This week has been stressful & oh so great!
This
ward is really amazing. If you didn't know, we just took over the area
that elders had. The ward had been praying to get sister missionaries
because of the number of single women in the ward & women in general
who could benefit from having sister missionaries to visit them.
The
stressful part is just understanding how this area works & getting
know the people & how to work here. But I'm loving the beauty that
is here.
This last week was AWESOME for a lot of reasons.
Reason
#1 - Thursday we had our mission conference with Elder Falabella of the
Seventy. Sister Wagner & I sang "Savior, Redeemer Missionary
Medley" with Elder Spriggs on the piano & it went well! Before the
conference began, Elder Falabella wanted to shake hands with each
missionary so that was a really cool experience! I got up there & he
said my name & asked where that's from. I said "we think it's
Italian." He told me that his name is Italian too! It was such a neat
experience to meet & talk to him.
President & Sister Hobbs began
by speaking to us & then turned the time over to Elder Falabella,
who spoke to us about 2 hours before lunch, then he spoke again after
for a couple hours. He had SO many good things to say. I'll just sum up a
little about what he talked about.
He started off with a question:
"What is the reason you are here today?" Some answered with various
answers: to be more converted, to change, to become a better missionary,
to receive revelation, etc. He focused on the REASON we do things &
the significance of focusing on that in all we do. He talked a lot
about the sacrament & the reason we take it each Sunday.
What is the reason we take the Sacrament? Are our minds & hearts
focused on the purpose of the Sacrament each week, or do we find
ourselves getting into a routine & taking for granted the wonderful
blessing? The Sacrament is the only ordinance we take part in more than
once for ourselves. Baptism, the Holy Ghost, Endowment, etc happen only
ONCE for us, but we take the Sacrament every week. He also tore down the
phrase of "renewing" our covenants by partaking of the Sacrament &
said he believes we make new covenants every week. We should covenant to
do better than the week before & be more Christlike. How profound.
He
also talked about not giving up so easily. Especially with teaching
families. He told us a story about how he went out teaching with elders
recently & they were in the living room teaching a woman about the
restoration as Elder Falabella heard noise coming from another room in
the house. In the middle of the lesson he got up & started towards
the noise. He got into the kitchen & saw like 7 other people eating
rice & beans around the table. He said "I love rice & beans!"
& they offered him some. After awhile, the elders were in the
kitchen teaching the whole family.
He promised that as we TRY HARDER & don't give up so easily, we will have families to teach.
Those are just a couple things he talked about, & I did that without looking back at my notes! hahaha
Reason #2 - Church on Sunday
was great. Everyone was so welcoming & willing to help us with
whatever we need. It's hard to accept help sometimes, but Sister Peacock,
who is the Relief Society president, put it this way: "we asked for you,
we gotta take care of you!" They are SO generous. Sacrament meeting was
great with a returned missionary speaking about 4 Christlike attributes
he focused on especially towards the end of his mission in Ghana.
Faith, Hope, Charity & Love, & Obedience. We ate dinner at Julie
& Gary Moore's. Julie is Deloy & Trenna Anderson's
granddaughter. & I was lucky enough to see Elder & Sister
Anderson at their house! It was nice seeing them again. It'd only been a
week, but it felt like so much longer. haha.
Reason #3 - Monday
evening we visited Teresa Howard & Susan Butler, who are sisters
& active in our ward. They live together & just a couple weeks
ago their niece Alissa & her 12 year old son Kealyn (pronounce
kaelyn--the nurse at the hospital spelled it wrong) moved in with them
& are not members. They've come to church with them the past 2
weeks. We had a nice time chatting with them and then we were able to
introduce the Book of Mormon. They are interested in learning more.
Alissa's dad passed away a few years ago & so she is really
interested in the Plan of Salvation, which we are planning to teach this Friday. They are our 2 new investigators! & they come to church already, so YAY!
Reason
#4 - Today we had the amazing opportunity to attend the temple. I LOVE
& cherish every moment in the temple, especially since we don't get
to go that often as missionaries. It'd been 8 months since I'd gone, but
only 4 months until I go again! The temple is such a blessing in our
lives. I encourage you all to find time in your life to go to the
temple. There is such great peace in the House of the Lord & more
knowledge to gain awaiting you.
I'm so
grateful to be a missionary. I'm grateful to have this wonderful message
of the gospel of Jesus Christ to share with my brother & sisters
here in Wrightwood at this time. There is truth in this world. God has
revealed it to us through prophets of old & modern day prophets. If
you don't know this truth, you can find it. God loves us & answers
our sincere & honest prayers.
Thank you so much for your love & prayers. I hope you know they strengthen me each day.
xoxo Sister Viraldo
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