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Hi Mama!
Well. It's been a GREAT week. We have seen so many miracles this week! I'll just share a few.
One: We have a baptism scheduled!!! This is for Jacob, the 11-year old son of a returning less active member. He was originally going to be baptized in December, but some family things came up and it didn't happen. BUT we were able to set a new date for the 20th of January for his baptism, and we are so excited! He and his mom, Nancy, are so great. Jacob sometimes has a short attention span, so we get to practice having short, interactive lessons in order to teach him. It's great. :)
Two: we ended up with some extra time last night because an appointment fell through, and after finishing our backup plans, felt that we needed to go visit Sister Davis, an older widow in our branch. She is amazing and incredible, and I love her so much. When we arrived, she was just getting home from a very long day, and she was feeling very down and overwhelmed. We didn't know that when we decided to stop by, but we were able to comfort her and spend time with her--which she told us was an answer to her prayers. We were an answer to someone's prayers! I LOVE THAT. I'm so grateful that we followed that prompting to visit her, and that arrived at just the right time to comfort and uplift her. God is good. :)
Three: We went to visit a less active member yesterday but couldn't find his house...but we ended up talking to a man whose house we stopped at to ask directions, and he said we could come back and teach him. Awesome. :)
Four: We meet a guy named Kevin tracting inBurton
Five: The Nativity display is all over, packed up, and the VC is rather slow--not as many people coming in to take tours during the winter. We get to make a lot of calls though, to people that have been referred by friends who have come through. This past week I talked to someone in Australia (!!), a girl in Germany who met with missionaries while an exchange student in the states and wants to get back in contact with them (So so so awesome), and a Baptist minister in Tennessee (for 40 minutes...phew! They really know their Bible! Somewhat intimidating. But he was so nice, and we really had a great conversation), among others. I used to be so scared of making phone calls...but we've really seen so many blessings and such success as we've persevered through long lists of numbers this week. I love it. :)
Six: We had 4 investigators at church on Sunday! Jacob, Ravyn (9-year old daughter of another returning less active member --SO cute. Love her), and a couple named Ben and Barb! Ben and Barb coming to church really was a miracle. I think I told you last week about meeting them, and hoping that they would be able to come to church. And they did! The branch was so wonderful to reach out and welcome them, and they told us that they felt very comfortable there. We're going to meet with them on Saturday, and hopefully they'll come to church again!
Seven: Elder Edman (our VC director) gave me a beautiful New Year's blessing on Sunday. I absolutely love having that opportunity to start off each year/semester with a blessing from Dad--and I had been sad that I wouldn't be able to have one this year. Fortunately, the Spirit suggested I ask Elder Edman for one in Dad's absence--and although it could never be the same, I am so grateful for Elder Edman's willingness and worthiness to give me a blessing. It brought me so much comfort and strength. However, I can't wait to have another blessing from my Daddy. I love you, Da :)
Those are just a few of the great things that happened this week. I love it here. We get to see miracles every day!
You know you much I love quotes...and I've taken to acquiring favorite talks almost as quickly. :) One favorite from this week is "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland, given at a BYU devotional in January of 2009 (find it at speeches.byu.edu). It is SO great. I wish I could quote the whole thing to you, but hopefully you'll have time to look it up sometime. :) Here's just one of many favorite quotes from the talk: "When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal." I love that so much. I know that our Saviour died for each and every one of us, and that because of the Restoration of the gospel, we have access to the healing and saving power of the Atonement (see "Why Do We Do Missionary Work?" by Elder Oaks, New Era Sept 2009). The Atonement is meant to be used--don't let that precious gift sit on a shelf! The quote also reminds me of a favorite Mormon Message (watch them at mormonchannel.org!). It's called Reclaimed, and you can watch it here: http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#reclaimed.
Other favorite quotes from the week:
"It may be hard to believe, but God knows your name--it's written on His hand." (from the book you sent me--I love it! Thank you!). I love his quote in particular. 1 Nephi 21:14-16 is one of my all-time favorite scriptures.
