Farr Along The Road I Traveled: "A Child's Prayer"

Howdy Family and Friends!

There are so many amazingly crazy things that happened this week, and not nearly enough minutes an hour to describe them all!

I'll start with some fun facts again:

1- We had Zone Conference this week with about 1/2 the mission and there were 11 Sisters that stayed in our apartment Tuesday night before it happened! Elder William R. Walker of the 70 spoke to us, and it was a really amazing experience. Also, we were blessed to hear from his wife, and President and Sister Augustin!

2- When we were knocking one day there were two dogs that followed us all the way down the street... it was interesting to say the least... and I also got to use a little bit of Spanish (it reminded me of my Dexter Days :P)!

3- We had a referral and met a really amazing woman, Deanna, who was meeting with missionaries near Ft. Worth, and we're meeting with her this week! I think it's so amazing how she can be hundreds of miles away from where she lived before, and now she can be taught the same things that the Sister missionaries were teaching her before!

4- I'm continually amazed at how amazing it is to teach the gospel! There is so much happiness to be found, and the Spirit really edifies my testimony every day!

5- General Conference is this week and it's so exciting that we get to hear from our living prophet today, and our other church leaders! :)

6- We're going to the Petroleum Museum today! So we're going to learn all about the oil that keeps this town running, and FINALLY I'll know how the millions of pumpjacks we see work!

Okay, so that was a fun overview of the week, we had some AMAZING spiritually uplifting activities this week. Between Zone Conference (which was actually a gathering of half of our mission), and the General Relief Society Broadcast (which is part of General Conference, but is a special session directed towards the women of the church), my personal excitement for missionary work has increased SO much, and there is a new missionary spirit in the air for our members too!

The only down side to so much personal edification, is that we weren't able to get out and work as much as we wanted to, and needed to. Also the game I was playing of "How much Vitamin C can Sister Lagrosa take?" Well, that's been going well, I've consumed a couple bags of cough drops the past week and a half though... and sadly Sister Turner was down and out on Thursday, so we had to stay in while she slept off some gnarly head cold. But, Sister Tooley and I got to study our scriptures, we wrote Sister Turner's birthday card (because her birthday is this weekend!), planned a family home evening for a less-active family we are meeting with this week, and wrote a poem! Oh, and I changed the air filter in our apartment. Overall it was a good day, and now we're going strong!

I can't choose just one highlight this week, but, there was definitely a theme of 1- Prayer and 2- God's love for us! What is really great about the people here is that they love God, and they love Jesus! There are so many truly Christian people who don't mind talking with us about their faith, and who truly look into our eyes as we share that our message will only help them increase it. Hopefully soon, we'll be able to work around some people's schedules so we can sit down and take the time we need to actually share our message with them!

Missionary work is full of ups and downs, we were dropped by Jennifer because work is coming first for now, and our friend Joe I talked about last week sadly got into a little bit of trouble this week. We found out from Alice on Friday that he had been incarcerated, and that our other friend Bogie (an older man who had gone into jail on Wednesday, who we had taught for a little bit, but then were going to plan on contacting when he was out again), passed away because he got really sick inside. When Alice told us the news, we were all crying in her home, but comfort came from knowing that Bogie's in a better place now, and he'll be learning from the missionaries on the other side. Also, it'll be an opportunity for Joe to have some time to think, and maybe he'll be ready for the gospel when he gets out.

For now though, we are trying to continue to meet with Alice, and hopefully sit down and teach her soon. We're also looking forward to getting to know a few more referrals we got this past couple weeks, and work hard to bring the great message of the restored gospel to those who are prepared to hear it.

I'm really grateful for the opportunity we have to pray with people. I know Heavenly Father is a loving Father, who knows us perfectly and listens when we take the time to talk to Him. The work we have been doing with some of our less active members has been centered on remembering that Heavenly Father loves them, and that they need to continuously build that realationship. We are meeting with a few families pretty regularly, and one man really is misunderstanding faith right now. He's briliant, and he has a very philosophical mind-complete with questions that can't be answered. When we were sitting down with him and his wife last night, he asked how God could bless the people in the middle-east with so much oil, but here he is in the middle of Midland with nothing. He looked really deflated as he talked about how there is no way that he could ever talk to God, because it would just be a waste of his time, and His time... that if God was really there He'd show him a sign or something.

It was amazing to me that I could look this incredibly inteligent man in the eyes and tell him with complete confidence, "I don't know the answer to some of your questions, but I do know that God loves you Brother Oliver, and I know that He wants you to talk to Him. Your Heavenly Father doesn't want you to be in darkness or feel confused, and the peace you are searching for, even if it is just peace of mind, can be found as you take the time to speak to Him. One of your trials of faith may be that you need hard evidence to believe somehthing, but I know with all of my soul that as you pray to know if He is there He will answer you. If you ask Him if He loves you, with sincere intent, Brother Oliver, you'll gain a witness that He does, that you cannot deny."

It feels weird sometimes to think that me, a 21-year old kid can promise a really intelligent man such a great blessing, but I know it's true, and I feel the Spirit testify to me of its truth every day I'm out here.

I love the message that we have to share about God's love, that we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness on the earth again today, and that we are led by a prophet called of God. I'm also very excited for General Conference this weekend!

I love and miss you all so much! You're always in my prayers.

All my love,

Sister Lagrsoa

Pictures!:

1- Me and my twin! ...okay not really, but it's Sister Tomson! My older sister! (She was trained by Sister Johnson too!)

2- Me and my two compadres Sisters Turner and Tooley at Zone Conference!

3- Me Changing the Air filter in our house on Thursday. =)

4- Me and the turtle we named King Limoni! :D