Monday, October 27, 2014

Keep Calm and Pray On

I feel like some weeks I'm so caught up in the mission and I'm just like "eh... emailing...." But there are other weeks where I'm just like "OUTTA MY WAY! I HAVE TO TALK TO MY FAMILY!!!"

So I have to tell you this ... Yesterday was Stake Conference here. Let me just tell you... I think it's the best Stake Conference I've ever been to! Elder Giddens from the Seventy came. He is really amazing! Well on Sunday morning, our Stake President got up to start. The theme the evening before had been the hastening and all about missionary work (because it's the greatest and most important) so I figured that's what we'd hear. No. He gets up and says "Brothers and Sisters I would like to speak today on the power of effective prayer." Jaw dropped. Um.... Hello. That's something I've been concerned about and working on for quite a while now. Ok so Heavenly Father prepared all of Stake Conference this whole time just for me. I don't mean to be selfish, but that's just amazing! I almost wanted to ask President Andersen afterwards if he had told President Craig to speak on that for me.... So I took a ton of good notes and I just really thought a lot about it. It was almost like Heavenly Father was saying "Hey this is really important. I know you've been thinking about this, but you need to put some more thought into it." As we were singing the closing song I was just so filled with the spirit and I just thought in my mind "the church is so true."

I came home and that night I really thought about my prayer. I have a notebook that's says "Keep Calm And Pray On" on the front. It's my prayer notebook. (Serving in the South = awesome gospel notebooks).
                                                                               

                                                                       

I wrote down 2 questions and then prayed. I thanked Him for everything and then I prayed for all my leaders. I then asked a question and waited.. And then I asked the second one and waited. I received a simple answer for each of the questions that I'm now going to study more and work on. It was a really cool experience for me.

I love the talk Elder Klebingat gave in General Conference! I want to read it again with the "prayer" perspective. I never thought that talk would help with that. So I'm going to read it this week and let you know how it goes. Thanks for suggesting it.

Things with Chris did go pretty good this week. We finally saw him last night. He didn't get baptized Saturday because he's been so busy with work but he said he's feeling better about baptism. So he's praying about a day when he can be ready.

Monday we found an awesome place to tract. We found a few good potentials. For FHE we did skits but they weren't funny at all... They were so lame. So then we played chair soccer. That was fun.

Tuesday we had interviews with President and he gave me some great prayer advice. Afterwards, I went up to Sister Andersen and said I had a migraine for 4 solid days... Should I be worried? We talked about solutions and then she asked if I would like a blessing. I said yes, and she got President and the two AP's. It was amazing to feel the true power of the priesthood at that moment. I know those 3 men are definitely worthy and exercise their priesthood righteously. I knew they were hard working missionaries. I knew they could heal me. I went home and took some meds and passed out for a few hours. They said I just needed a day to rest up and get back on track. I woke up and still had it.. I was disappointed, but prayed and asked Heavenly Father to heal me. I expressed my faith in Him and really tried to believe in the blessing. It took work... water, no sugar, being careful, not stressing... But now it's gone and we've been exercising really good this transfer. I've actually lost 4 pounds WHOO hoo!

Wednesday I trained at District meeting about finding. It went pretty well... But no one laughed at my jokes! They all liked my role play though. We summarized the Restoration in 4 sentences to practice simplicity. Then we went on an exchange with the Russellville sisters. I went there with Sister Miller. They have a lot of good things going for them but we didn't have a lot of work to do that night because they had seen everyone the day before. All of Russellville stinks too because of a dog food factory where they burn cows. The smell is so bad it makes you want to gag. Sister Oldroyd found a lot of cool people in the "miracle" complex. They found 2 less actives with non member roommates who are interested. One of them, Sean, and his roommate Chris came to Sports Night.

Thursday I came back and the day was a little long and rough. It was tough to fill up our schedule. That night Sister Oldroyd got a little frustrated with planning.....

Friday she apologized but things still weren't the same. I really had to use the Atonement big time to get through that one. When you feel so low, the only thing you can do is pray. That's the only way out of it. We're ok now. We went tracting at the "miracle" complex and someone got mad for us giving them a picture of Jesus, and soon after, the office staff came and kicked us out.

Saturday we had Stake Conference at night and it was so good! Spirit filled! Elder Giddens had a question/answer session about the hastening. It was cool.

Sunday was the other part of Stake Conference. I already told you about that. It was so good. We met with Chris that night which was good too. Oh and I'm in a trio now. Sister Fairborn went home today and Sister McDonald is with us and we're managing two areas now.

This week has been hard, but good. I'm still learning about prayer, and trying to immerse myself in the spirit. It's coming along. I feel better about it. I whisper my prayers so I can concentrate more and I'm really making them a great experience. Thank you for your advice and help.

Sorry this was extremely lame! We just had a busy p-day with a lot of stuff and rearranging the whole apartment for the three of us. I'll be better next week! I love you!

~Sister Rokovitz~

                                                                             
We both have footie jammies (Can't figure out why they have a Christmas tree up in October. We'll have to ask about that next week.)

For those who have lived in the South, you know the rest of that sign should say, "ya hear?" after "Y'all come back now"

Just hangin' out in Kentucky

Sister Oldroyd and Sister Rokovitz