March 14, 2011

Hello everybody!!! I hope that your week was good, and that you're all surviving flu season. I'm sure not. lol. I've been fighting off a cold for a couple weeks, but it finally got me this last week. I'm starting to feel better, but I'm wishing I'd never got sick to begin with. :)

This week was tough, as far as lessons and investigators are concerned. We started out with exchanges, and I got to spend a couple days in Yuba with Sister Wallentine, who goes home tomorrow. It was really great to pick her brain about her mission and what she did good and what she wishes she'd done better. She taught me alot about being diligent and having the faith to expect miracles to happen in my area. I'm sad that I never really got to serve with her, outside of exchanges, a couple times.

Then it was back to work in Colusa. We had kind of a frustrating week with some of our investigators. Sometimes I struggle with knowing what to teach them. We have two, specifically, that don't seem to understand how important this message is, and that they can really have so much more in their lives. And I love them so much, and wish that I could teach them, or find the words that will help them to realize it! So after a frustrating couple of days, we went to our regular lesson with Leslie, who has been meeting with sisters on and off for 10 years. But she'd never read the Book of Mormon before. So we started her on a reading schedule when I came, and she listens to the Book of Mormon on CD. Which is a good step, but you get so much more out of it when you read it. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when she said that she wasn't really understanding it. She had listened to Jacob 5 and told me that she laughed at it. She said that she compared it to an Abbot and Costello routine, "Who's on First". I tried to let it roll off, and just help her understand, but she wasn't taking it seriously. She just kept laughing. I was already frustrated with our other investigators, plus I wasn't feeling well because I'm sick, so everything kind of added up, and I got a little heated. I testified of the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it has the power to change her life, if she lets it. That it can heal her. That the Book of Mormon is something not to be treated lightly, and if she wasn't going to take it seriously, we were wasting our time. And I may or may not have shook the Book at her and said something about a pearl and some swine... lol. Well... she sobered up a bit... lol. And then we read Jacob 5 out loud together and talked through the allegory.and explained what it meant. She seemed to appreciate that. And I think that through the whole experience she understands better how important the Book of Mormon is.

I've never felt the need to defend the Book of Mormon before. It was a weird and surreal experience. I've been studying and committing Elder Holland's talk from Oct '09 conference about the Book of Mormon to memory, and let me tell you, if you're looking for passion about the Book of Mormon, you can find it there! Maybe that's what started me to "explain" to Leslie how much the Book of Mormon means to me. I'm beginning to develop this deep routed testimony of the Book of Mormon and how much it really has done for me. It's crazy. At the start of my mission, I had no idea, I think, about how much it effects people, or the power that it has. And if I had been called up to stand on a street corner and defend it, I don't think I would have known what to say. Except for the canned, "I know the Book of Mormon is true." But that is definately not the case now. I've read it 3 times since I got here, and it's something that I will defend with every last breath I have until my dying day. And I'll never be afraid to testify of it's message. I could stand on that street corner until I lose my voice (which I did this week, actually... hahahaha) and declare to anyone who passes by that the Book of Mormon has the convincing power to bring men (and women) unto repentance and that if they'll listen to the message we can share about it's pages, that they'll be better people, better families, and have better happiness.

I guess that about sums up the week. Not a ton of news about our investigators... like I said, we had kind of a slow week, between our investigators and me being sick...

Except that I almost forgot to tell you that Sister Archer, my companion, is being transfered, and I'll be training this transfer. I don't know who my companion is yet, until tomorrow around 4:00, so you'll all have to wait with baited breath until next week. :)

I love you all so much, and I'm grateful for all of your prayers and support!!!

Love, Sister Reid