Dear Everyone,
This week has been better. I'm sorry if I sounded down last week. It has been tougher than I expected...well...no...just tough in different ways than I expected. This week I had some of my worst days and my best! So it's been a good week all in all though. The first few days after I last wrote...were some of the worst to be honest. haha. My comp and I started getting sick, colds, and we could feel it coming on. But the first miracle of the week happened and it didn't get super bad. It stayed in a very minor stage of cold, which never happens to me! So I was blessed. But that day, we had an investigator drop us and it really hit Sister M to the core and she was pretty down. And me, being a sponge when it comes to people's emotions, I got super down. But after that day, things started going up. I think Heavenly Father knew that I had enough to bear at that time. So, the next day we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and the Elders were there. I have slowly been trying my very hardest to gain the trust of the Elders back. That night after the meeting, we talked to them and asked if they wanted to have some of our former investigators and such. They don't have ANY because they were swept in to the area recently. So they liked that and then we planned to meet the next night to make plans and figure out how to best help Berthoud. So the meeting the next night went really well and it built up our unity and we came up with some good plans on how to best help the work progress in the area and what things we want to talk to the Ward Mission Leader about and we are planning to meet again this week. That lifted a huge weight off my shoulders and now we are working together and helping each other instead of against each other. It is great!!
Then the next day was Valentine's Day! Charity DAY!!! Which was the best day on my mission so far, outside of the MTC. I loved the MTC....haha. I have been struggling with focusing 100% on the work all the time, I tend to miss home, family, and friends a lot, but I have been working on forgetting myself and getting to work. I truly was able to do that on Valentine's Day. And I was reminded as to why I wanted to come on a mission. You can loose sight of that on hard days. But days like this day, make it all worth it.
We focused a lot on charity that day and figured that there was no better day than Valentine's Day to share our Savior's love with all we came in contact with. We were able to visit investigators and teach and fit the lessons to their needs. We felt the guiding hand of the Lord all day. Bro. F likes to talk a lot, and missionaries in the past have never been able to "teach" him lessons because he talks so much but we were able to teach him doctrine and testify to him with love. I am learning how to best teach to him. He is very logical, but he is silently taking everything in when he comes to church, from the people he sees. I think that the spirit is already doing most of the work. But this week we are going to teach him more and try again to help him commit to baptism.
We also had some "extra" time to fill and decided that instead of us trying to figure out how to fill it, we would ask the Lord. We prayed and then began moving forward visiting some former investigators. But after we visited a few, most were busy with holiday stuff, we looked over and saw a lady shoveling and decided to go talk to her. It turned out to be a lady who former sisters had run into several times but didn't know where she lived. We talked to her and planned another time to come and visit. We felt the Lord guiding us. Later we had a lesson with the W family on the restoration. It was a powerful experience and the spirit was there for sure. He usually has a ton of questions and concerns after we are done but after telling him about Joseph Smith and testifying, he was silent. He has committed to pray to know the truth and to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. We are excited to be moving forward with him. It really strengthened my testimony on the restoration and I am seeing why it is such an important message to share about a young boy searching for the truth. We are all searching for the truth! It is instilled in our nature. We are truth seekers. Many people just don't know how to find it or don't know how to recognize it. The story of Joseph Smith is so relateable to each of us, and it is so powerful to know that Jesus Christ's church, the same church that existed in Him time, is back on the earth. The fullness! It is a wonderful message.
I have been taking the time to write the miracles down each day that I see, and as I have done that, I truly see the Lord's hand in His work. It is helping me to stay happy and focused to reflect over all that the Lord does each day. If you are having trouble staying happy, I'd like to invite you start looking for God's hand in your life each day. You will see His hand everywhere!
I went tracting for the first time yesterday! It actually wasn't too bad. Except we chose a funny day to do it. The wind was blowing sooo bad:) Just like Wyomin' wind. Which isn't the best thing for Sister missionaries in skirts...haha. But the second door we knocked on was a lady who has her son that is a member but she is not. But she respects our religion. We were able to leave her with a message and then found out she needed service done! So we are going to go back and serve her. We will see where it goes. Everyone was pretty nice to us when we knocked, as long as we did ice breakers and talked to them a bit first. Except a few who just said," I don't have time." and shut the door. Ha
For service this week, we volunteered at the flood relief center in Loveland, the Habitat for Humanity thrift store, and Bingo again. I love the opportunity to serve and the people that we get to meet while we serve. It is great. There are many people here that were affected by the floods last year and are still struggling a lot because of that. It's nice to be able to help them.
Also, thanks for the emails! I have to print them off sometimes because I don't have time to read them and it costs me, haha, so I love hand written letters too because I get them in the mail during the week, and don't have to pay to print every week. Thanks for all your love and support!! I can feel your prayers lifting me up.
I LOVE YOU ALL!! Keep praying for me. I pray for you all.
Love,
Sister Karissa Young
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| Ha...yeah...this was after a long day, but...Happy Charity Day!! |
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