Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Chapel Heights: August 30 - September 5

Hi everyone!

I'll start with the biggest piece of news: it's the start of a new transfer and I'm going to the North Stake in the Harmony Hills ward to train a new missionary! I am so excited for it! I absolutely love double transfers and I'm really looking forward to training again. This also means I'm being released as a Sister Training Leader. I'm so glad for the opportunity I had to serve in that assignment! I have learned so much from it. I feel like now that I've finally figured it out, I have a new assignment!

Also, some strange things have been happening. I had hydrocephalus and had surgery to fix it about three years ago. Nothing has happened during those three years until now! Many of my symptoms plus more suddenly came back this past week, so we're trying to figure out what's going on. I'm not worried about it at all and I know that if I do my best to seek the medical attention I need, the Lord will do the rest! I received a priesthood blessing last week and the peace that I felt during it was amazing. I know everything will work out, although this definitely isn't what I had in my plans! It's a good reminder for me that what I want isn't always what God wants, even though I'm constantly trying to align my will with His.

We taught Jasmine on exchanges! She's excited for her baptism, but she asked if she could put it off a little longer. We found out that it was because she thought that once she was baptized, every sin after that was there to stay! It was the same concern that Braeden from Kingman had. Thankfully we were teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we explained what the sacrament is for! Heavenly Father's plan certainly is perfect.

We're working on helping Dawn, Alison, and Lonnie get to the temple! They've fallen back to some old habits and are learning about the power of the Atonement :)

As I've looked back on this past transfer, I noticed how the zone vision we created has helped the missionaries serving in the Central/Sunrise zone. It's amazing! The vision was focused on helping them become Preach My Gospel missionaries. Here it is:
We are a Preach My Gospel zone:
We are Spirit led!
We are obedient!
We have the View!  <-- referring to the temple and helping get our
investigators there
We baptize!!!

My suggestion to any missionary or anyone preparing to serve a mission is to BE those things. Apply Preach My Gospel to every aspect of your life and mission! Be obedient! Keep an eternal perspective and envision people in the temple and in the Celestial Kingdom! When you do all of those things, the Spirit will work through you and you will fulfill your purpose!

Back to our investigators: Robert and Angel, who are Dawn and Lonnie's friends, are doing great and are preparing to be baptized on October 29!! We invited them to read Alma 37:6-7 after one of our lessons and Angel told us at our next visit that she kept reading it multiple times every single day because it applied so well to her life and the things she and Robert are going through! Robert didn't read it until our lesson when Angel was telling us about it and tears started streaming down his face as he read it in the lesson. Never underestimate the power of the scriptures.

At the end of an exchange as we finished evaluating and were moving our suitcases into the right cars at a church parking lot  the Ward Mission Leader from Foothills YSA drove up and said hi! It was crazy to see him again! It is such a small world.

Adrian is doing great and is on track for his baptism!

Craig was doing really well until Sunday, when we received a text from him saying he was done investigating for now and didn't want to meet for his appointment in a few hours. Right after we read his text, the bishop texted us and advised us to not go to our appointment with him. I have no idea what happened, but I hope Craig will make it around eventually!

We haven't been able to contact Catherine all week, which is really weird. Whenever we knocked on her door before this week, her dog would bark, but now we haven't been hearing a dog. We dropped her so we can focus our time on people who are progressing and able to meet with us, but I hope she's okay!

We were invited to give a presentation on fellowshipping at mutual, so we included a few role plays for the youth to practice inviting their friends to church activities or saying hi to investigators when they see them in public. Those youth are hilarious! Two of the boys who we convinced to participate in a role play never made eye contact with each other and were painfully awkward, and a brand new Beehive was the first one to volunteer and did a great job!

We taught a cool 16 year boy named Casey on the street as he was walking home from school snd invited him to be baptized! He accepted and we set him with a date! He wasn't there for his return appointment because he had to run an emergency errand, but we met his 17 year old sister named Emily who is also really interested! She is in ROTC and plans to join the Marines.

Stephanie and Hailey aren't ready to be baptized now, so we're going to hold off on teaching them. Their whole family feels too much pressure from their extended family to join the church, so it's pushing them away. I'm sure they have the best intentions and I'm sure Stephanie and Hailey and their family will eventually realize
that God's church is perfect even though His people are not!

Brianna is still doing super well and is right on track to be baptized in two weeks!

There was an awesome miracle on Saturday! The tire pressure light on our car came on, which was really weird since our car is brand new and last time I checked the tire pressure of a brand new mission car, it was 40 PSI. We inflated the tires and then the light came back on soon after that, so we took the car in with 30 minutes before an
appointment (we had appointments every hour after that, so there was no time to go in except for then). The mechanic at the desk told us there was an hour wait for our car to even be looked at since one of the workers called in sick that day and he kept suggesting that we come back later. I had a feeling that we should stay there just a little bit longer and talk with him and it would all work out. Sure enough, right after that a mechanic walked in and noticed that the Mormon missionaries were there and said he just clocked in from his lunch break and could take care of the Lord's car before the other ones in line! We were back on the road in 15 minutes! I know Heavenly Father makes things work out perfectly despite the regular bumps in the road so we can use every minute wisely!

I love you all! Look for the miracles in your week!
Sister Bedont

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