Sister Denton's Marvelous Mission: 1/3/11- Letter to the World

Thursday, January 6, 2011

1/3/11- Letter to the World

Shalom!
How are you world?  You can answer that question by sending a letter addressed to Sister Denton to 2589 Washington Blvd Ste 410, Pittsburgh, PA 15241. 
So today I got to go to Hershey World!  AWESOME! 
There's a poem if you make it all the way to the end ;D

Funny
Spiritual
Awesome
Monday we went to pick up a new sister, thus ending our tripanionship.  Sister Green is from Dallas, OR (Woot!!).  She is waiting for her visa to Brazil and is in Litiz w/ Sister Gibson.  Sister Longmore and I are still together. 
Tuesday we got to WALK!!!!!  We were in a car TONS the week before because we were covering two areas--like 60-100 miles/day.  Walking to find some less-actives was awesome.  That evening we had dinner with one of my favorite families--the Hansens--and then had a lesson with a less-active who I love to pieces.  She is an absolute sweetheart and has decided that despite offense that members may have given, she and her kids are going to make church--all three hours of it--a priority this year.  She shared a beautiful testimony of the Priesthood and other blessings of the church.  The Spirit was definitely there.  She is an amazing daughter of God.
Wednesday was district meeting and the Spirit there was awesome.  By the time interviews and all of the pleasantries were over, we only had like 20 minutes, but that 20 minutes was spiritually intense as we talked about goal setting and planning.   We had a bunch more less-actives taken care of that day and had dinner with another family that I love!  We also met with another less-active we've been trying to get ahold of for a long time and she was AWESOME and we got a return appointment!
Thursday was referral contacting day.  Ryan, a kid who used to live here who is now on a mission in Brazil sent us 5 referrals.  We contacted four and they were ALL home!!!  Three of them agreed to have us come back and teach!!  Unfortunately, one of those three returned the Book of Mormon we gave her to Ryan's bro with a note saying it made her uncomfortable to have it, so I don't think we're going back there.  One of those other two, I'm VERY excited about!  Ryan had warned us that her family is very religious and used to hate him, so we were kind of scared.  When we got there, Kara's parents were gone and she was VERY receptive!!  She said Ryan had given her a Book of Mormon to borrow in 6th grade, but she'd never had her own.  Her family had gone to the same church for years and it grew big enough that it needed to split in two.  Her dad didn't like that idea, so two years ago, they started going to a Mennonite church, even though they aren't Mennonite.  I think Kara is very promising.  We may only get to see her once before she returns to school, but hopefully those missionaries can keep teaching her and she will be brought into the church! 
Friday we visited Ashley, a less-active we love to pieces (she came to Hershey with us today) and taught the 10 commandments.  Then we went to dinner with the former Relief Society President and afterward had a great session of information gleaning as she talked to us about many of the less-actives in the ward.  Then off to bed by 10:30...Happy New Year's lol.
Saturday we figured most people would be hung over, so we worked on our area book some in the morning.  Then it was off to some less-actives for dinner, and then another lesson.
Sunday was AMAZING!!!!  Testimony meeting was phenomenal.  We got to go to the regular Sunday School class and it was incredibly edifying. Relief Society was combined and our Bishop gave a WONDERFUL talk on reverence.  All in all, it was a GREAT Sabbath day.  The Spirit was so strong all through church.  Also, the bishop had been really busy that week and had a couple of less-actives at church that we hadn't met yet!  We'll be meeting with them this week (hopefully) and one has a non-member fiancee who has some questions!  Woot!  So we'll hopefully get to teach him!  That night we had dinner with a part-member family  and then a less-active lesson followed by a little more work on the area book.
We called the Miller family this week to see if we could still teach them, but they had gone to his brother's church the week after ours and loved it, so they are no longer interested.  It's REALLY sad because they had amazing potential.  I remember thinking about them and really feeling that they were going to be something great.  Unfortunately, because of the agency of a few members, they had a poor first experience at church and dropped us.  It's REALLY sad.
On a happier note--I got to go to Hershey World today!  Sis. Rothstein took us and Ashley and her 3-year old came, too!  It was SO fun!

On a spiritual note, I had a really cool experience reading Alma 17 the other day.
First of all, it reminded me of my brothers and I in vs 13.
"And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken."
We are in many different lands, but we know we'll meet again. :D  And how will that meeting be?  See verses 2 and 3!
"...therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knoweldge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.
"But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God."
Isn't that awesome?!?  Then, as it goes on with the story of Ammon, I realized that sometimes our flocks our scattered in a sense.  This analogy of our flocks being scattered continued through the whole chapter and I thought it would make a cool book.  Since I didn't have time for that, I decided to write a poem....so enjoy :D
While reading the scripture, it sometimes is hard
to feel like they even apply.
The characters in them lived so long ago
they've already lived, loved, and died.
But Nephi has told us to liken these things
to see how they'll help us today.
He promises blessings of learning and growth
if we really apply what they say.
So Ammon, we know, was a man of great strength
known for his work with the sword
when people came at him, attempting to kill,
their arms fell off, stiff as a board.
But take a step deeper, and then we can see
that Ammon was guarding the sheep
when they were scattered, the other guys said
we're all gonna die, let us weep.
But Ammon knew he had the power of God
and immediately got to work
he said, "Be of good cheer, we can do something here!
Let's gather the sheep, do not shirk."
Now we don't have sheep, but we have other things
of which we are in control.
And sometimes those things start to fall all apart
and we want to cry out in our soul.
But liken the scriptures and then you will find
that there is something that you can do:
Rely on your God and be of good cheer
then get up--it's all up to you!
When we have questions, we bring them to God,
but often the answers we seek
are already there in the scriptures we read.
Try it!  Go take a peek! 
There's my novel for the week :D
Love ya'll!!
Sister Denton

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