Monday, May 12, 2014

I Love Tough Things!


I saw a church this week, who’s name topped all church names you’ve ever herd up until this point:  Christ Deliverance Temple Church Incorporated.

This week was very interesting.  I only got to spend 3 days in my area, due to various meetings & such.  But it was cool to see the Lord’s hand in our work, directing us to where we were most needed.

On Tuesday we got word that our Chevy Cruiz had been recalled, so we took it to a dealership in North Charleston.  The service guy, Matt, took a quick look at it, told us he needed to order some parts, and gave us back the keys so we could go on our way.  We drive back to Summerville, and then called our vehicle coordinator, to update him on the status of the repairs.  He was nervous about us driving the car, so he sent us back to N. Chuck to request a rental car, which we did.  We caught Matt, asked for a rental, he fought us on it for a second, but then ended up getting us the car…so now I’m feeling very adult in my new Chevy Malibu (seriously the fanciest car I’ve ever driven…way horrible turning radius though…) and we have unlimited miles!  Seriously the best thing ever! 

Wednesday was MLC.  I love our Mission President, and am not looking forward to his leaving.  I’m sure the new guy will be great, but he’s got pretty big shoes to fill.  We got a call at the car place on Tuesday to train on “having a positive attitude”, and because of all the mania with the car, we didn’t get to plan it until the car ride there.  We got up to train, nervous but confident that we’d have Devine help.  (This is one of the things I’ve noticed change in myself…) giving trainings used to give me serious anxiety…I think that’s why I’ve had to do so many of them (I recently counted up how many I have given…over 50…crazy huh?).  Now I’ve learned to plan to teach, and then simply give those plans to the Lord & let him direct the training to where it needs to go.  It was seriously a powerful training, and the Spirit was strong.  I’m so grateful that the Lord gave me this weakness, and the opportunities to practice, and make it strong.

Thursday we invited a young man named Davion to be baptized.  Davion is 16 years old, very very shy, and it’s hard to get any response out of him.  We’ve been teaching him about the Savior; who he is and his purpose & ministry here on earth.  We talked about the Savior’s baptism, and how we walked 90 miles to where John the Baptist was, so he could be baptized by the proper authority…meanwhile, Davion was completely silent.  We would ask questions and get a simple not, or a thoughtful look, but other than that…nothing.  We took a leap of faith and invited him to be baptized the way Christ was.  He was quiet for a sec, and then agreed.  We were pretty surprised but we pulled out a paper calendar, circled the 24th of May, and give it to him along with a green pen.  We invited him to write across the top of the paper why he wanted to be baptized, and sat there for a few minutes, wrote something, stared at it for a few minutes more, then held up the paper for us to see.  In big, wobbly letters it said across the top “It changes people”.  Whoa!  The spirit whoosed in at that moment and testified that he understood, and that his Heavenly Father was so proud.  Good day!

Friday was ZTM.  Not much to report except it was a good meeting.

Saturday we drove to the outskirts of our area and saw less active members that don’t get much contact because they’re so far.  Good day

Sunday was church.  I love church!  Towards the beginning of my mission I didn’t like it much, because it stressed me out.  People would go into deep doctrine in their Sunday talks, our investigators wouldn’t be fellowshipped like I would have liked, etc.  But now, I just enjoy the peace of the spirit that is there.

To close, a quick thought about faith and work.  President Holm told us a story about President Monson as a mission president in Canada.  He received a telegram from some of his missionaries that read “President the temperature here is 40 degrees below zero.  Please advise.”  President Monson quickly replied “Elders.  My advice is this…Dress warm.  Work hard.   And don’t look at the thermometer.  Warm regards, President.”

I love that!  If we have faith, knowing this is the Lord’s workk and he won’t let us fail, and work really really hard, we can do tough things.  President Monson knew the Lord would consecrate their efforts for their gain.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be like President Monson.  I’d rather wear out than rust out.  I love though things!

Y’all have a blessed week!

Love,

Sister Derrick
 
Bryndee with the Brimley Family
 
 
Good morning girls!  Sister Glauser and Bryndee first thing in the morning in their very clean kitchen...this mom is impressed!

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