God's Love, Dead Batteries, and chillin in - 12 degrees

February 10, 2014

Hello! Another week just flew by. Yikes!

I have gotten HORRENDOUS with basketball/working out. A couple preparation days ago we were at a church gym and I shot a few baskets...FAIL.

Morgan asked for advice on things to read/watch before your mission.  Here are some:

·        probably read the member missionary work book that mom and dad are talking about so you can help members with missionary work. 

·        i can't tell you enough: like read and breathe Preach My Gospel

·        I don't know maybe look this up on youtube/lds.org but Elder Holland gave some powerful talks in the MTC it's awesome!

·        watch/listen to joseph smith papers

·        Jesus the Christ

·        get to know scripture mastery/book of mormon (it'd be a good idea to read it one more time before you leave)

·        look at the work of salvation website on lds.org

·        get to know family history; that's been a focus on finding in many missions

·        read the miracle of forgivness by spencer w kimball

·        if you read the Book of Mormon institute study guide that really has a lot of awesome insights. 

·        "Cast not away therefore thy confidence" is my favorite talk ever by Elder Holland. That's the talk that helped me quit basketball...it's great! 

This week was CRAZY! We saw some amazing things happen:

First of all, (names) are doing okay. We saw them last week and it was so cool because he went from drinking 25 cups of coffee to 8! So that's awesome! They are still doing great. Except this last weekend they couldn't make it to church. :( But I think they'll be okay. It's so true when people start making good choices Satan throws things at them to try to get them discouraged. 

(name) is doing AWESOME! It's been a very cool experience to try to help him to stop smoking. I've never had to help someone quit smoking who actually had a DESIRE to stop. I've never realized how smoking is so addictive and powerful. But he has made some great steps: he's had days where he hasn't smoked at all and he is getting better. He's been sincerely praying and asking God for help and accounting to him how he's doing each day. It's amazing. I know that he is really teaching me about our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Whenever he has a fallback we just tell him to keep going. I know that's what our Jesus Christ does for US: he isn't tearing us down but cheering us on telling us to not quit and that tomorrow's a new day. I'm so grateful for the Atonement. I know he is going to be cigarette free soon...God is helping him. 

(name) is doing awesome! We ate at their place last week and taught them and committed her and her husband to read the Book of Mormon every night. They recognize the Spirit and they said they'd do it. So good things are going to come out of that. 

(name)…I'M SO EXCITED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT HER! We taught her the restoration last week and she GOT IT. You can tell if someone understands something or not. And she understood. It was so awesome! At the end of the lesson she told us she's been thinking about baptism...and it seems right to her. YAY! She's loving the Book of Mormon and it's awesome! And....SHE CAME TO CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME YESTERDAY! So. awesome. She had a great time. We are so excited for her. Now...the thing is...we have to teach her all the commandments in the next two weeks. It's go time! But I love her: she's so genuine and she wants to make sure that baptism is right for her not because we say it is but because she comes to know for herself that it is. She has had so many hard times. But she is so strong. It's amazing. :)

We found a miracle. A few snowstorms ago we talked to this old woman outside who was shoveling. She told us to come back. So last week we did. She is so amazing. She's this single old woman living by herself. But she has faith in God and you can tell it. Her house/countenance was just filled with the light of Christ. She told us we were sent to her for a reason and so we are coming back. WE ARE SO PUMPED! She is so nice...and she just goes to a church because she knows people that go there. She's gone to many different churches and she is seeking truth. It's sweet! 

I know that God loves ALL his children. I felt that a lot this week. I don't know if I'm going soft but there have been times in lessons where I just tear up because I know that God loves them so much...and that they are just so amazing. A lot of people have so many hard trials but God still loves them. I know it because I feel it so strongly. I know that they aren't alone and that He understands everything. It's one of my favorite things as a missionary to just feel that special love for these people that I don't know very well. It's funny though because now and then I seem to be hard on myself for MY faults..and I don't let myself feel God's love for ME. I'm a bit of a hypocrite for that cause then I feel like God couldn't love me for my weaknesses. But I think I'm learning now..so that's good. :)

Okay I want to end with a great story...haha okay just the craziest day of my mission which happened this last week:

It all started on Thurs. We were rushing to an appointment and we left the house, got in the car.

And the car wouldn't start.

So we had to call someone to help us jump the car and get it started. (So now I know what to do to jumpstart a car) Although we were late we got to our appointment.

THEN...the next day we had been weekly planning all day and were anxious to get back to work and get out. We go in the car....

AND IT WOULDN'T START AGAIN!!!!! 

We were pretty annoyed. So we called ANOTHER member and he came to help us. We push the car out of the snowy driveway (in other words I had a great workout) And then he tried to jumpstart the car. 

Well the car started...and then we heard the doors lock. 

The keys were in the car.

And the phone. 

And it was -12 degrees outside.

Yup a repeat of Hogi-Yogi. 

So the poor member called CAA and had someone come break into our car. We had to wait outside in the cold for a good 20 min. My feet were about to fall off, my face was frozen, and man it was just crazy.

But the guy did come and get us going. 

So then we wanted to call the mission office. I was quite frazzled so I called the number and the president's wife answered. It was weird for her to have answered but I asked for Elder G and she then laughed and said "Oh...I think you wanted to call the Mission OFFICE this is the mission HOME."  So that was my embarrassing moment for the day: I just called the Mission President's wife for no reason. 

After I called the mission OFFICE...the elder over vehicles told me that we needed to take our car and get the battery checked ASAP. (It was 5pm so everything was closing up) So we were calling and driving around trying to find a place to check our battery. 

Then I looked and our gas was really low...

But we made it to the place. They checked the battery and nothing was wrong. So that's good -- apparently I've been leaving something in the cigarette lighter over night which has been draining the battery. 

SO then we filled up with gas. And then I looked at the car clock and we had an appointment in 20 min. So because of previous events I decided we need an ice cream cone to make things better and get us feeling better. Then we went to Dairy Queen. Right when we got our sundaes...we realized. The car clock was wrong because the battery died. 

It was really 30 min past our appointment time. 

SO we ended up being an hour late. But she was okay and forgiving. But oh man after that I was just DONE!

So there you go!

Luckily life goes on and the next few days have been better. But man that was so crazy!

Okay I better go! I love you! I love the work and I love the gospel! Keep being amazing! 

Sister Ogden :)