Following His Will

Week # 58 

You know you are trying to spice up your language study when you decide to make a telenovela (Spanish soap opera) about coming to know that the Book of Mormon is true.

I feel like this email will be a short one because no tengo el ganas to write much. I can't say that it has been a bad week, but I am tired in almost every way.

We had interviews with our mission president this week and after my interview I walked up to some Elders and one said "Interviews were pretty spiritual huh?" I said "Does my face tell you that?" He said "No, just your red eyes . . . " So yes, I cried, but that doesn't mean it was all bad right? :) President did give me a blessing and I can testify that he is a man called of God to be serving in this mission and to be my mission president.

One funny thing happened this week was that we had a Relief Society activity. We got our hair and make-up done by the members. . . lets just say that it was a good thing that we had studies afterwards instead of proselyting time because we definitely couldn't have gone out and looked like misioneras.

We are teaching a woman right now (and her name isn't Maria!!!). She is actually going to a ward outside of mission boundaries so it's a little complicated right now. Basically, we teach her and she goes to church services somewhere else with different missionaries. It's a little complicated, but she had a baptismal date for this Saturday over there, but it isn't going to be able to happen quite yet. It's hard that there are 2 sets of missionaries teaching her and there have been a couple of mishaps between lack of communication between members and missionaries. She is so cute and wants to be baptized so badly. We made her a baptismal plan yesterday to show her what lessons she has left before baptism and she asked if we could do it all in one week. Yesterday's lesson was so lead by the Spirit and we were really nervous because of the situation and we weren't exactly sure how she was going to react when we told her that she couldn't be baptized yet and we also don't even know if we have the right to receive the revelation as the missionaries teaching her because of the situation. It's a mess, but the lesson went well and she is still progressing. She has some important decisions to make this week so please keep her in your prayers.

Yesterday was the Hermana Show in church. We started off the day walking in late to Sunday school and there was no teacher, so with no preparation we taught the lesson. It went really well though because #compunity so we can't really complain. We were able to talk about the Atonement of Christ so it was a special class. I love learning more and hearing others' experiences with the Gospel and the Atonement. We also were asked to give talks with little notice and for some reason I was more nervous this time than when I gave my first one in Spanish. I think I'm just tired. I also played piano in 2 meetings, we organized a baptism, and sang at the baptism. We were nervous that people were going to get annoyed of our faces. Everything went well and after 8 hours of being in meetings and at church, we finally made it out and to a lesson before crashing last night.

Welp . . . we just had an interesting turn to the end of our Pday and I am out of time, but I just wanted to share a little about what I was asked to talk about on Sunday. We talked about following God's will and I prepared a talk before church, but didn't really end up sharing most of it. I really think that it was for me. I am not perfect at following His will, but I am trying I promise. This week especially I have been struggling with not being able to have more control of the things that happen around me. I'm working on it. What I do know is that He really does have a perfect plan and what I focused my talk on was humility. Without it, we can not follow His will. Well, we could, but it would be grudgingly. When we do follow His will with humility, we can do it with a smile.

Les quiero,

Hermana Lauren Dickson

Sisters Pday at Silver Falls: Hermana Karren, Sister Wright, Hermana Dickson, Sister Emery

The District: Elder Bankhead, Hermana Karren, Dickson, Quinlan, McKell, Baxter and Davis

A little quote from Alma 32:28 Elder Baxter and bacon

"Me being tired" - (15 hour days are long!)

This was also our (Mom and Dad's 24th anniversary - on the 24th) Hermana Dickson and her companion Hma Karren and Sisters Wright and Emery sent a darling video singing us "You've had an Anniversary - shout hooray!" So fun and nice to see and hear her.