Faith to Reap

So I had this great email composed about all the things that have happened this week. Guess what happened? So the whole thing got erased so I had to start all over. Oh well, life goes on. But this is going to be a bit shorter because I just don't have the time or energy to re write the whole thing. 

We went to zone conference this week. It was sooo good! My favorite training was by Sister Andersen. She based it off a talk called Faith to Reap. Greatest. Talk. Ever. I love it so much. It's actually a devotional that was given at BYU Idaho last March. If any of y'all want to read it just let me know because it's super good. And mind blowing. One thing he talked about was Laman and Lemuel and how a lot of times when we think of Laman and Lemuel we think of how they were just these terrible brothers who just complained and murmured but Elder Andersen points out in the talk that they really did have faith. They had the faith to try. Laman went in and asked Laban for the plates and both of them gave up all their possessions in order to get them. That would take faith! The difference between their faith and Nephi's was that Nephi had the faith to do, not just to try. Anyway, it's a great talk. 

Also another thing I liked was one thing one of the AP's talked about. He talked about Mosiah 3:19 and the natural man. He pointed out that it says "put off the natural man" and he says when he thinks about what that means he imagines literally taking something off of us, like shoulder pads or a jacket. And he said that this implies that we have put something on. We have all put on the natural man and now we have to take it off. We are all here on the ear to learn how to take it off. I thought that was a really interesting insight! 

That old man Marvin that we have been teaching dropped us this week. We called him on Monday and he said he didn't want to meet with us and we talked it out with him. He said he just kept feeling confusion and that God is not a God of confusion. We convinced him to have one last lesson with us and he agreed. But then on Saturday when we called him to remind him he said he wasn't going to come. Sad day. I think that he just did not have the right motives. He just really wanted to marry a member and so he told us that's why he was learning. Our motives and desires really have to be in the right place in order for God to help give us answers. 

Random notes:

1. We met an inactive member who is totally agnostic now...sad day

2. We went to Paducah today and hung out with the sisters :) I just love them! 

3. Sister Oldroyd goes home this week.....REALLY sad day :(

We've worked with a few formers and investigators that have been in our area book forever and wow that was actually really successful! It's amazing how giving people some time can really change things! This one former used to be mad and at God and not even believe in Him because of some of the terrible things that have happened to her in her life. But now she is at least starting to some different churches because she knows it's what she needs to do, even if she's not sure about God yet. That shows faith whether she knows it or not! The other one, her name is Anna and she just loves the Book of Mormon and she said she believes 100% that it is true! She just knows but she just doesn't know how to explain the feeling! She hadn't read in a long time though because she lost her Book of Mormon and has been so busy she hasn't been able to go look for it. But we gave her another one and she said she would read it ever day! :)

Been preparing a training on family history and addressing the importance of family this week that I have to give at district meeting. It's actually been really cool to think about why it's so important to use it while finding! And I'm also learning lots of cool things about family history...and the history of family history haha but anyway I read this cool talk called...the New Harvest or something like that and there's this quote in it that I love: "In April 1894...the First Presidency and the Twelve established the Genealogical Society of Utah. From modest beginnings in an upstairs room of the Church Historian’s Office (this first collection started at about 300 books) its collection and facilities have grown. Today the Family History Library™ occupies a modern five-story building with access to 280,000 books, 700,000 microfiches, and more than 2 million rolls of microfilm, making it the largest library of its kind in the world." 

Isn't that so cool? I thought it was. Also it said that experts estimate that about 20 percent of Internet use is related to genealogy. Wow! The talk was given in 1998 but still that's so cool! Maybe it's more now! :)

Well I'm about out of time! I love y'all lots! Sorry this email is rather lacking!

Love,

sister Myers

PS here are pictures but I don't know if they will even work because they like never work when I send them from my iPad. (Mom please tell me which ones you got so I know which ones to send next week)  (This is Annette---obviously the pics didn't work! Hopefully next week!)