Sister Kierra Wadsworth's Mission Blog: September 21, 2015

Hey there family and friends!!!

THIS WEEK WAS SOOOOO BUSY!!!! I love being busy!!

So on Monday, we just did our normal stuff emailing, lunch, did some sports at the church, washed our car, and went shopping for groceries :) After all that we had a great lesson with Amanda!! She is seriously so solid!! She is reading in Alma now and when we first met her, which was 3 weeks ago, she was in 2 Nephi 12! She is reading a ton :):) She loves the gospel so much and is so prepared. Everyday she texts us about how God blessed her that day. I love her so much :)

On Tuesday, we had a great discussion with Austin. He is wanting to teach us so he can learn more on his own!! He is doing so good. His grandma isn't doing very well and he is having a rough time with that. He has really come a far way though :) We did service at Ephrata Manor, love that place!!! We had dinner with the Singers and then we went to young womens!! We played some volleyball with them.

Wednesday, we walked around for like 4 hours!! It was great :) We got to talk to this guy and we had a great conversation. He actually has a Sister who is a member in Hershey :) We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. He was just taking a break when we were talking with him and he isn't actually in our area so that was a bummer but hey we still talked to him and followed the prompting we had and invited him to come closer to Christ!!! We went and tried some potentials but not a lot of luck with them. We had a lesson with Ethan. We had a lesson with Ethan. He was sitting on his porch waiting for us, it was the cutest :) He has been having some person issues lately and we told him that he can pray and ask God to help him and he told us that he was praying about it and he is doing better!!! He is so sweet!!! We had a dinner appointment that was really far away from Ethan so we drove to that :) It was good :)

I was pretty tired from walking all day so I slept really well!!! :)

Thursday, we went and read scriptures with Sister Hackman in the morning then weekly planned for most of the day. We had a dinner appointment and they gave us leftovers!! I love when members give us food :):)

Friday, I HAD SUCH A GREAT DAY!!!!! Elder Stanfill from the seventy came to our mission and we had a fireside! It was sooo good!!!!! We had to get there really early because Sister Stanfill and Sister Johnson had a meeting with just the Sisters. They talked about getting a long with our companions and how it is preparing us for our eternal companion in the future. They said that we need to be looking for the qualities that our companions have that we want in our future spouse :) They also talked about how we can become a divine source of aid to our companions!! It was so good. Then we all got together and Sister Johnson trained us, One of the things that really stood out to me was when she said "anything that is good takes work!" She also talked about how we need not to set our expectations higher than the Lords. We can't get discouraged when we might think that we are being successful, we need to learn what God thinks about success, it is probably much different than our definition. "The Lord knows what success means, we may think what success means but it may not be the same as His thoughts of success." We need to drop down to our knees when we are feeling discouraged! I have seen this thus far on my mission. I have been on my knees so much and just relying our the Lord and Savior!!! They are AMAZING!! She also talked about how we need to focus on the Savior and what He can do for us and not focus on what we can't do. Then President Johnson trained us. He talked about the qualifications of baptism. There are a lot of steps that people have to take to be prepare to enter the waters of baptism. They are all listed in D&C 20:37!! Read it, it's good :):) "We do not have the authority to baptize those who do not meet the qualifications for baptism found in Preach MY Gospel." - Elder David F. Evans. So great!!! Then Sister Stanfill trained us! She talked about our teaching power and how we truly do have the power to teach people!!! A lot of power :) Then Elder Stanfill trained us. He talked about how we are epistles of the Lord. Epistle means letter but if we look in the bible dictionary it means something different, it's a formal teaching instrument!!!! That is what missionaries are!!! It was so great!!! All my companions were there! It was so awesome!!!! I LOVED IT!! The spirit was so strong!!! That night we had another great lesson with Amanda then we went and contacted a referral that we received. Her name is Amanda, haha we have 2 Amanda's now, she is in-active and wondering what she believes in. She wants to learn everything again. She committed me to read Deuteronomy and then the other first 5 books of the Old Testament so I can relater things with her. Thank goodness for the institute manuals that help me understand the bible :):)

Saturday, we helped with a baptism early in the morning to a returning member!! It was great :) Then we had correlation with Brother Eberly. After correlation we went and yard work for a couple in our ward!!! We did that all day :) It was sooo fun!!!! I was really sweaty and dirty, so grateful for a shower :) It was a great day!!!

Yesterday, we had our regular church meetings then afterwards we had another fireside. It is called "Why I Believe." Every zone in the mission did it. The missionaries sang and some recent converts bore their testimony. President and Sister Johnson bore their testimony and told us why they believe!!! It was soo great!!! The spirit was so strong!! This week has been full of spiritual things :):) It's great!!! And next week we have Zone conferences!! We are going to get black boxes... Ugh!

Well it has been such a great week for me!!! Sister Zaugg is going home in 2 weeks now.. CRAZY!! I am going to miss her so much.. I am doing great :) Love you all to the moon and back!!! Have a great week :):)

Love Sister Kierra Wadsworth