And 2014 is this week??!! What...? Que en el Mundo?
I've realized with some dismay that I have nothing major standing between now and August since Christmas has passed, and I start panicking a little...okay maybe a lot. Hermana Pond has had to do some nice calming exercises with me whenever I think about it. But then it's okay, because I can still be a missionary even without a name tag :)
We had an awesome Christmas with lots of nice things at 6:30 am under our tree tiny tree, and of course talking to everyone was a tender moment. I must say hearing Brandon ask when I was coming home melted my heart a little. He couldn't even talk in February.
Wednesday night however I caught a cold from someone, who knows who since everyone has been sick this month. I had a bad cough and was achey and then the stuffy nose and sore throat came as well. Hermana Pond was a great nurse though being a certified EMT, and she checked my temperature and things very thoroughly. She thought at first it was Bronchitis since we had visited a member who had it, but I don't think it ever got bad enough to be Bronchitis. We did end up having to call our mission presidents wife for instruction and she told me I was probably super contagious and I shouldn't be around people. Rats. Working in doors today. I'm feeling a lot better now, mostly just trying to get the sniffles away.
Noel came to church again this week! WHOOOOO! We had a super solid lesson talking about what he needed to do to be able to be baptized. People have to do hard things sometimes, but it's worth it. I can't even explain how suprised I am everytime things pull through. Faith. Man. Sometimes you have to watch really closely or God gives you what you asked for in a different way than what you're expecting :)
We went caroling with the Elders Christmas Eve and we stopped by the Grandmother, who is not a member, of one of the less-actives we've been working with, she told us that no one had ever come caroling to her before and she was honored. She asked if we would take two of her pies that she had just baked, infact it would please her very much if we would take them. She was so gracious...about carolers. It made we start to think just a little bit more about how blessed we are to have the Spirit with us ALWAYS after Baptism. Not everyone feels that.
While in by delirious and zonked out state of sleep while being sick, I think I came to some conclusions. First when I sleep, I don't really sleep. I think. I ponder. I conclude. Especially when I fall asleep thinking about things. And so while I was passed out and stuffy, I was pondering what we could do to help the members in our Branches catch the wave. I woke up in the morning set on reading or rereading all of the talks given in the hastening the work broadcast in June. I only had one printed off, and the office was not open, and so I read the one. Good thing it was President Monson's :) while reading it I thought again of some of the ideas that Hermana Pond and I had had before. We're getting a new Branch Mission Leader in our English Branch, and we've started putting together a binder for him so that he has something to start with. It has lots of good things in it :) one of which were some example branch and FAMILY mission plans. While reading the talk by President Monson this phrase stuck out to me "May I endorse all that has been said here today. I testify to you that you will be blessed as you follow the counsel you have received." I had been dreaming all night about meeting with the members and helping them make family mission plans that when I woke up, it was the only thing that I could think about:Every family needs to have a plan. So we started getting more information together and figuring out how we could introduce the idea to members. Let me just say...it's a great idea! Everyone should do it! try it, you'll like it:) be waiting by the mailbox for further instruction.
Well, to end, I'd like to share something I learned in personal study today.
I jumped on the bandwagon and set some goals for myself for 2014 this morning and afterwards was studying about goals and what our goals should be in life for personal study. oh wow. Let me share...no, there's too much. I'll pick a favorite.
John 6:26-27
" 26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."
As I was thinking about this I was thinking about the difference between following Christ because of the miracles, or because we tasted of the bread and "were filled." While I was in my first area, San Marcos, someone in our branch mentioned to me that they thought many of people in the New Testament followed Christ simply because of His "magic" per say, the miracles. They weren't really converted to Christ because of his role as our Savior. I started to think about how in my life I sometimes just did things because I had seen the miracles. Did I go to church because that's what we always did, or was it something more? Did I read, or not read, my scriptures just because I "knew" I should, or was I feasting whenever I opened them? Did I serve a mission just because it was the thing to do now, or because I wan't to get out of school or be an RM or see the world? Or did I go because I had felt the Atonement in my life and I now had a responsibility to share that knowledge? It was kind'a a personal Alma 5 for me, soul searching what some of my motives in life and especially in the the Gospel have been. We should be following the Savior because we have tasted the Atonement, and not just because it's pop culture, or mormon culture, to do so. Like Danika mentioned in a letter to us back in March, our faith needs to be dependent not on a favorable outcome, but we need to have faith in the Lord no matter what happens. And as verse 27 says seek for the things that endure unto everlasting life. I challenge y'all to take a look at what motivates you, the miracles, or the bread.
It's an exciting time to be alive. Remember that. Soak in the good, and let go of the bad, bacause tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it as Anne Shirley says. I love y'all, take care!
Hermana Montgomery
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