Paperwork

email 03 Nov 2015

Well this week has been awesome! Sister West and I are having a blast together. We actually cover two stakes. A home (Family - Ed.) stake and a YSA (Young Single Adult - Ed.) stake. YSA is verrrrrry different from a home stake. First, because sacrament meeting is extremely quiet. I felt like my stomach grumbling was echoing! Second, their testimonies are short and to the point. No one does a 45 minute testimony. Something that is odd though is some people kind of advertise themselves while they're up there. They'll casually slide in the fact that they're single or that they're a returned missionary haha kind of funny. But I guess that's one of the purposes of YSA!

Sister west gave me nasty Australian candy. And nasty Australian vegemite.

We're teaching a lot of fun people! There's one guy, Richard, who's from Kenya. Like STRAIGHT FROM KENYA. He travels around running marathons. That's literally his job is running races. So he came here and met the missionaries and last weekend got baptized and received the priesthood. This past Thursday we got to go with him to do baptisms in the temple for the first time. It was so special! It was so neat to see how everyone in the temple made him feel so special for his first time. But this morning he left to go back to Kenya. I was sad to see him go! But he took a whole box of Book of Mormons with him that are in Swahili. He's got that missionary spirit!

Okay last person that we're teaching that I wanted to tell y'all about. His name is James. James CRACKS. ME. UP. He's 25 and he wants to come back to church. He's overcoming his drinking and smoking problems. We were talking about the atonement and I said Christ had felt every stubbed toe to every broken heart. Well that really resonated with him. A little too well actually. He started dramatically telling us this story about how he stubbed his pinky toe. He said it was one of those moments where, "It made me question all of my life plans." And he went into his room and said, "I dropped to the floor and just rolled around. Just rolling and cursing." We were all dying at his dramatic pinky toe story. But if that's the moment that helps him gain a testimony of the atonement, then it works! Also he talked to the bishop about getting the priesthood. But he was saying, "I'm not sure if I want to get the priesthood." And we all felt sad. We asked him why and his response was, "I just don't want to spend my weekends doing paperwork." We were like....Uhhh......what?? "Yeah it just seems like it would be a lot of paperwork." Hahahah, oh James. He's awesome. Now that he understands that the priesthood isn't endless amounts of paperwork, he's working towards it. :)

On Halloween we had to go in early. But we got permission to watch Cokeville Miracle. It was amazing! I loved it. It was an interesting experience to think that it actually happened. I love the message of prayer in this movie. Because of the humble prayers of the children and the teachers and people around the world, everyone was able to survive the bomb. It truly was a miracle. I would encourage everyone to watch it. It's great:)

Cokeville Miracle Trailer

This last week we attended a scripture study group for the YSA. And today we went to an institute up at Weber State University. I absolutely loved being spiritually fed that way! We studied Isaiah in 2 Nephi 14. The part that stood out to me was verse 4:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.

When it talked about "washing and burning" it made me think of baptism (washing) and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (burning). But it also said they're being washed by the "spirit of judgement." We can be cleansed by Heavenly Father's loving correction. His judgement helps us realize how we can become better. And what we can do to be cleansed every week. Judgement is part of the process of becoming perfect.

Another scripture I studied this week is Matthew 4:18-20:

18 ¶And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
 19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

I've studied this passage a lot. But this time something that stood out to me is how hard it would be to be an apostle. You have to leave behind your livelihood. Your family. Literally everything. I tried to put myself in that situation. Just dropping what you're doing. No questions asked and following Christ. It took me a LONG time to come on a mission. But the apostles did it fully and completely without delay. It made me look at the motivation of my obedience. If it's because it's convenient. If it's because of the blessings. Or if it's because I love Him. I think the apostles felt that strong love for Christ as soon as He spoke and that's why they followed so willingly.

Well I'm having a blast here in the Utah Ogden mission! I'm loving every second. Love ya bunches!

-Sister Sarlls