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| My First Trade-off as a STL with Sister Clay from Washington. She is in the Ft. Caroline Ward. |
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| Amisty, our 9 year old gator. |
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| Miracles baptism. Brother and Sister Brown (Brother Brown performed the baptism), Miracle, Linda (her mother who is a member), Leroy (family friend), Sister Kloepfer, me! |
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| We have our countdown for Christmas going! 45 days y'all! |
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| Our Elders surprised us with sticky notes on our door and a Christmas tree! |
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| Sister Kloepfer with our tree |
Life as a Sister Training Leader is
super busy, but great! I didn't think it was possible to be more tired than I
was, but I have been proven wrong!
Monday we had family home evening.
We combine with the Ft. Caroline Ward. Our Elders taught a lesson and then we
played a game. It was a fun evening! Our investigator, Amisty, came. She is a
nine year old and she is loving the gospel! She is very bright and has been
reading the Book of Mormon!
Tuesday we went to Dunn Ave for Zone
Conference. It's always good to see missionaries we haven't seen for a while
and the trainings from President and Sister Craig and the Assistants are so
good! We got our flu shots here too! Sister Kleopfer started teaching the man
giving her a shot. She is such a great missionary :). The focus for the
conference was being Master Teachers and
Sister Craig had a beautiful training on Alma 5. There are so many great
questions in that chapter that help us reflect on our spirituality. We learned
how to have more effective companionship studies and we talked about the
importance of working with members. It was a great day!
We left immediately after for
Miracle's baptism. Her baptism two weeks ago was delayed for her health and so
this was put together very last minute. On the way to the church we got stuck
in traffic. We got there ten minutes late but miracle wasn’t there yet! They
showed up about another ten minutes later. Other than starting a half hour late
it went well! I played piano and Sister Kloepfer gave a talk. Sister Cook, the
previous Sister here, was able to skype in see it. We are so excited for
Miracle!
Thursday was my first trade off as a
Sister Training Leader! We went with the Ft. Caroline Sisters. I went to their
area with Sister Clay who is from Washington. Sister Coutts went to Arlington
with Sister Kloepfer. It was a really great day! We had a meeting with the Ft.
Caroline Relief Society president and I actually knew a few of the sisters they
talked about from covering YSA for their Ward! We did some service and we had
dinner with a less active sister that Sister Hale and I had worked with! Haha,
I totally thought this less active sister was going to be mad at me because
1-we bore strong testimony that God has ordained a pattern for family and she
was planning on moving in with her girlfriend 2- we missed a dinner appointment
with her because we suddenly felt like we shouldn't go and 3- we finally had to
stop visiting her because she wasn't willing to come back to church at that
time. But when I got there she was excited to see me! She even prayed and
thanked Heavenly Father for sending me back. She remembered the service we had
done for her! Service softens hearts!
Friday we traded back to our
companions and went to MLC (missionary leadership council). It was a special
meeting with Elder Soares of the 70! He brought the spirit in so strongly!
President Craig said some things first and the Elder Soares got up and made
some comments about President’s training. Those comments turned into an hour
long lesson that taught us so much! Then he said he was going to get into his
own talk. He reminded us to keep our line in the water with a story about Elder
Oaks going fishing with his grandchildren. They didn't catch very many fish
because they only had their line in the water for a few hours between traveling
and lunch!
He shared some other amazing
experiences! One of which was from his mission. He was called to a branch that
was all women and children so he was the Branch President and the District Leader!
His Mission President said he would stay there until he baptized the next Branch
President. He started only teaching families with fathers who would listen. He
worked hard and after eight months he baptizes a family with ten children-
mostly girls. But the father was illiterate and would not likely serve as a Branch
President. Elder Soares left disappointed. Years later he was in the temple and
a man came up to him and said, "Elder, do you remember me?" Elder
Soares did not. The man said, " do you remember that family of 12 you
baptized? I am the youngest son of that family. After the temple they
talked more and this man told Elder Soares that the branch had grown into a
ward, then a stake! And now the Stake President was this man! We truly never
know the impact our work will have!
Elder Soares also testified that we
had been preordained to be leaders in this mission. Wow! That is amazing, and a
bit overwhelming! It's a big responsibility, but one I accepted in the
premortal life. I know we all have very important roles in our lives and things
that we promised we would do. God doesn't give us any callings we can't handle.
It was a very spiritual experience that we closed by singing "I Know that
my Redeemer Lives." Elder Soares thanked me for playing piano!
The weekend went fast. We stayed
busy with service and finding people. Trina and her family seem to be avoiding
us now. That broke our hearts. There must be another family out there! We
did contact a referral from a member! She is very smart and she has a lot of
questions! I wasn't sure if it was possible to have too many questions, but we
could hardly teach. She wanted to know why I couldn't answer all of her
questions if I had read the Bible. I wanted to tell her it was because she was
throwing off the wall questions that aren't really important to know in this
life, but I didn't. She said we should send the Elders. Or maybe our mothers.
Sister Kloepfer and I had to try not to laugh at that one. Mom, do you want a
new investigator? ;)
I'm playing flute for the ward choir
so that will be fun!
Have a blessed week y'all!
Love
Sister Murray
