Women's Meetings, Mending, More Cookies, Space X, and Newport Beach Temple

About a week ago, our mission held a conference for all the sister missionaries.  We were asked to read President Nelson's talk "A Plea to My Sisters" from October Gen. Conf. 2015.  I highly recommend it.  He quoted from a talk given by President Kimball in 1979 saying, "Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world... will be drawn to the Church in large numbers.  This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different - in happy ways - from the women of the world." Then Pres. Nelson went on to say, "My dear sisters, you who are our vital associates during this winding-up scene....  You are the women he foresaw!  Your virtue, light, love, knowledge, courage, character, faith, and righteous lives will draw good women of the world, along with their families, to the Church in unprecedented numbers."

President Merritt talked about the difference between the "Devil's Discouragement", which stops us from progressing, and "Divine Discontent", which propels us forward to want to do and be better.  

Sister Merritt quoted Ernest Hemmingway "There is nothing in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility comes in being superior to your former self."  She counseled us to be noble - become better than my current self.  

I enjoyed being with the sisters and noble women, young and mature, in our mission.  It was an inspiring and motivating meeting.

This weekend we had the privilege of hearing from three women from the General RS, YW, and Primary organizations.  Friday evening was a Relief Society Devotional.  We heard from Sister Porter, the General Primary President, Sister Runia, a YW Counselor, and Sister Yee a Relief Society Counselor.  I felt like the main theme was "You are Known, You are Loved, and You are Needed."  Sister Runia said that life is like a Mystery Quilt; you don't know what's coming next.  But then she quoted D&C 122:7 ...all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

Today we attended a Regional YSA Sacrament Meeting.  We heard from the same three sisters, who shared hopeful messages for the young adults.  Sister Porter told us to remember this question from a Primary song "Heavenly Father are you really there?"  She encouraged us to "pray always", and as we pray, focus on faith in Jesus Christ, instead of the outcome that we desire.  Our Savior knows better what we need than we do; trust in Him.  A nice Taco Bar dinner was provided after the meeting.  You know, these YSA's have it figured out - they eat after every meeting!

We were able to give a ride to our friend, Ellie, for the YSA Sacrament Meeting.  The Elder's have been teaching her.  She's reading the Book of Mormon, and likes it.  She has a pretty good background with the Bible, and seems to enjoy reading from the scriptures.  

Monday night FHE was a volleyball night.  Elder Hardy sure gets excited about playing with the kids.  (I think he thinks he's one of them :)

I've been trying to put the word out that I have my sewing machine and am happy to help the missionaries with their mending.  I haven't had too much, yet.  I repaired hems on a couple of dresses this week.  I enjoy helping out the missionaries by  mending their clothes.  I'm thankful that my Mom took the time to teach me how to sew and to love sewing.  

My Mom also taught me how to cook and be comfortable in the kitchen.  Since this week was transfers, we decided to provide lunch for the missionaries in our District.  We had fun visiting with them while we were eating.  It was a great way to just "chill" and have fun with them.

 

I have to tell you about this picture.  It's my first ".5" photo.  When I was at the Women's Missionary Conference, when it was time to take group photos, the young missionaries kept hollering out to take a ".5" shot.  So I had to ask what that was.  Then it dawned on me that on my camera, one of the choices is a ".5".  So this is my first ".5" photo!  What do you think?  (I think I need some more practice.)

At Institute on Tuesday evening we continued our discussed of "Christ's Forgiveness"  There was a quote in this week's chapter from C.S. Lewis that I found very interesting.  "Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.... you find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.  A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness - they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.  We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it:  and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full extent what temptation means."  

I made cookies again this week.  We decided that it would be a nice gesture to take cookies to the YSA's on their birthday or during the month of their birthday.  I made up a nice little birthday card and put the cookies in a cute bag.  Out of the four on our list, two of them didn't live at the address anymore, one wasn't home (so we talked to the Ring doorbell and left them on the doorstep), and one was temporarily living with his grandma (so we left the cookies for his Mom to give to him; we saw him at Church today and he loved the cookies, his Mom and sister each took one, too, and loved them).  We sure don't seem to have very good luck catching them home.  When I text them to see if we can visit, either I don't hear back or they aren't going to be home.  We will persist!  We realize this age group is very busy and very mobile.

On the way home we saw an amazing scene in the sky.  At first we couldn't figure out what it was.  It looked like the contrail of a plane, only much thicker and brighter,  As we watched the plane (soon to realize it was a rocket) soar higher, all of a sudden we saw what kind of looked like an explosion, and then it kept going.  I quickly Googled it, and found out it was a Space X launch.  I can just imagine how amazing it would have looked if we had been on the beach instead of in the car driving down the road.  Here is a picture of what it looked like that I pulled off a news website.

Yesterday we drove an hour and 45 minutes to the Newport Beach Temple.  It is a long drive, but so worth being able to go to the temple again.  I felt rejuvenated after our session.  I wish we were closer.  I keep thinking about when we return to St. George that our temple will be open and only 10 minutes away!