Dear Family and Friends,
This week went well, lots of 6:20 dodgeball and it was fun to have the zone together. A little bit sick for part of the week; and also it warmed up for a few days (the days when the Beesleys came); then it dropped below zero again. But today I haven't been wearing my coat- just a little tired of taking it on and off- I am sure that the cold will soon get the better of me.
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| Zone conference |
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| President and Sister Beesley and Me! |
President Beesley did a training at zone conference about Jonah that hit me this week. He pulled us to Jonah 1: 1, 2, and 3. Jonah is commanded by the Lord to go and serve but he runs- he flees, he takes off- too scared to try, and we see that the boat that he is on is tossed around just until the time he is finally taken up by the whale, and finally the storm stops (now that's not ironic at all, I am sure). In Jonah 2 I noticed the repentance of Jonah. He had softened his heart. Heavenly Father knows more about our divine potential than we do- why would we ever hope to second guess him. I have always laughed when I think about President Hinckley saying "you can be wise and happy or stupid and miserable" but sometimes when I pick stupid I am just glad that he lets me feel miserable so I can correct that- not without bitterness, but always turns me back to what is most important. We feel that bitter so that he can turn us to what is sweet, and change.
Becoming better is most of the time like we are on a down escalator we are trying to move up on- if we are not constantly stepping upward, then we will definitely go downward, and that can become exhausting without his help- even imposible. I read this from President Eyring this morning from his talk "Choose this day"- it says, "For those who are discouraged by their circumstances and are therefore tempted to feel they cannot serve the Lord this day I make you two promises: (1) Hard as things seem today they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day, (2) the other promise I make to you is that by choosing to serve him this day you will feel his love and grow to love him more. You would not want to delay receiving that blessing and feeling his love will draw you back to his service wiping away both complacency and discouragement." What a promise.
At Zone conference Sister Sherwood and I did a training and we talked about things we have to sacrifice to be able to become better, or to focus more, etc. She showed everyone how she roped and had to give up time growing up to learn and time to rodeo, and showed how bits are used for horses and sometime the bit is harsh to help them to improve. We had all the Elders get a smore that said "Give him s'more of your heart", about Heavenly Father and then it had this scripture on it: Doctrine and Covenants 117:13 says "...and when he falls he shall rise again, for his asacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord." They took a paper and wrote something on it that was difficult for them to let go of and to focus and they cast it into the fire, our 'increase' bucket and the 'sacrifice' basket that had been weighing down got lighter and as it was balanced on the basketball hoop, the increase became heavier than the sacrifice as they let go of it into the fire. It was a good Zone Conference focusing on softening our hearts. These next few months we are focusing on the theme "Peace, Be Still" and the scripture we are memorizing with it is John 14:27. Always a favorite!
We have seen a TON of moose this week. 3 or 4 days in a row and that was more than Sister Sherwood has ever seen in her life-- The picture I sent was out of my car window- that moose was HUGE and only a few feet away from my car door- I thought we were going to die and for some reason Sister Sherwood was a little too comfortable with it being that close saying, "They don't charge cars." Let me tell you, moose are pretty dumb creatures and they will do whatever they want. At least we got a good picture and finally moved out of the road after 15 minutes of staring at it. hah. I am glad she has seen them finally.
There were a few experiences this week that humbled me, but I saw the spirit working in each person we saw and whether or not they were willing to listen to it. That was made clear to me in a matter of 2 hours one night where we visited two different people and felt to share the same thought from Doctrine and Covenants 6-- fear not to do good... doubt not, fear not. I noticed one found every reason to fight and we did not seem to say much or at least I thought to offend him, and the other mentioned about how it was funny we mentioned that- how she had a hard day at work- customers giving a hard time and complaining, but that she just had to keep moving forward. Remembering that Heavenly Father is right there can help us to feel we are not alone in our decisions, but justifying our every deed can pull us away from him and his love.
We did service on Saturday at the IFSS which had sled dog teams from all over the world-- they were a bit overstaffed so we didn't stay for too long but got to see some really cool dogs and huskies and how mushing works. I want to get a picture with a mushing team of full huskies if i ever see one.
The work is going well, We have an investigator who came to church for the first time and we had another lesson after church, he asks many genuine questions.
Love you!
Love,
Sister Wuehler
Scripture:
Alma 61:9 Pahoran Chose not to be offended,
9 And now, in your epistle you have
1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord
Ism: We got stickers this week that say, "Oh, By the way. I am never too busy for your referrals"-- best stickers EVER
"It's not enough to stare up the stairs, we must step..."
"Not Shrinking [from God] is much more important than surviving" --Elder Bednar (CES fireside 3 March 2013)
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