October 31, 2011

So this week nothing really has happened except for Zone Conference (ZC). ZC was really fun. It is always fun to get together with alot of missionaries. There is not so much pressure. We learned alot in ZC on how to be better missionaries and how to follow the spirit more in asking questions that will get the investigators to express their concerns about not coming to church, not reading the book of mormon, not praying, etc.... We are having alot of troubles with our investigators here. They are just not keeping their commitments and it is getting very frustrating. We need to somehow figure out what the concern is besides 'being busy.' Hopefully we can figure that all out this week. During ZC I had the wonderful opportuinity to do two things. 1) I got to play my Praise to the Man song again. It went really well for the most part. I messed up on the climax part of it all so to me it didn't go as well as I would have liked it to but everyone loved it. They were very surprised that I had composed that song. 2) Since I am going to be leaving before another ZC come along, I had the opportunity to bear my testimony for the last time in that kind of setting. There were about 6 others that had that opportunity to do it as well. It was SO scary though. I was the first one to bear mine and going up to the pulpit was nerve wracking because you all of a sudden of this realization that you are going to be leaving for home pretty soon. There is a member family here and their last name is the Ready's. They are such a cool family and I love it. Just a traditional mormon family is what I call it. haha. Brother Ready's father was going to move in with them for a while so we had the chance to move all of his stuff from the UHAUL to the garage and it was fun. I would much rather help people move than to clean a house. Brother Ready's dad is not a member but we are hoping that we will be able to teach him soon. Mr. Ready is going to be a good member when we get to see him baptized. :) I called Sister Woodbury this week because of my headaches. The headaches were not being really friendly with me. So I called and she told me to call the area doctor and he asked me a few questions and then he told me to do a couple other stretches. I have not had major headaches this week as I have for the past month and I am so relieved by that. I just wonder why they all of a sudden went mostly away. It is like I finally complained about it to someone and now that I did I am getting better. That happens to me alot. It must be a mind trick or something. Or maybe it has something to do with the stretches. I don't know. Sunday was pretty bad though. I started to get a pretty big headache but it went away before it got too bad thankfully. Well, nothing else major happened. We are trying to find more people to teach and so far it is not going as well as I would like it to. We keep finding people but they are not following through. Lots of tracting is ahead of us this week and it is going to be awesome! I am reading in Alma now and that is one of my favorite books .There is just so much to learn in these chapters. Something stuck out to me today and I want to share it will you. It is in Alma chapter 28:13 and 14. Before this chapter there are a whole bunch of wars going on. Chapter 28 is the commencement of the 15th year of the reign of the judges and tens of thousands of people have died already. verse 13 is talking about the evil people that have killed the righteous people but we can relate it many other things in our day. "And thus we see how great the inequality of man is be cause of sin and transgression..." I think that is so true. There are tons and tons of babies today that are born into families that are not good (that do drugs for a living) and those babies grow up to follow the example of the parents and they don't really know exactly what is right. They become people that do drugs because they don't really know any better. It is very very very sad. They almost have an unfair advantage compared to others who have been taught to live righteous lives and it is all because "...the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men." Verse 14 gives us purpose in our lives though. It says, "And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyars of the Lord." That hit me. There are so many bad things happening in the world today and we need to be out there trying as hard as we can to help the people that don't know what is right and what is wrong. I think one of the biggest thing in the world that needs to be brought back is the observance of the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy. There are just so many people who do not keep the sabbath day holy and it has become 'just a day' to them. Nothing special about it. It is sad. Very very sad but WE all can do something about it. We can teach our friends and invite them to church and help them on their way. :) I love you all. I don't have very much time left. Today is howloween and we are going to be going hiking with our district. I am excited for it but my companion is not so excited. :) Have a great week, Amanda