Week #72: Happy Thanksgiving! (Malaysia Style) – October 21, 2017 – October 27, 2017 (Miri)

 

Sister Vranes and Sister Cloud eating lunch.

This week has been great! We've been working very very hard and I am proud of our efforts this week. I feel good about the people we are teaching right now. Early in the week, we got two new investigators. Both of them have to meet early. We've been meeting them before their work. We were very good at putting in the effort to meet them, but we felt a lacking, because we found most of our studies had to be pushed back to the middle of the day. As a side note, we get to study the Gospel every single day. We have an hour to do personal studies, another half hour (or optional hour) to study as a companionship, and another half hour (or optional hour) to study the language.  On Thursday, we were able to get quite a bit of our studies in before we met our investigators. This was a testimony builder to me of the importance of studies. I love studies anyway, but this solidified the testimony I already had. As we were riding to the lesson, we had a distinct impression to teach something completely different than what we had planned. We were able to control the situation well, follow the Spirit, and teach with power and authority. The Spirit wasn't as strong before because we didn't get much of our studies in before we met them. I definitely feel a difference in my life when I study the Gospel everyday versus when I don't.

 

The Miri Sister biking.

On Saturday, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving as a Miri missionary family with Elder and Sister Childs (more like Super Childs, the amazing senior couple). They returned late to their home from an outpost area, Bintulu, about 6 pm on Friday, and invited us for a sloppy joe Thanksgiving the next day. It was like a big family. We ate delicious food, and said what we were thankful for, and played the Mormon version of Family Feud. Did you know people in Utah pray for moisture the most? I Didn't. We finished the day with Karaoke with our Relief Society. We ate food together, had a good time, and my companion sang The Prayer. She has an amazing voice. Everyone is asking her to sing for the Talent show, the Christmas Music Fireside, and everything else within these weeks leading up to Christmas. 

This week has seriously flown by because I just realized, we had Zone Conference this week. It was my last Zone Conference, and I had to bear my dying testimony. So sad. We focused on planning and preparing. We learned a lot about how planning and setting goals is part of the holy order of things. It was something God has done since the beginning. It's definitely something to work on and continue doing throughout my life. When I think of goals and plans, I think of choices. I've been studying two talks recently, the first is "Choices" and the second is "Choose You This Day", both by President Thomas S. Monson. One quote he says in both is, "The choices we make determine our destiny". He then talks about Alice and Wonderland. I won't go into more detail, so you will have to read these talks. Goals and plans are the way we can make better choices. What are your plans today? Are they as effective as they can be? Are they getting you closer to your end goal, or destiny?

Sister Vranes and Sister Cloud