Goodbye Mistakes, Hello Progression

email 04 Jan 2016

This week was a week of MIRACLES!!!!! Hot dog! First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! President Jaggi told us to make some simple goals, called SIMPS. It stands for Spiritual, Intellectual, Musical, Physical, and Social. Each year I tend to make way too many goals that make me feel pretty inadequate. I love this idea of just setting 5. The 5 categories that influence our happiness in life the most. Have y'all seen that Mormon message called "Look Not Behind Thee?" Well, for one, it's hilarious. But also I love the message it gives! It talks about the story of Lot's wife and how she looked behind her and was turned into a pillar of salt. One of the quotes I love in the video is when a man says "She didn't even give it any consideration that her future could be better than her past." Heavenly Father wants us to look forward to what's ahead! Sometimes our future may not seem better. But it's the future that God has for us. So it's the future that we need. I'm ready to see what this year has in store for me!

New Year's: Look Not Behind Thee

On New Year's Eve we aren't allowed to go out so we got together with our district and had a games night. We played all sorts of things like Spot It, spoons, Pit, and the best was Pie Face! It's a game where you put whipped cream on a plastic hand and you spin to see how many times you twist the lever the hand is on and you never know when the hand will launch the cream in your face! It's so nerve racking! We all got whipped cream all over our faces and then this one Elder had the smart idea to open his mouth! So instead of getting it all over his face, it just popped right in!

Also on New Year's Eve we couldn't find a lot of people at home for lessons. So we did service! I GOT TO SHOVEL MY FIRST DRIVEWAY! I remember offering to shovel for someone in my first area and Sister Hadden looking at me and saying "Uh, you don't know what you're volunteering for." Haha. I finally understand now! It was a lot of work. But it was actually really fun. As our payment, the lady there allowed me to knock down her giant icicle on her house. :) It was a good day.

So we were going to visit the stake executive secretary and we knocked on the door and a guy comes up and says, "Sorry guys. Tim isn't home. He cut his cornea and he's asleep now. You'll have to come by later." It was clearly the wrong house and we were so confused. We looked at each other and went, "Who the heck is Tim?" We just started laughing and kind of brushed it off. Then we got home and started planning. As we were looking through some names in our area book, we found a guy named Tim. He had been taught by missionaries 2 years ago. We felt at that moment that other than an odd and funny experience to write home about, there was another reason why we had knocked on that door. We still haven't found Tim home, yet. But we are looking forward with faith that we will. :)

Two cute kids at their baptism

This past week we found 2 people who want to be baptized! I'll only share the story of one this week. Her name is Virginia. She's in her 70's and her husbands health is speedily declining. With that trial in her life, she realized the importance of having an eternal family. So she called up the missionaries and said, "I want to be baptized!" And we're like, "WE CAN HELP WITH THAT!" Seriously Virginia's faith is amazing. It's amazing to see her journey. She doesn't understand the what and why of everything we teach. But she keeps moving forward and progressing because she can see the eternal perspective. So on Sunday we went to church with her and she shared with us a miracle that she and her husband had. So Saturday night they thought they were going to lose him. He wasn't able to swallow anymore and so all the water was going into his lungs. She said to her son, "I don't think I can go to church. I can't leave him." Well she prayed and prayed she would be able to come to church. When she woke up the next morning her husband was perfectly fine. She said he was more himself and that she could talk to him more than she's been able to in years. She took this as a sign that Heavenly Father really really wanted her to go to church.

One of my favorite things about my mission is helping others come closer to Christ! And of course, singing about it all day and all night.

(Sister Sarlls and Sister Law sing about Baptism at this link.)

We're so excited to see all of the people we love progress in the gospel and come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

  
I'm doing great and love every minute of being a servant for the Lord.

Love, Sister Sarlls