Charity Never Faileth

email 24 Feb 2015

Howdy!!! 
I'm coming up on one whole week in the Ben Lomond stake!!! Things are going pretty well. This area is WAAAY different from Huntsville. So it's taking a bit of adjusting for me! It takes 5 minutes driving to get anywhere in our area. It's basically just a neighborhood. Crazy! Sister Wharton is a stud missionary! I love it! We teach together nicely and we both are striving to be super obedient and work really hard this transfer! So I'm excited to see what happens! 

 

So I was studying about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I was reading in Moroni 7:32-48 (link). It talks all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the very end it talks about charity which is the pure love of Christ.

"45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

I thought it was interesting that it says "envieth not."  I definitely have that problem. But I realized that when you have charity towards others (and yourself), you are giving of yourself so there will be no room to envy. At the very end it says endureth all things. The last step to the gospel of Jesus Christ is charity. It's developing pure Christlike love for everyone and everything. Once we develop perfect charity, we will be perfected! My mind kind of runs all different ways so I hope the way I typed that out made sense. 
If we all strive to have more charity, think of how amazing the world would be!

I don't have much to report this week. I'm still trying to get to know my new area. I love you! 

Sister Sarlls 

Faith, hope, and change!

email 17 Feb 2015

Howdy! 

This coming Friday will be my 6 month mark!!! I can't believe it! It's gone by SOOO fast. And it's brought so many blessings into my life! 

Well, I am being transferred! I guess they figured 6 months in Huntsville was enough blessings for me haha. I'm off to serve in the Ben Lomond stake. It's right over the mountain from Huntsville and I'm in the same zone! Haha so I'm not too far away from where I was. My new companion is Sister Wharton! She's awesome!!! I've served around her for 4 months and now we're companions and I'm pumped! 

I'm not too sad about leaving Huntsville or leaving Sister Smith. One of the things I'll miss the most is working with the people at Valley Camp. I loved those guys over there! Since the person we were working with knew I was leaving, he got me my very own AA book!!! He wrote me a very sweet note in it and had all the guys at the camp highlight their favorite parts in the book. It means so much to me! I absolutely love the AA meetings and love all the people there. It's such an inspired program. And everything we teach is in line with the 12 step program. It's amazing to see all these people truly using the atonement of Jesus Christ and changing! I will treasure my friends there and my wonderful AA book forever. :) 

On Valentine's Day, Sister Smith and I went to go get pizza and we had a candlelight dinner with roses and everything haha and we called each other our "GAL-entines" hahaha get it?! We ended the night with snuggles and Sons of Provo. I love Sister Smith so much! She's seriously my very best friend. 

Today we got to go to the VERY TOP of a mountain with the Richardson's. (Our senior couple). It was absolutely gorgeous up there! We could see parts of Idaho and Nevada! It was also feeeeeezing! But it was super fun to ride all the way to the top and see the world! 

 

This past week Sister Smith and I gave a training on hope and faith. I love this topic! I came to the conclusion that hope is our desire for things to happen or to do something. But our faith is that desire put into action. I thought a lot about how Jesus Christ had hope and faith in his life. His desire to perform the atonement came from the hope that we would use it. But the actual act of the atonement came from his faith that we would use it. And in the same way, we need to use it. Our hope in the atonement causes us to know we are forgiven. But our faith in the atonement causes us to change into someone better. Into someone more like our savior Jesus Christ. 

I'm excited to see what Ben Lomond and Sister Wharton teach me this transfer! I love being a representative of Jesus Christ and I love teaching His gospel everyday! I wouldn't be doing anything else:) 

Signing off from Huntsville for the last time, 
Sisters Sniff & Snarls

Miracles Happen Once and a While, When You Believe (princess diaries song)

email 10 Feb 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

SO MANY miracles have happened this week. 

We had a good group of people we were teaching. But none of them were progressing. They were all canceling our lessons. We felt hopeless. We felt like our efforts weren't going anywhere and that no matter how hard we worked, no one would progress. President Hiers gave us a training on the power of fasting and praying. It really inspired us! So we went 24 hours without food or water and prayed like we have never prayed before for someone who was truly prepared to hear the gospel.

