*Funny side note: A man at a computer near me just got up, stared at me for a few seconds and then said, pulling at the top of his shirt, "I like your name badge. (brief pause)…He's a good man." Funny moments!
Life is going really well. The past two days have been especially fulfilling, mostly because we've been able to fill up our days with good lessons. Ahhhh. It's just so fun and exciting when you have days like that.
So, last Friday I had my first Zone Conference and it was wonderful (It turns out that they are really everything they're cracked up to be!). There were two zones meeting together, and mine is the Sugar Hill Zone. [*There are all sorts of funny names for places and streets here. Lots of streets are named after people (like Phil Niekro Rd., Jesse Jewel Pkwy) and, they just have funny names (like Jim Crow Rd.—I laughed out loud when I first saw that one!—and Chestatee Rd., and Nachochee Dr).] Anyway, I really like the name of our zone. My favorite part of Zone Conf. was a powerful "training" given by one of the Assistants to the President for whom this is his last transfer. Elder Crosby talked about study journals and about how studying the question "Why was the Atonement of Jesus Christ necessary?" and keeping a study journal with the answers he found to that question completely transformed his mission (and his life). It was powerful because he was teaching what he had learned in his heart, not simply what he had learned in his mind. I want to learn all of the principles of the lesson IN MY HEART, have them written on "the fleshy tables of my heart" so that I can teach with that power every time I teach. How do we do that? I guess we study the doctrines and then further "treasure up" the doctrines by applying them to our lives. Any other suggestions?
I got to prepare a 2 ½ min blurb for Zone Conf. on the Christlike attribute of virtue. One interesting thing that stood out to me is that in that oft-quoted verse from the end of D&C 121—"let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God"—the verse actually starts out with, "And let thy bowels be full of charity to the saints and to the household of faith" (I don't have my scrip's with me so that's not an exact quote). The point is, it's not just having virtuous thoughts in our minds that gives us confidence in God's presence, but it's that COUPLED with charity. Of course that makes perfect since since we are nothing without charity.
For part the part of Zone Conference during which our Zone Leaders gave their training, at the end they asked me to come and share my vision for my mission and my testimony. I was nervous but also freshly filled with a fresh vision for how I want my mission to be (since it was at the end of the conference).
I really like my district. The Gainesville District is composed of two sets of elders (Spanish-speaking Elders Scoresby—the District Leader—and Lee, and English-speaking Elders Jorgensen and Burkart) and Sis. Tidwell and me, and I like having a small district. They are motivated and seem to be hard working, focused missionaries. They are all nice and I enjoy district meetings each Monday and going out to lunch with them afterwards. [*This week we went to a burger place called Five Guys that is comparable to CA's In'n'Out but the fries are way better at Five Guys AND you can pick whatever toppings you want on your burger from a longer-than-normal list, including grilled onions, mushrooms, green peppers, A-1 sauce, BBQ sauce, plus the normal hamburger toppings. Delish!]
What else? Taylor Burke, our newly called ward missionary who is working on mission papers herself continues to rock! She came to our weekly planning session just to get to know the investigators better and she goes out on team-ups with us all of the time. Yesterday she was with us for about 5 ½ hours and today we are going to her house for dinner. She is SO willing to help and it is so fun to be with her.
--Willie didn't come to church this week (actually, NONE of our investigators came to church this week, for the second week in a row—BUMMER! It is so much harder to get people to come than you'd think). We had to move back his baptismal date because of that, and we had him chose a date so now it's May 31st. He's still hesitant, but not because he doesn't know, but just because he hasn't received a REALLY strong witness. He's in Alma 26 now, so he'll definitely reach his goal of reading the entire Bk. Of Mormon before he is baptized if he continues on this path.
--Melissa (mother of two, 28 yr old, single mother) is progressing wonderfully. It's amazing how willing she is to accept new commandments and principles that we teach her. She's still on the path for baptism on the 17th!
Sister Tidwell is wonderful and there are so many things about her/that she does that make her a wonderful and easy companion. Here are a few of the reasons that I'm grateful for her:
-She ALWAYS gets up right when our alarm goes off at 6:30am. WHAT a blessing! It's much harder to do than I would have imagined, so it's wonderful to have a companion who helps me to keep the rules.
-She is obedient.
-She is SO patient with me. (I asked her what our phone number was for the first three weeks—for some reason I just didn't memorize it until now, and I ask her who people are/what people's names are again and again and she always just answers lovingly and never makes fun of me for not remembering. She never even seems to be frustrated!)
-She always counsels with me and asks me what I think we should do.
-She has a beautiful voice, loves to sing, and can even sing parts! It's so fun to sing to people together!
-She is happy and even-tempered. She compliments me.
-Even though she HATES running, every other day she walks outsides so that I can run (I just run ahead, run back to her, run ahead, run back to her—it works out pretty well). The other days we do kick-boxing, yoga, or weights inside. I LOVE exercising!!! And I am so glad that I brought my yoga mat.
There are a million other reasons that she is a fabulous trainer, but those are a few.
[*Other cultural side notes: In GA license plates are called "tags." I've already started using the word "y'all." I LOVE southern cookin', including homemade fried chicken, macaroni and cheese (YUM!) and even fried okra is pretty tasty. I just love food!
I love y'all more, though!
Love,
Sister Mitchell
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