I'm telling you what, it's been such a long time since I've had a week that has felt like
it's taken so long to go by! Haha I
don't know why but it feels like it's been ages since we've talked! But it's
good to hear from you, and it'll be good to chat with you on Mother's Day. Mom! that's no good to hear that you got
stung by a scorpion! That's one critter
that we hardly see out here anymore, thank goodness. The fireflies are starting to come out now,
which is really neat. Those things are
super cool. And what the heck! Austin and Dad had some bdays!! I forgot to mention something about that last
week. Happy birthdays!! And bdog
school's almost out isn't it? Woo hoo!!
Well
Stillwater is a whole new different creature. Haha it's pretty nuts. In a good way though. The bishop here is super gung-ho missionary
minded, our WML is a my way or the highway type guy with his sights set on
baptizing all of Stillwater, and together they've got a game plan. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights from
6:30-8:30 and then 6-9 on Saturday two brethren go on splits with us and we go
our separate ways and visit people. So
the expectation's been set that we need to find enough people to have
appointments to go to during those times. In the last 2 weeks this area just had 7
baptisms, so they essentially baptized their whole investigator pool, and now
we're left with filling it back up! Haha
but it's a good problem to have. This
expectation too isn't just from our Bishop but also across the stake. Most the areas in the zone have the same type
of systems going on. Upon coming into
the zone, I've noticed too that it seems like President W. has stacked this
zone with some of the (best) missionaries in the mission. It all starts from the top though! President Bowen, the Stillwater stake
president, set this expectation a year or so ago and now it continues move
forward.
This past
week though has been filled with coming to grips that I'm actually leaving
Norman, and then trying to learn a whole new ward, investigators, less actives,
and so forth. My mind has been slightly
mush these past few days. This week
though I've taken a lot of comfort in the experience of Ammon and his brethren.
President asked the mission to study
Alma 26 this past week so we did and verse 1 really stuck out to me. It says
"And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say
thus: My brothers and my brethren,
behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have
supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted
unto us such great blessings?" I
really liked this verse because it helps us realize that when they started out
on their journey, they weren't expecting loads and loads of converts. I'm
sure they probably thought maybe a handful of people converted to the Lord
would've been more than they could have asked for. They still embarked on their journey though
because they knew they needed to follow the promptings of the spirit that they
felt, and that those feelings were from God. They knew and trust that if they did follow
those feelings, then they didn't need to worry about any other detail. I also appreciate Ammon's example because he
took time to reflect upon the experience after he acted in faith.
I know at times that I act in faith and then
don't give myself the credit I deserve, or Heavenly Father the credit he
deserves for providing the blessings that he did because of the act of faith
taken. Rather those blessings can be
looked over or counted for nought because of their simplicity. Anyways, I know that reflective learning is
progressive learning. Not progressive in
the bad way, but the good way :) I know
that the gospel is true, and I know that God loves you. We were talking with an atheist the other day,
who was a really pleasant man, but when it came to God he was prideful and
mocked Him. He asked me how I knew God
was real, and I told him of an experience I had where I knew that God loved me,
which is the foundation of my testimony. As I bore my testimony those same feelings
came back which reaffirmed to me that God is our Father, and that he does love
us. After I finished sharing that
experience, this man was silent for a few moments, and then cracked a joke to
change the subject because he was uncomfortable with feeling the spirit. It was sad to see. However I know that that's true. I love you all, and look forward to talking to
soon!
Elder
Traasdahl
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