One Moore Hermana in Arkansas!

"IF YOU THINK THIS WORK I S ABOUT YOU, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"

(ELDER BEDNAR)

Hello again! I'm almost 20 and I'm not hapy about it! That's too old! I want to be 19 forever. And I didn't even get to do anything super crazy and rebellios to say farewell to my teenage years. lame..

This week we attended 3 Specialized Trainings. They are meetings we have once a transfer. We receive instruction from President and the AP's and then sometimes someone else comes and talks. But this round was a little different. Each zone had their own Specialized. After we were instructed and taught the cool little pamphlet deal, we did a "break out" session, where we were assigned new companions, and all piled into cars and were dropped off in a random neighborhoods in the area. We were asked to put all that we learned that day into practice. Afterwards we all came back to the church and reported who we found and our experiences. All of the names we found were given to the Zone Leaders who were over the area for them to go back and follow up. We had some pretty cool experiences with this that I wanted to share.

(HERMANA'S HUDSON, HERNANDEZ, BENNETT, TESTER)

First Specialized was in Memphis. We went over there to do exchanges and President asked us to attend specialized with the Hermanas. I was assigned with Sister Dudley, (she is from Morgan!) and during the hour we spent knocking doors we found 4 new investigators and one even committed to baptism! From this Specialized we had a total of 42 new investigators! And the next day we got a text from the Zone Leaders saying they went back to visit one of our new gators that sister Dudley and I had found and they were able to set a date with her for the first week of October! How cool is that??

(HERMANA REED ON EXCHANGES IN HORN LAKE)

Next Specialized was for my Zone, North Little Rock Zone in Conway. In total we found 46 new investigators. One man we taught was sitting in his van for his lunch break. He was from Palmyra so he knew plenty about Joseph Smith, but was not a fan of the Book of Mormon. We went through all of The Restoration with him, it was easily the most powerful lesson I've had all week. By the end...yea he still wasn't having any of it. Didn't want us to leave a card or anything but we knew he felt the spirit. He'll come around one day.

(SISTER FARR, EVANS, LARSON, ELDER THOMAS)

Final Specialized was in Little Rock Zone. There are 2 sets of Hermanas in this zone. I went teaching with Hermana Hernandez, and Hermana Bennett. We only had 30 minutes and we were having no luck. We stopped and said a prayer asking to be able to find someone in this area, in the middle of our prayer the English elders on the other side of the street were calling after us, they had found a young mom, Maria, who only spoke Spanish so we went over and taught her The Restoration and committed her to baptism! She was golden. In total this zone found 50 new investigators

After all of this I got thinking..and if there were tons more missionaries out on missions the work would move forward SO MUCH FASTER! To have 50 new investigators in one hour is just madness! Most of the time there are only 4-6 missionaries at most in each area. Imagine if even just a few more missionaries more in each area! THE LORDS WORK NEEDS MORE MISSIONARIES. Any of y'all who are even considering a mission, just go. The Lord needs you.

(KAT)

We've also been taught lately to introduce ourselves as "your missionaries" not "the missionaries". The reactions are priceless. Hahaha people are so confused but it works for the most part! Sometimes it makes them interested...or upset. Sweet is the work. Haha

It has been insane coming back to Russellville after being gone all week and trying to pick things back up. Our biggest problem right now is that there aren't enough hours in the day. Once we were home we started making a "to-do" list and I wanted to cry. So much to do. Unfortunately we've lost contact with some investigators, we have around 15 referrals that need to be contacted, a list of less actives to visit, members who need service done, more exchanges this week in Monticello, I'm falling behind on my journal, our apartment is a disaster, we still haven't had time to unpack, and I've lost my personal study journal during this weeks travels =(, and OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF (name that movie.) haha

But I can honestly say although things are crazy and stressful, I've never served and worked so selflessly in my life. This week I felt like I was truly losing myself in the work. And although its exhausting, I love it. There is a quote by Elder Bednar that President quoted once, it says

"if you think this work is about you, get out of the way."

I love this.

Also something that was discussed at specialized was tender mercies. We talked about looking for them throughout the work because the more we recognize them the more we are "boasting in our God." So don't mind my boasting ;) but I want to list some tender mercies from this week:

-We were on bike week this week so we had to find rides EVERYWHERE. To Little Rock, then to Memphis, Mississippi, to Frasier, to Little Rock, then Conway, back to Russellville, and then Little Rock 3 more times for Stake Conference stuff. And each time we had a different member or missionary help us out. It was madness trying to find rides, but we received so much help with that this week, and it was such a blessing.

-We ran into Chris (Paul and Dasha's brother). Last we had heard he was in jail. But we rode past him at his work and he flagged us down and let us know that he is getting his life back together and thanked us for everything. Truly a tender mercy that we crossed paths with him.

-THE WEATHER IS PERFECT! It's not bloody hot anymore! It feels like fall! We even wore jackets this week a little bit! #SOBLESSED

-Chase is still gone, and we are super sad about it, but now we are teaching his cousin Jace! She is like Chase used to be and doesn't believe in God, but we've had some cool lessons with her and she agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon.

- I was able to teach someone from the Virgin Islands this week! So I basically served in St Thomas for a good 10 minutes! haha

-And lastly the tender mercy of coming across these scriptures. They helped a lot. they are about war which is completely applicable because la Lucha es real.

Alma 56: 16 depressed physically and emotionally (president says that even Ammon was depressed during missionary work (alma 26),so if we are depressed, good. that's normal. Hahah) it'd been a long week and now we are trying to retain Russellville.

Alma 58:9 grieved and filled with fear -SO MUCH TO DO.

:10 pray. Lots! ask for strength and help to retain our area

:11 God gave us assurances/tender mercies. Gave us peace of mind that it'd all be ok.

:37 & 39 trust. that God will come and help us and give us support that we need.

:41 SUCCESS

Then let's pretend that the next scripture is Mosiah 18:16: THEN THEY BAPTIZED 204 people. ;) That's the plan.

Luckily we don't have to do it on a bike this week. And next time you get an email from me I'll be an old lady #20. Everyone wave goodbye to my youth

Love Y'all

Te quiero

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