The Salem Missionary Triumphs : "Blessed Are They Which Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness"

Week # 33

You know it's Halloween when you have to be inside after 6 p.m. That means . . . All day Pday. . . Kind of sad about it honestly. I love being out and working.

Hmm what even happened this week?

Oh lots! We went to the temple with an investigator. It was. . .the most interesting temple trip I have ever been on that's for sure. It was filled with rain (of course), an almost car crash (don't worry Mom,
I said "almost"), a little boy taking a bathroom break on the flowers, and a lot of talking about jail. . . And drugs. Also she asked where the aisle was to get married. BUT the most important part was that she told us that she felt such a peace and she recognized it as the Spirit.

We are having fun Spanishing adventures. We both are far from fluent. I don't know how many times I have nodded and said "si" . . . And not known what was going on at all. Well not completely. I can understand most of it, but I won't lie and tell you that there aren't moments when I open my mouth, begging the Spirit to put something there. The people don't know we don't understand which is good. . . I think.

We had talks in church yesterday. They don't give us topics which is fun. We can literally talk about whatever we want. I didn't have any time to prepare though. We were writing them the half hour before church in the lobby, but members kept coming up and talking to me so I didn't get much done. I figured that I wouldn't be first so I planned on figuring it out more while the other missionaries were talking, but guess what? I spoke first. I grabbed my scriptures and walked up there. It actually went really well. I talked about treasuring up the scriptures and how we can't expect to be able to have confidence sharing the Gospel without first studying ourselves. I love the part in the Sermon on the Mount when Christ says "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled". It's a promise that if we sincerely hunger and thirst, and look, and ponder. We will be filled. It's definitely a promise that I am striving for and grateful for, especially as I am praying for my mouth to be filled with words of a foreign language.

I really am so grateful to be a missionary. The world thinks that we are required to serve as members, but it's not like that. We wouldn't have the power that we have if we weren't here because we want to be. We wouldn't have the power that we have without the desire to serve. We wouldn't have the power we have if each one of us hadn't prayed sincerely to know if we should serve.

God trusts his 18-20 year old children to speak in His name. I am so blessed to have receive the prompting to go on a mission. I'm so grateful that I listened. I lot of people say "I don't know where I would be without the Gospel" or "I don't know where I would be if I hadn't decided to serve a mission". The things is, I do know where I would be. It's not a place I want to be. I may have said this before, but I will say it again and again as I am prompted to in my emails to you all. My mission has saved me. Physically and Spiritually.

I hope that you are all doing the simple things. There is a reason why all of the General Conference talks talk about the basics. It's because they are basics. We can't progress without them.

I love you all,

Hermana Dickson