So we were going around this neighborhood and found this old man outside golfing. We talked to him for a little bit and he was WEIRD. He had fish skeletons lining his whole house. freaky stuff. He told us to go talk to his friend in the ward about his story. SOOO then we went to go find the friend. It ended up being the wrong house so we just shared a message and asked for referrals. She told us to go talk to her neighbors. So we did! HERE'S WHERE THE MIRACLE HAPPENS! This 13 year old boy opens the door and he's suuuuuper nerdy and awkward. haha His name is Zack. His mom comes to the door and says "Thank you for coming! I've been trying to get this boy to church!" We say, "Oh, are you members of the church?" She goes on to say, "No I'm atheist. But I want him to go to church! The kids in the LDS church are so nice and he needs to go!" We talked with them a little bit more and we invited him to take the lessons from us and he said he would love to!!!!!!! AHHHHH! AND his mom is perfectly okay with it!!! So we asked him who he was friends with that could give him a ride to church the next day. So we walk on over to his friends house to ask him about Zack. When we get there he says, "Oh yeah! Zack just called me to ask if he could get a ride to church!" WHAT?! A 13 year old called his OWN ride to church?! So we sit with him at church the next day FOR ALL 3 HOURS!!! And he LOVED IT! And he wants to go every week! There was a bishops fireside that night and he was begging us to go with him. So we went to that with him and afterwards we talked to him more about what we'll be teaching him. AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?! He wants to be baptized on March 7th!!!!! We haven't even taught him a full lesson yet and He's SO excited!!! You have no idea how amazing this is!!! I know it was because we showed our faith and acted by fasting and praying! Heavenly Father has such a perfect plan. He knew that this was the time that we needed someone to teach. And he knew that this was the time that Zack needed to be taught.

In Sunday School they were teaching a lesson and they said something that really stayed with me. They said when we start messing up in life or our spirituality starts slipping, it's because of one of two things that are polar opposites. It's either because it's too hard and we feel overwhelmed with everything we have to do, or it's too easy and we feel too casual about it. This is too true. Life is about finding that happy medium! We need to work hard to have that relationship with God and to keep our testimonies but we can't be too stressed out to enjoy all the blessings that come from it! I love it! It's crazy hard to do. But I know for a fact that if we keep Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as our priority in life, everything else will fall in place. I can PROMISE that miracles will happen in every aspect of our life if we do this! I've seen it in my own life. Especially on my mission! I love you and I love this gospel!

  

Lots of Valentine's Day Love,
Sister Sarlls

Aliens are real

email 03 Feb 2015

Howdy! This week has been AWESOME. We've been able to teach a lot and find a lot of new people! 

I've realized the importance of planning out what we're going to do for the next day. Sometimes it's tedious to plan out every minute of every day. But yesterday I had an amazing experience. Sister Smith had a meeting in Ogden so I was with a split all day. We had an appointment that we were headed to when we saw this lady walking on the side of the road. We decided to give her a ride and it turned out she was a nonmember from England! We started chatting and casually talking about the valley and my mission and when she left she looked at me and said, "You come knock on my door anytime, sweetie!" I KNOW Heavenly Father placed her in our path. And it's all because He knew where we were going to be at that time. Sometimes rules or commandments don't make any sense to us. Or they seem to be too small to matter. But I know that as we are obedient to the little things, the big blessings will come. 

We were in a lesson this past week where we were teaching the plan of salvation and the member I brought to the lesson with me started testifying about aliens....what?!?! Hahaha I started cracking up!!! It was sooo bad. But you know how aliens freak me out! I couldn't help it! It was just bad because she was being 100% serious. We eventually got it back on track with the gospel. But it was so embarrassing and funny!

Yesterday we had testimony meeting at church. This 3-4year old little boy gets up there and says "I'm sure happy to see all of you here! I would like to end this.......bye bye." And runs off like Napoleon Dynamite hahaha it was hilarious. But then this lady gets up there and starts talking about how we can be someone's miracle. I loved that! It struck my heart and it made me want to be a better person. Every single person everyday is going through something and needs a miracle. As we are Christlike and as we act on the promptings of the spirit, we can be that miracle! What a blessing it is to be able to be instruments in God's hand everyday. 

Sister Smith also bore her testimony. Something she said was so profound and really touched me. She said "The atonement is not just a coping mechanism...it heals. It's real." When she said this I could feel the Spirit testify that what she said was true. I could feel the power in her voice. I know that it's true. Christ didn't suffer and die for us so we could just say we're forgiven and call it good. He died so we could be healed. He died so we could change and become more like Him. I'm going to try to use the atonement every day in my life and make it a changing experience. 

This week was really spiritually uplifting!!! Sister Smith has taught me so much and I love her to death! 

So much love from Huntsville!
Sister Sarlls

P.S. New found love.....Apple slices and almond butter.