Hello! How was your week? Ours was BUSY. But so good. We had dinner with the Maughn family last night (from Provo/Grandview :) ), and Brother Maughn shared this touching analogy for his mission experience: Before your mission, you're on a peak, looking down on a valley of roses. But once you get there, you discover that roses have thorns--that it hurts sometimes, and the way is hard. But once you're through, and climb the peak on the other side, you'll look back and see all of the roses that were there the whole time. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary! I know that I learned and grown so much through my service as a missionary--in ways I recognize now, and hopefully many more ways that I will recognize later. I know that sometimes it's hard to recognize change or growth in yourself--have I grown in the past year? How?
I can't believe Colby and Alicia are getting married--what a small world! That's so exciting. Please send me congratulations to them, as well as to Kelly and Zac! It sounds like they are both powerful and prepared missionaries. What wonderful talks--thank you for sharing your notes with me!
Our week was busy as usual. :) We had Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday, which was fantastic. Sister Bell and I also organized a pot luck lunch for the zone--and it actually worked out! (Phew :) ). Everyone brought an ingredient, and we made Cafe Rio-style salad. Yum. :)
Speaking of conferences and meetings, our mission conference with Elder Bowen is tomorrow! I am SO excited. I can't wait to learn from him and from the Spirit that I know he will bring.
Also, did you get to watch the CES devotional last night? Another wonderful opportunity to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. Dan came, so we were able to watch it with him--I hope he got as much out of it as I did! I thought it was fabulous.
Both xxx and yyy came to church yesterday--yay! yyy hasn't set a baptismal date yet, but she wants to be baptized sometime in November. She is such a joy to teach--she is amazingly prepared and accepting of the gospel principles that we teach her. I love her!
xxx is also a great privilege to teach. I have grown so much in my gospel knowledge and teaching skills from teaching him. I'm grateful for every reminder that we need to teach simply, and teach by the Spirit. xxx is still struggling to accept Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I think he has felt spiritual witnesses, but he is so logic-minded and focused on evidence that he has a hard time accepting the spiritual confirmations he receives as answers. He has shared experiences feeling the Spirit before, but we're still trying to help him connect feeling the Spirit with recognizing this as the truth. We're going to try just focusing on reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and Joseph Smith for the next while. Do you have any other suggestions? How can we help him accept a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith in spite of it not making sense to him logically yet? We'd welcome any and all suggestions. :)
I've been reflecting lately on how much I've learned and changed as a missionary. I'm so grateful for the increased knowledge and understanding I have been blessed with recently, especially about the Atonement. I am grateful for challenging, even sometimes painful experiences that have helped me to realize just how much I need the Atonement. It's easy to identify with Nephi's psalm sometimes--and to wonder if I will ever be able to rise above my past self, past mistakes, and present imperfections. But now I know that that's what the enabling power of the Atonement is all about--by ourselves, we could never "break the mold" and rise above our natural selves. But through the Atonement, we have hope--hope that He can "raise us up" and save us from our weaknesses, sins, mistakes, inadequacies, faults--all of it. (see Moroni 7:41).
It reminds me of one of my favorite songs from the Ark--"Lift me up, take me home; Life me up and help me to stand. Lift me up, and carry me in the cup of Thy hand." The soothing balm of Gilead is what flows from the infinite sacrifice of the Savior--and that is what I want, more than anything, to share with the people of Ohio. We've been struggling to find lately, and this week we've decided to focus our prayers on asking for people's hearts to be softened, and to focus our studies on finding and teaching skills. Please pray for the people of Ohio! I know that they need the gospel of Jesus Christ just as much as I do--but it's very challenging to light fires under people who don't recognize the need for it. I'm guilty of that myself, in the past! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission, and to see my heart be changed and my eyes opened, and be blessed with greater understanding of and passion for living the gospel. I don't understand it all, and I can explain even less--but I know that we have been called by a prophet of God to share what we know to be true. And I love doing it. :) We're out of time, but I love you, and I love everyone at home! Please pass on my love and my gratitude to everyone for their prayers and well wishes. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Sister Wygant
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