Wowie, I am at the start of my third week here in this new area...whoa. I can't believe it! Time legitimately flies, I know you are all probably so sick of hearing me say that.
First off, I want to thank you all for my emails and letters this week. I know I have the best family on earth! Haha, I was laughing and smiling through all of my emails today. Please know you MADE my day. Macey told me the funniest story about these weirdos biking from New York to Portland who made a pitstop in Ashton...We are ALL connected!!!! Addey confirmed that the family member of a woman I met in Beaverton is on her volleyball team. Super cool! I finally found my connection to HOME! Yippee! Then, I find out from Whitney that Kyle is now the ward mission leader in Texas. That is SO awesome!! You guys will get to work with the missionaries so much, I hope you like them! Just pretend they are me! And Grandpa Tom sent me the best story ever about meeting my dear, sweet Grandma Joyce. Oh my gosh, I love it! I am always so amazed that our family's marriages last so well when they come from people who barely knew each other. It is SO cool to me though! Haha, God is so involved in our live's and guiding us to what will make us happiest. That's all I could think about in Mom and Dad's meeting and love story too. We are such a blessed family! Then, I finally got the letter Grandma had sent me, it had been sitting at my old apartment for a time. Grandma has a way of jerking those tears out of me. But, let's be honest, that is not hard to do! And of course, Mom and Dad's notes too! I loved hearing from you each and knowing that you love and care about me. I LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN WORDS COULD POSSIBLY EXPRESS! Thank you for taking time to send me a note!
This week was very, very good. One of the highlight's was that a family Sister Olsen taught was able to go to the temple to receive their endowment and then be sealed together as a family. I was the lucky companion who got to tag along! My favorite part of the temple was watching one of the men who was in their with us. He was severely handicapped, could hardly walk or talk. He was mentally there, because he could understand, but he could not be understood. As I watched this man in the temple and really listened to what the Spirit was trying to teach me, it became so very clear to me how real the Atonement is. It made it very evident that this sweet man would be healed mentally, physically and spiritually. I began to understand how applicable that is for me as well. The faith of that man made me cry! So many would feel cursed or deserted by God to be in that position, but there he was, in the temple of God, serving others! His faith in Christ's healing power really spoke to me. I have so much to be grateful for and so much still to learn! I really am so thankful for the comfort I can find in the temple. Things have been pretty crazy and I have been worried about a lot of things, but that all went away while I was there. I'm thankful for that!
We had some incredible lessons to this week. One of the women we are teaching, Phyllis, is beginning to recognize the spirit, which is the COOLEST thing to see people learn. She has began to connect the good feelings she has while praying and reading the scriptures, attending church and having our lessons, to God. She knows that those are her answers to her prayers. Yay for connecting dots! It seriously feels so good to see those that we are teaching begin to connect the dots. It is so wonderful to know that Phyllis now knows and has a testimony that if she is feeling distant from Heavenly Father or alone or hurt, she can pray to Him and He will help her. She has absolutely fallen in love with the feeling of the fellowship with the church. She began to cry at our last lesson when she started to talk about how she finally feels like she has friends who really love and care about her. She didn't have that before she came in contact with member's of the church. I am so happy she feels loved now! Everyone deserves that!
Sister Olsen's and my teaching styles are very different, but are working together really well. We both are good at different things, that really balance each other out. It has been so fun to work with her. My style is just to kind of fall in love with the person and somehow always end up tying the gospel into it and showing them how it actually applies to them. And Sister Olsen is SO good at teaching the doctrine. So, she will usually bring up, state, or teach a principle and I will then talk to them about how it actually connects for them and will apply in their life. It has been working so well. I love it here and love the people we are teaching! There is so much to learn from everyone we meet!
I unfortunately have to get going! We are going over to Oregon City this afternoon to meet up with the Chavez family that I taught last summer! I am so excited to see them! It has been a whole year since sweet Nancy was baptized, remember her? That was a year ago yesterday! Time flies.I am so happy for so many beautiful memories to reflect on from Oregon, but also from all of the time I spent with you! Those happy memories motivate me to work and give my heart here!
Xoxox, Sister Kerr <3
No comments:
Post a Comment