"Our net faith is what we have left to exercise after we subtract our sources of doubt and disbelief. You might ask yourselves this question: "Is my own net faith positive or negative?" If your faith exceeds your doubt and disbelief, the answer is likely positive...We do have a choice. We get what we focus on consistently." --Kevin W. Pearson, Conference April 2009. I LOVE this quote. We all have doubts and fears at some point in our lives. But what matters is that we don't let those doubts and fears outweigh our hope, faith, and love for our Savior. If we allow doubt to be the main focus of our thoughts, we are in reality doubting the ability of our Savior's Atonement to save us. Don't do that. :)
"Look like and act like what you are trying to become." I love this! The only way to change and become better at something is to go out and practice. To try and try again to emulate the quality/etc that we want to develop. God can't steer a parked car--we can't sit around waiting for progress to happen. :)
I also rediscovered the parable of the tumbleweed this week when our Zone Leaders shared it with us in Zone Training Meeting. I can't find the reference, but it goes something like this: A wealthy man is driving his nice, expensive car along a lone, dreary highway. All of the sudden, a huge obstacle rolls out into the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, rolls his car in a ditch, and dies. A second man comes along the same road--an old farmer in his beat-up truck. He's traveled this road many times before, and when the same 'obstacle' rolls out onto the road, he just drives right through it. It breaks to pieces because it's just a huge, dry tumbleweed. Good, right? I love that. Tumbleweeds are all that Satan can throw at us. When we can recognize doubts and temptations as merely tumbleweeds, and plow right through them instead of swerving off the path of life or allowing our faith to falter, we can stay safe and keep progressing towards our goals. Of course, Satan will throw as many tumbleweeds at us as he can--but that doesn't mean we're not on the right course, or that we have to stop and panic about each one of them. Just keep going. :)
Grandma Morgan's getting married!! Yay!! Congrats!! Please pass on my love and congratulations! And thank you ever so much for explaining the Figi's mix up. I'm so grateful that both of my grandmas were so generous and loving and thought of me at Christmas time. Like you said, how ironic that they both thought of Figi's. Must be because their products are so good! :) I have indeed written to Grandma Park, several times--do you know yet whether she got my Christmas card or not?
Time is running short--I'll end here. I hope enjoy the rest of your time inHawaii
Love,
Sister Wygant
LOVE YOU. :)
PS. CES devotional with President Uchtdorf is on Sunday!! I hope you all get to watch it--we're so excited for it!!
Well. It's been a GREAT week. We have seen so many miracles this week! I'll just share a few.
One: We have a baptism scheduled!!! This is for Jacob, the 11-year old son of a returning less active member. He was originally going to be baptized in December, but some family things came up and it didn't happen. BUT we were able to set a new date for the 20th of January for his baptism, and we are so excited! He and his mom, Nancy, are so great. Jacob sometimes has a short attention span, so we get to practice having short, interactive lessons in order to teach him. It's great. :)
Two: we ended up with some extra time last night because an appointment fell through, and after finishing our backup plans, felt that we needed to go visit Sister Davis, an older widow in our branch. She is amazing and incredible, and I love her so much. When we arrived, she was just getting home from a very long day, and she was feeling very down and overwhelmed. We didn't know that when we decided to stop by, but we were able to comfort her and spend time with her--which she told us was an answer to her prayers. We were an answer to someone's prayers! I LOVE THAT. I'm so grateful that we followed that prompting to visit her, and that arrived at just the right time to comfort and uplift her. God is good. :)
Three: We went to visit a less active member yesterday but couldn't find his house...but we ended up talking to a man whose house we stopped at to ask directions, and he said we could come back and teach him. Awesome. :)
Four: We meet a guy named Kevin tracting in
Five: The Nativity display is all over, packed up, and the VC is rather slow--not as many people coming in to take tours during the winter. We get to make a lot of calls though, to people that have been referred by friends who have come through. This past week I talked to someone in Australia (!!), a girl in Germany who met with missionaries while an exchange student in the states and wants to get back in contact with them (So so so awesome), and a Baptist minister in Tennessee (for 40 minutes...phew! They really know their Bible! Somewhat intimidating. But he was so nice, and we really had a great conversation), among others. I used to be so scared of making phone calls...but we've really seen so many blessings and such success as we've persevered through long lists of numbers this week. I love it. :)
Six: We had 4 investigators at church on Sunday! Jacob, Ravyn (9-year old daughter of another returning less active member --SO cute. Love her), and a couple named Ben and Barb! Ben and Barb coming to church really was a miracle. I think I told you last week about meeting them, and hoping that they would be able to come to church. And they did! The branch was so wonderful to reach out and welcome them, and they told us that they felt very comfortable there. We're going to meet with them on Saturday, and hopefully they'll come to church again!
