Jots and Tittles

OLLO.

 

Hey. How are you guys doing? Good. Kiss those Birthday kids for me. They're gettin too old.

 

Well, it's been a long week. I don't even know what happened. Sometimes I lose my memory with how busy we are. Sister Young can attest to that. She told me one day, "you're not very good about rememebering these things" after I had asked her three times what address we were going to. I responded "yeah, it's struggle." Sister Wright warned me that someday I would lose my brain like her. Comes with the training I guess.

 

So ya want the big news? Yes.  We have a BAPTISM. WHOOOO!  Yes, set for Saturday at 5pm. It's exciting. We are making all the plans tonight with Mark, and we're crossing our fingers that everything goes through. The hardest part is going to be transitioning him to the family ward after his baptism, since he's already older than the age limit for the YSA kids. Things are proving difficult getting permission and organizing everything, but, it's going to work out and be okay.

 

We've have been meeting with all of the bishops in the stake to discuss their YSA satus, and to get an idea of who would be good people to work with. Well, we met wih the Adams Hill Spanish Ward Bishop Yeserday. OH WOW. SPANISH. ehhhhh. We were told that he "spoke English kind'a" and we responded "well, we kind'a speak Spanish...sooo...". We thought about having the elders in the Spanish ward come and help us, but then I said "we have been Spanish called, we can do this." So we did. OH WOW. I haven't been spoken so much to in Spanish since the MTC and I walked away with a spiked headache. Pero, esta bien. Natives speak so fast. And we were old that he was nothin'. He started to say the opening prayer, and I might have gasped out loud. Spanish is difficult, but I love listening to people talk in Spanish. As long as they don't ask us any questions we have to answer. haha But he talked to us for a moment about when he was called as a Bishop. He said that he wasn't ready, and I think he had not been a memeber for very long. He said that he was very overwhalmed and felt very unpreprared. But he said that somebody, I think the stake president, told him not to worry about it. God qaulifies those He calls. Afterwards, Sister Young and I were talking about it in the car while driving to our dinner appoinment, and she said "it's was like he was talking about us. Like he knew what we were feeling this week." Say what you feel like you should say. You never know when you might answer someone elses'  prayers. Even when the answer is in Spanish.

 

We met with a less-active this week, who had been a memeber his whole life, knew "all the Book of Mormon stories" had "taken all those missinary lessons" and yet somehow missed why the church was important. or what made it true. We asked if we could start meeting with him each week to go over the lessons, and when he asked why, Sister Young was quick as a whip responding "because I'm training and I need to practice teaching people, will you help us?" Sure enough, we couldn' resist helping us. So we started reading Alma 34, which is very dear to my heart, after church, since we were giving him that chapter for homework. Our Elders Quorm Presiden and one other Young guy in our ward joined our "nerdy-mormon-scripure-sudy" and all parties invloved actually got really into talking about the Atonement, jots and tittles, and why we need a Savior. Even our less-active didn't want to stop when Sister Young and I had to go to a meeting. We're excited to get him involved reading the Book of Mormon. For those of you who don't know, I invite you to look up what a "jot" and "tittle" are, and then read Alma 34 and think about why those words were used in describing the Atonement and the law, and what that would mean for you in your life. Great insights can come from paying attention to word choice in the Book of Mormon. I keep my dictionary handy while studying.

 

I also may or may not have cut my hair into a short bob. It's fun.

 

Sister Young and I have also been listening to the Book of Mormon in Spanish while driving in the car. It makes those long drives out to less-actives way more entertaining and educational. And Spiritual. It's neat.

 

In our Zone meeting this week, we were given a referals challange from our Zone Leaders. The companionship with the most MEMEBR referals recived and contact before tansfers (2 weeks away) would recieve a prize. Got to get some competitive and creative juices flowin'. Afterwards, I was talking to our Zone leader, Elder Weavers for a minute, and he told me that he expected Siser Young and I to win. Cool. No Pressure.

 

Being a missionary is difficult. But I wouldn' t trade these experiences or relationships for the world. Missionary work really is something bigger than just a church or even just a part of a church. It really is "The Work of Salvation." And it's not just for missionaries. It's for everyone. Please, don't be left out of this work. Get invloved. People need what you have. And no matter what it may be, you do have something to share.

 

I'm just about out of time now. I love you all and pray for you.  "Hope on. Journey on" (Elder Holland I Believe April 2013 General Conference)

 

Love,

Hermana C. Montgomery