Hey Daddy!
Thanks for your words of encouragement and for helping me see the blessings in having President Wall as my mission president. I have been kind of bad at recognizing the blessings in my life recently, so thank you for helping me see some. :)
It's gotten cold down here too but not that cold, 29 degrees this morning.
So on my birthday we had district meeting and then we just went and raked leaves for a few hours. It felt awesome to just serve people on my birthday. I think it's a new tradition I want to start. Every year on my birthday, do some sort of service project. On Saturday we went and finished raking and it was the coolest thing. We finished raking a less active woman's ward and she came out and started helping and bought us pizza. Then we did her next door neighbor and then her across the street neighbor, both homes we'd tracted into before. The one neighbor, M, has a son that just had a liver transplant a while ago, and he was so grateful and surprised to have help with something that would've taken him hours to do on his own, but with us, the elders, and some ward members we enlisted, it was done in about an hour. So awesome! Hopefully we can invite that family to church sometime. Not sure what the Lord wants us to do with them.
D, H and R are ok. M's parents go home tomorrow and they go back to school today so hopefully since they'll be back in a routine it will be easier for us to teach them and they can come to church more. Also, 1st ward now starts at 11am and D is really happy about that. We need to talk about baptism with H and R and give them a date that they can work towards. Not sure when/where that lesson will happen - we wanted to do it with the Tylers - the fighting rooster family- but they are hard to schedule with because they are so very busy, so we might need to move to plan B.
But the work marches on. Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like everything is a struggle. Nothing has come easily for me on the mission and I was beginning to wonder if I'm doing things wrong because everything is just so stinkin hard. But I realized 3 things:
1. Life is not that hard - I have so many blessings that I'm taking for granted.
2. Life is supposed to be hard - it's how we stay humble and stay close to the Lord. We need to be refined, even though it's painful, so that we can live with God again and enjoy/appreciate it.
3. Opposition is sometimes a sign that you're doing things right. The adversary works against those who are trying to accomplish righteous purposes. Look at Nephi - he was like the most righteous guy ever, and yet his life was filled with turmoil, struggle, and strife. It's okay and GOOD to struggle. I need to appreciate the fact that the Lord trusts me that I can do it, I can stick with it, and He will help me to do that. I can endure with His help.
K, sorry this is short.
Love you lots!
-Johanna
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