August 24, 2014

As for the family!!! Nawapenda!! That means I love you! in Kiswahili! This week--well what a week!!!! Sometimes I feel like the week is so long but then it is always Monday again and I realize that time is just flying!! Ahh Well Clay-- ARE YOU CRAZY GET DAT BELT ON!! YOU CRAZY HEATHEN CUTTIN UP AND ACKEN FOOLISH!! hahaha just kidding But for real-- I am so happy that you are ok! I hope that no one else gets in an accident! Please all be safe!!  Well Clay--this is the week that will change the rest of your life!! Just hit the ground running! You will do great and you will love it! I am so excited for you! Just remember there is no comfort in the growth zone and there is no growth in the comfort zone so if you feel uncomfortable just keep going-- you know that you are being shaped into what Heavenly Father needs you to be! As for Eh Thoo-- her dad will not give her permission to be baptized so it is postponed but our Mission President speaks Thai so he is going to come to a couple lessons with us so that he can talk to him about it!! It will be great! We had interviews this week and I truly just love my Mission President so much!! It is kind of funny because he has us plan stuff to talk about in our interviews with him and every time I have an interview with him we just talk and talk and talk and the stuff I prepare is always a back up plan!   I know that President Bernhisel truly loves each of us missionaries here in the NCRM! I have learned so much from him and he is a huge influence to me.  He gave me a side hug once.... ahhh all the rules down the drain! hahaha but He is great! He did tell me though that I will be transferred and that I am going to be a Sister Leader again so I have been scoping out where I could go.  I really hope either Raleigh or Wilmington! But wherever-- I am excited!! It won’t be for a couple weeks though so I will let you know when I find out! Well as for this week, Vernetta’s boyfriend, Calvin was baptized! We started teaching him and passed him to the Elders! He is great and was an alcoholic that quit cold turkey! Pretty amazing! It was great to see how it is all about finding the one who will go get one who will go get one! Other than that I feel like I have learned so much this week.  I read a talk called “The Inconvenient Messiah” by Elder Holland and it was the best talk that I have ever read! It has changed the way I think about so much and has truly helped me in so many ways! I had been feeling a little sluggish lately... I didn’t really know why or how to fix it but I just felt like I was going to be a missionary forever.   I came across this talk that talks all about how it wasn’t easy for Christ so why would anything that is worth it -- be easy. He talks about how the road of easiness is the way of Satan and how much more we as disciples have to take the hard road more often than not. I often relate everything to myself and I realized-- if Heavenly Father just gave me everything or made my mission easy then it wouldn’t mean anything but if I learn true Christ- like humility then I will recognize that it is to my benefit to struggle and to have the hard road in front of me.  That is when I gain more knowledge about my Savior and His life therefore I put more trust in Him and gain a closer relationship! I truly love the talk and would recommend it to each of you! I know that we all go through hard trials and we have hard days or weeks or months and we wonder why it can’t just be easy or why Heavenly Father won’t just give us what we yearn for, wouldn’t that just be so convenient! But like Elder Holland says-- it wasn’t convenient for Christ or Joseph Smith so it won’t be convenient for us either.  When we do go through the inconvenience then that is when the greatest blessings are given! I love you all so much and I hope you have the best week! You are the best family!!  God be with you till we meet again! hahaha I know cheesy! But I love you all 

Love always Cass