Seven: Elder Edman (our VC director) gave me a beautiful New Year's blessing on Sunday. I absolutely love having that opportunity to start off each year/semester with a blessing from Dad--and I had been sad that I wouldn't be able to have one this year. Fortunately, the Spirit suggested I ask Elder Edman for one in Dad's absence--and although it could never be the same, I am so grateful for Elder Edman's willingness and worthiness to give me a blessing. It brought me so much comfort and strength. However, I can't wait to have another blessing from my Daddy. I love you, Da :)
Those are just a few of the great things that happened this week. I love it here. We get to see miracles every day!
You know you much I love quotes...and I've taken to acquiring favorite talks almost as quickly. :) One favorite from this week is "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland, given at a BYU devotional in January of 2009 (find it at speeches.byu.edu). It is SO great. I wish I could quote the whole thing to you, but hopefully you'll have time to look it up sometime. :) Here's just one of many favorite quotes from the talk: "When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal." I love that so much. I know that our Saviour died for each and every one of us, and that because of the Restoration of the gospel, we have access to the healing and saving power of the Atonement (see "Why Do We Do Missionary Work?" by Elder Oaks, New Era Sept 2009). The Atonement is meant to be used--don't let that precious gift sit on a shelf! The quote also reminds me of a favorite Mormon Message (watch them at mormonchannel.org!). It's called Reclaimed, and you can watch it here: http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#reclaimed.
Other favorite quotes from the week:
"It may be hard to believe, but God knows your name--it's written on His hand." (from the book you sent me--I love it! Thank you!). I love his quote in particular. 1 Nephi 21:14-16 is one of my all-time favorite scriptures.
"Our net faith is what we have left to exercise after we subtract our sources of doubt and disbelief. You might ask yourselves this question: "Is my own net faith positive or negative?" If your faith exceeds your doubt and disbelief, the answer is likely positive...We do have a choice. We get what we focus on consistently." --Kevin W. Pearson, Conference April 2009. I LOVE this quote. We all have doubts and fears at some point in our lives. But what matters is that we don't let those doubts and fears outweigh our hope, faith, and love for our Savior. If we allow doubt to be the main focus of our thoughts, we are in reality doubting the ability of our Savior's Atonement to save us. Don't do that. :)
"Look like and act like what you are trying to become." I love this! The only way to change and become better at something is to go out and practice. To try and try again to emulate the quality/etc that we want to develop. God can't steer a parked car--we can't sit around waiting for progress to happen. :)
I also rediscovered the parable of the tumbleweed this week when our Zone Leaders shared it with us in Zone Training Meeting. I can't find the reference, but it goes something like this: A wealthy man is driving his nice, expensive car along a lone, dreary highway. All of the sudden, a huge obstacle rolls out into the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, rolls his car in a ditch, and dies. A second man comes along the same road--an old farmer in his beat-up truck. He's traveled this road many times before, and when the same 'obstacle' rolls out onto the road, he just drives right through it. It breaks to pieces because it's just a huge, dry tumbleweed. Good, right? I love that. Tumbleweeds are all that Satan can throw at us. When we can recognize doubts and temptations as merely tumbleweeds, and plow right through them instead of swerving off the path of life or allowing our faith to falter, we can stay safe and keep progressing towards our goals. Of course, Satan will throw as many tumbleweeds at us as he can--but that doesn't mean we're not on the right course, or that we have to stop and panic about each one of them. Just keep going. :)
Grandma Morgan's getting married!! Yay!! Congrats!! Please pass on my love and congratulations! And thank you ever so much for explaining the Figi's mix up. I'm so grateful that both of my grandmas were so generous and loving and thought of me at Christmas time. Like you said, how ironic that they both thought of Figi's. Must be because their products are so good! :) I have indeed written to Grandma Park, several times--do you know yet whether she got my Christmas card or not?
Time is running short--I'll end here. I hope enjoy the rest of your time in
Love,
Sister Wygant
LOVE YOU. :)
PS. CES devotional with President Uchtdorf is on Sunday!! I hope you all get to watch it--we're so excited for it!!
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