Whitted children the night before transfers.

We were able to teach Theresa this week. She is enjoying everything that she is learning and reading about. She is almost done with Alma and is working super hard to finish the Book of Mormon before she is baptized. I told her that that was a great goal to strive for! We got her on the no smoking plan, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to complete it. She smoked on Thanksgiving... we started the program over on Saturday, and we meet with her tomorrow to help cheer her on. Hopefully, she can put her mind to it and put off the bad habit. She wasn’t able to come to church yesterday because she got really sick... I really hope that Satan doesn’t get to her since she wasn’t able to partake of the sacrament and be spiritually fed... But we plan on meeting with her 3 times this week to help her out.

Sis. Gale with her new companion, Sis. Ure from Utah. They are getting along great!

We also taught Emerald. She didn’t come to church yesterday because she was just feeling lazy... It’s sad to see someone who knows the truth but doesn’t put it into action. We brought a recent convert over with us, and she helped out with explaining the feelings that Emerald has felt and explained the importance of coming to church. We read Alma 32:16-22 with her and also Alma 34:32-34. You could tell that she was really thinking about what it said. Hopefully, when we meet with her again she will have felt her answer regarding baptism and obeying the commandments (keeping the Sabbath day holy). 

Sherri's daughter got baptized!

OH!!!! There was this couple that we have been trying so hard to teach. Every time we went over there, we just knew that there was something about them, and we needed to keep asking them if we could teach them. Well, Sis. Ure's second day here I told her about them, and we went over. WE GOT IN THE HOUSE!!! WE TAUGHT THE FIRST LESSON!!! WE GOT A RETURN APPOINTMENT!!! I told Sis. Ure that is was her mad skills and that it was because she was here that we finally got to teach the wife. We actually teach her this evening, and I hope that goes great!

Unfortunately, Tia dropped us...for now. She said that with her cancer treatments and everything that is going on she just can’t meet with us. The treatment is breaking her body down, and in her words "she is getting worse and worse every week". I didn’t know what to say except for "you'll be in our prayers". I hope, when the treatment is over, she knows that we will always be here to continue to teach her so that she can come closer to her Savior. Sis. Whitted (a lady in our ward who is her friend) will be staying in contact with her in case anything changes.

Other than that, I have just been working hard and trying to take over the role of training. It’s a whole new experience, but I love knowing that the Savior and my mission president have faith in me to know that I can do this and help someone learn the ropes so that they can be successful also! ...We decided to be the first sister assistants to the president!

We taught gospel principles yesterday (Sunday) regarding the spirit world, and it was a blessing to know that this time on earth is a learning time. I already knew that but I love to know that every piece of knowledge we gain in this life will be used to help those in the next life. I know that we are here and have this gospel to learn and to grow so that we can help those who are on the other side of the veil learn and come closer to their Savior. Jesus Christ made this whole plan possible. He made it possible for us to be with loved ones for eternity. He made it possible for us to help gather Israel. I know that we need to always turn to the Lord because He is just waiting on us to call upon Him. He will lift us through the trials and hard times and will forgive us. This I know and testify of.

Because it was just Thanksgiving not too long ago, I want to thank my family for all that they do and for making it possible for me to come out on my mission. I would never have known the scriptures this much, nor would I know how much My Savior truly loves me if I had not been out on my mission. I am thankful for my friends that are or have served missions. The work they have done is truly inspiring, and I know that this is the Lord's work! I love my job!

Love,

Sister Gale