Coming up on Five

Hi family.  Well, I have lots of things to write about this week, I even had to make a list of all of the things I wanted to write about.

First:I am in mourning wearing black and grey. Transfer calls came last night, and I am being transferred from Del Rio. When they told me I literally couldn't say a word, Hermana Pond had to take the phone from me and finish the conversaion. Never knew what it meant to be speechless until last night. The phone hadn't even clicked the call before the tears came. Shoot, now I'm crying again. I've been having quite a few long conversations with God since then. I'll be Senior Companion again and going to an "interesting area" in their words. I've never stayed anywhere longer than two transfers, why start now? So don't send any letters or anything to my Del Rio address this week. This will be my fifth area. And at this rate I'll have another 2-3 before August. Never enough to time get to know people. Bring it on, I guess?

We've had a lot of miracles this week, the first one came last Monday as we were handed our reading packets to prepare for Elder Bednar coming this week. President Slaughter wrote a note to all of the missionaries in the front of the packet. One of the things that he said was "Elder Bednar is not simply a great orator; he is not merely a Mormon celebrity. He is one of the Lord's anointed, a special witness of Christ. His message will be life changing to those who have ears to hear." The three talks that we have been given are to study are:

Seek Learning By Faith (http://www.lds.org/tools/print/article/narrow/?lang=eng&url=/callings/sunday-school/messages-from-leaders/words-of-the-prophets/seek-learning-by-faith)
Ask in Faith (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/ask-in-faith?lang=eng)
Converted unto the Lord (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/converted-unto-the-lord?lang=eng)

As Hermana Pond and I have been studying them together and separately this week, I think our lives have already been changed. Every morning after personal study it's like gasping coming up for air after our brains have exploded. If that made any sense. It's incredible how much information, principle and doctrine he covers in those talks. I'm excited for him to come :)

On Tuesday while contacting a less active, we found out that they didn't live there anymore. The man we were talking to very suddenly said he had to go and shut the door on us. A little baffled at how suddenly he had shut the door we started walking down the sidewalk back to our car. Two young boys on bikes passed us and one skidded turning back to us and said "Hey! Do you preach??" We told him yes, and he said "Like, the word of God?" We started talking to him and found out that missionaries had taught both of their families in the past and they still had Book of Mormons that they sometimes read. We figured out where they lived and gave them pass along cards with our number to look at with their parents. We stopped by on Friday and had a first lesson with one of the families and have a return appointment set up for Tuesday :) Miracle.

I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that we've been trying teach the actual Preach My Gospel Lessons at the end of our piano classes. We use primary songs and hymns to talk about a topic and use the notes and and rythems in the hymn to practice what we're learning with the music. So our first lesson we used I am I Child of God for God is our loving Heavenly Father, the second one we used follow the Prophet and Come Follow Me for The Gospel in Every Dispensation and Christ's Earthly Ministryall from the Restoration lesson. While talking about God being our Heavenly Father, I asked some of the members (We've had two members and one non-member coming consistently) if they had ever thought about that before. Really stopped to think about how they are a literal Child of God. One of the Girls is 24-years-old and in the Spanish Branch, and she is a Sunday School teacher. The Sunday after she talked about  the Piano class and how she felt as she stopped to think about what that meant for her. It was kind of neat to see how the little things that we say can touch others hearts, member or non-member.

This week, I've been setting some goals for the new year, things I'd like to be better at ya know the new years routine. But, after setting those goals for the new year, I decided to study some about goals and purpose and things. Topical Guide and Bible Dictionary. I'm telling ya, there's golden things in there. So some of the scriptures I read mostly talked about the word "Perfect". A while back, I debated with a companion because she said that  Mattew 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." meant that God was literally commanding us to be perfect and to not make any mistakes. That didn't sit with me. Looking at the footnote for the words perfect says "GR complete, finished, fully developed.  TG God, the Standard of Righteousness; Godliness; Man, New, Spiritually Reborn; Man, Potential to Become like Heavenly Father; Mission of Early Saints;Objectives; Perfection." My favorite being complete and fully developed. I've been thinking about how this year I would like to develop who I am more fully, I thought that even before I read those scriptures. To Understand things better and have my personality, conversion, progression synced up a little tighter. Some my Scripture and theme for the the year is "Come unto Christ and be perfected in him" (Moroni 10:32) I'm excited to see what the new year hold for me. What are your goals?

Speaking of Goals, We've been meeting with families helping them plan and prepare  their own family mission plans and goals. The response has been incredible. It's going to change the scene here in Del Rio!

This week we had exchanges again and I headed back down to Eagle Pass to be with Hermana Beaumont. They had in their apartment some sombreos, entonces, I asked if we could wear them during companionship study :) then, as we wear eating lunch, Hermana Beaumont said that we probably should take the hats with us though out the day and take pictures in them. I suggested that we make fake mustaches as well. And so we had a mustache adventure day were we would pause or pull over and take a quick picture with something. Yes, we are 20 and 23-years-old. We also had our dinner appointment fall through, so Hermana Beaumont took me down the the Border. Wahhhh! So we had a picnic dinner on the border of Mexico, only the Rio Grand seperating us. Cool huh? We could even hear the sounds of Mexico across the water. Someday :)

Well family, that's about all. I hope y'all are doing well and livin' it up :)

Love,

Hermana Montgomery