1. Be humble
2. Be patient
3. Sing
4. Just be perfect!! Perfect mornings, perfect nights, perfect studies, perfect prayers
5. Trust the Lord
I have just had the greatest week. I had 6 perfect mornings!!!!!! The seventh one... we don't know what happened. The alarm went off and then suddenly it was 6:34 am. Haha it was funny though.
We have just seen so many miracles and happiness this week. I have really learned a ton!! Highlights of what I learned:
1. I learned to pray sincerely. Sometimes I worry about rushing my prayers because I'm tired or I think Sister Giles is waiting for me... but God is #1. So I take my time!
2. I have learned to truly love Sister Giles! I think it was... Monday night I was a little sad because I was worried about having enough time to mark my scriptures and catch up in my journal. Well... she took the time to help me see my gifts before we went to work. We studied our Patriarchal blessings and wrote down as many things as we could find that we are endowed with and then we shared them. It was awesome! Sister Giles is so selfless and caring and all around amazing! We've just been happy!!
This week was seriously fantastic. Each night when I got in bed I was exhausted but I knew it was from working hard all day. I had my first exchange on Tuesday!! It was with Sister Johnson in our district. I just love her to death! And Sister Andersen (Mission President's wife) came out with us for part of the day. I was so nervous!! It made me the "Senior companion" in the area and Sister Andersen was there!! We went to a member visit first with Taylor. She is awesome!! She's 18 and out here in Nashville trying to get her music started. How cool is that??! The lesson went so good. Then we had an appointment that fell through... so we just tracted! Haha Sister Andersen loved it! We met Eric, who seems interested, Latasha (not Young Single Adult) and Leon (not Young Single Adult). They're all awesome people! We then went to contact a former investigator but she was in a really sketchy area... Sister Andersen was freaking out! She's like "Don't ever come over here at night and don't tract and be careful!" I told her we never got out if we saw lots of cops (which that day we did) and we never tracted there. While we were looking for the apartment, Sister Andersen turned up a one way street going the wrong way. When she turned off the street she got pulled over!! The cop was super nice and just told us to be careful. We ended up running out of time so we left and went to dinner at a members house named Jaclyn. Later that night we taught Shay.... Oh Shay! It was awesome! We had a lesson plan but before we started I asked her if she had prayed about a baptismal date. She said she felt like some things were holding her back. We found out she has some word of wisdom problems but she set some really amazing goals to overcome them! She really opened up and it was just so cool! Great exchange.
Other than that I'll just update you on certain people:
Shay: After the Word Of Wisdom meeting we met with her again and she said she had been praying and she really feels like she can be ready for baptism soon!! We taught her some things that can help her through her struggles like pray and scripture study and we taught her the blessings of obedience. In the middle of the lesson Sister Giles felt inspired to ask if she wanted a priesthood blessing. We explained it to her and she said she wanted one. So we called the elders and they came right over! It was awesome! Before her blessing she kinda whispered to me "Are these only if I'm sick?" I told her about how they can be for anything and how I had gotten one because I was really homesick and I needed comfort. She liked hearing that. And..... SHE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! She even took notes in Gospel Principles (the lesson was on the law of chastity which we felt inspired to teach her tonight!) Shay is just making so many improvements and changes and we can see it in her countenance. And lots of people talked to her at church too!
Carre: She never brought up the challenge!! And we studied hard for that! It's like she forgot about it! We taught her instead about the rest of the restoration and priesthood. And..... I had been praying so long that we would be able to really testify to her and that she would feel the spirit. And we did just that. Sister Giles testified so powerfully. I followed her and I only remember saying "the Book of Mormon is true. There is absolutely no way it is wrong. It's impossible for it to be wrong" And she felt the spirit. It's so awesome that I could tell that she felt it. Sad thing is though... she steered away from it. She began to ask random questions that didn't relate to anything we had talked about and she said she didn't really know where she was going with it. Also... she said that every time she prays she gets so angry that someone would make up a lie to deceive so many people and that she knew the Book of Mormon was wrong. That hurt. It hurt bad. But that can't change my testimony. The Book of Mormon is true!! I don't care what anybody else tells me. It is. And that's all that matters.
Derrika and Amanda... They weren't home for our appointment yesterday..
Elise and Allison: Sister Giles met Elise while on her exchange with Sister Hulme. She's Young Single Adult and we went back with Kyle from our ward yesterday to teach her. Her friend Allison was over. Allison told us that she wasn't religious at all and that she didn't really believe in Jesus Christ. During the lesson both girls mentioned how it is probably easy for members who are born into the church to find peace and gain a testimony. Kyle was literally jumping out of his seat waiting to tell them how he was a convert. They were surprised that he was and that he was still close with his family. Both girls said they would read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we get to meet with both of them next week too!! WHOOO!!
We haven't met with Savannah. Me and Sister Johnson stopped by but she was surprised and didn't let us in. So we just invited her to institute.
I have really seen the difference it makes in the work to do it with a willing heart. I kept saying over and over in my prayers how much I love being here and how much I love the work and the people. It's amazing! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Transfer calls happened on Saturday. Me and Sister Giles predicted that we were staying... AND WE ARE WHOO HOO!!
-P-day goes like this:
6:30 am put in laundry
6:30-7:00 am clean/switch laundry
7:00-8:00 am get ready
8:00-10:00 am is studies
10:00-6:00 is P-day. We have to email (about 2-2 1/2 hours) and grocery shop and wash our car. But with picking up the other sisters to do P-day too slows us down. They need a full time car. We're slowly learning how to master P-day.
This week has been awesome. Full of smiles! I love you Mom!! You are the best! Have a great week !I love you more than words will EVER be able to describe. Dad.... Never ever ever ever ever ever stop being as amazing as you are. Your emails to me give me so much strength. I love it! I love you dad. You are the best father I could have ever asked for! Have a fantastic week!
~Sister Rokovitz~
On Halloween there was a tornado watch
My desk/wall
