July 14, 2014

"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I tell ya, this was one of those weeks for the books! It was filled with service, service, teaching, service, a road trip, and more service. I'm not even joking! What all did the service entail? Let's just say I have come to the conclusion that I could work for Bishop Organ when I get home because I can practically build a house now! There is a family in our ward that had their house flood about 9 months ago. The house was supposed to be finished in 3 months, but it hasn't even come close. The owners of the house that they are currently staying at need the house back by tomorrow, and so last week, the Selph family went into "get it done" mode. We were there to help. We did taping, sanding, mussing, painting, caulking baseboards, and so much more. It was some hard work that we did, and it was so great. We got so much work done, and it was so fun because the youth came to help. We also had some of our investigators come and do some service with us. I think that was the best part! We also helped out some other families with some house chores that they needed to get done. We always offer a helping hand because it is so hard during the day to contact or even tract, so we do as much service as we can. It is great!

Sis. Gale and Sis. McIntyre in the Cave

Moving on to teaching- we taught fellow missionaries and also our three investigators. We taught some missionaries on how to work with members. We have a five-phase plan that we have implemented with our members so that they start working with their friends and family members, and it has been working so well for us. Our zone is one of the richest ones, so we always have missionaries ask us what to do with members so that they don't have to spend their days tracting. We talked to a few of the girls, and we are now going to be doing a training for the zone on how to work with members. It is going to be so great, and we have already starting preparing.

Sis. Gale and Sis. McIntyre

We also got to teach our wonderful teenagers. They are so great, and I love their desire to serve God and follow Christ's example. We had some heart-to-heart conversations with Emily and Hailey, and they will not be getting baptized like we had planned. There are some complications with family, and we don't want to break any relationships. We are going to keep teaching them and then give the missionaries in their school's area their teaching records and have them keep working with them. Then we did some more service!

Sister Missionaries Exploring the Caves with the Mission Zone

Now for our road trip. What we try to do with every investigator is take them to a baptism so that they can see what it is actually like. I had all the plans drawn out. We received the text message Friday night of the baptisms that would be happening on Saturday and Kacie was finally able to tell us that she was able to go to one at 1pm. We got a bunch of youth to come with us, four total. It was a great car trip! We hit the road and were super excited! After a 45 minute car trip, we finally arrived in Reynoldsburg. Upon arriving, we noticed that there should be so many more cars than there actually were. I had this thought pop into my head that we came to the wrong building. I pulled out the phone and realized that I had misread the text message and that we should have been at another building 30 minutes away. There was no way that we would have made it there in time. I then realized that there was another text message that I hadn't noticed the night previous and there were two baptisms happening at 2pm. We looked at how much time it would take to get there, and we had exactly 1 hour to get to Lancaster. We got there with 1 minute to spare, and it was so funny how it worked out. The girl getting baptized was actually the same age as Kacie, and Kelton Barr was performing the baptism. It was great! We did have to leave a few minutes early to get Kacie back in time for work, but it was so great! Getting back to Dublin is a whole other story, but it was a crazy car trip! A 2.5 hour trip turned into 5.5 hours. Our Saturday was basically gone, BUT we did make it back in time for dinner! :)

These are two of the girls that always go out with Sis. Gale and Sis. McIntyre. The blonde-haired girl just left of the Mexico MTC last Wednesday.

I loved this week, and I am so grateful for the fun that we had with our youth and the fact that we got to know them better. It was great to have one of youth return from her two week trip to Japan. She told us a great story yesterday: While she was there, she got to have dinner with the mission president, and from my understanding, he was asking her about effective ways for youth to be involved. This is the same youth that introduced us to Kacie. She shared her story and said, "If I hadn't been friends with the sister missionaries and if I didn't know that they really cared about me, I would not have shared the gospel with my friend, and she would not be getting baptized." The mission president liked her story and advice so much that he asked if he could share that in their next training. She came up to us in Church yesterday, told us the story, and exclaimed, "Our story is being shared in Japan!!!" We just laughed and thought that was the greatest thing!

The Entire Zone in the Cave

I have such a testimony of friendship. That is the only way that the gospel will get out to the world. The only way that people will care is if they know how much you care about them. As we share the gospel we need to find ways that it will help them in their life and find ways to show how much we want this for them. I love it so much, and I love the happiness that it brings to everyone. I challenge everyone to go out and show people that you care this week! I love you all so much, and I love my job!

-- Sister Gale

P.S. The BEST missionary is being set apart this evening at 8:30pm. Brandon, go and get them in Chile! I love you buddy, and I'm grateful I got to talk to you last week! :)