Week 39

Happy conference, everybody!

I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who emailed me this week, I felt a lot of extra love and it was so fun to see pictures. I probably wont have time to email everyone back today - sorry about that - but just know it was fully appreciated! 

This week was super busy and a little stressful, but also really awesome. We had two exchanges this week. The first one I got to go into my first area Monterey/Central and it was pretty fun. We didn't see really anyone that I had taught, but it was fun to be in the area again. I was with Sister Patterson, a new missionary, and she did so well! I was super impressed by her and her spirit and effort. She was a great example to me and I learned things that I could be working on better in my own area. Then we went on exchanges in the French area. I went with sister Pendant into their area and it was super cool to be in French work for another day. Obviously I had no idea what was going on in the lessons, but it was so cool to see the culture. We taught in this area nicknamed "little Africa" because it is almost all African refugees who live there. I again learned so much from my companion for the day. She was so sweet to everyone and I could tell just from one day how much she loved the people and especially how much she loves being a missionary. I really am starting to love exchanges. It is such an amazing opportunity to learn from other missionaries. Plus, there always seems to be a surge of miracles on exchanges. In the French area we got to teach two investigators and invite them to find out for themselves if what we were teaching is true.

We also had district meeting this week, and I was asked to prepare a little lesson type thing about our missionary purpose. It was nice to be able to study and ponder it, and I found a scripture that I really like. D&C 12:8 says, "And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care." It made me realize that if I want to assist in missionary work, then I need to work on myself A LOT so that I can have those qualities that Christ has. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ so that they can find peace and happiness. To do that, we have to become better ourselves. I really appreciated the last sentence "whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care." I feel like a lot of responsibility is entrusted to missionaries. We get to help a lot of people. I was just thinking, would I be willing to do ANYTHING "whatsoever shall be entrusted to my care" to help people? I hope I would. I want to be able to, so that is what I am going to be focusing on for the rest of this transfer. Becoming better myself so that I can be trusted to help others find happiness. 

General conference was amazing! My favorite talk was president Uchtdorf's talk. I learned a lot about faith and how I can improve myself and increase my own faith. I also loved Elder Holland’s talk - especially how he started it. If you didn't get the change to see it, look it up as soon as it is available to you. You hear all the time that the general authorities love you, but that was the first time I really felt it. What a blessing to be able to listen and learn from the prophet and apostles. 

A little miracle we had this week…We went to have a lesson with the young women who just set a date for baptism last week, and her mom was there as well. We taught them about the plan of salvation. The mom’s heart just softened. She said if she knew it was true she would be baptized with her daughter, which she was not willing to commit to the last lesson. I feel so lucky to have knowledge of a life after this one. It brings me so much hope and peace in the hard times; like a little push not to give up. For me, that means everything. 

I hope you all had a good week, whatever you were doing. I hope and pray this week is even better than the last. 

Hermana Doxey