Letter #29: Let this be our prayer...

I hope you were all able to watch general conference this weekend! It was awesome, as always. This year, though, we were actually so busy driving around, trying to make sure people had rides and trying to make a baptism happen that we actually missed some of conference. That was disappointing. It didn't end up being quite the relaxing and renewing weekend that I was hoping. But I'm excited to go back and watch/read the talks that I missed.

This conference, I was thinking a lot about how as a people, we are similar in some ways to the children of Israel. For some reason, we don't seem to learn very quickly. We have this unique opportunity to hear from modern apostles and prophets and to be instructed in the ways of God...and yet they have to keep telling us to keep the most basic commandments. This time we were told again and again that we need to be living the law of chastity. Even President Monson talked to us about obedience. It made me a little sad that they have to tell us to do things we should already be doing! The law of chastity is so basic! Instead of being able to instruct us in higher law subjects, they have to resort to the lower law and remind us again and again that we need to be living commandments that we already know we need to follow. Still, something else that amazed me about their talks was that even as they taught the lower law, many of them also addressed higher law application. For example, President Monson focused on the importance of obedience...but for those of us who are obedient, he helped us to understand that it is through obedience that we will be granted revelation and be better able to understand God's will for our lives. I feel like I'm getting a lot better at not only listening to their message, but also at really understanding what my Father in Heaven is saying specifically to me through their words.

Today, we had a revelatory comp study from our district leader Elder Pond. (HE'S BEING TRANSFERRED!! I am so sad. I have learned a lot from him. He's a really incredible missionary. It's going to be super hard for anyone else to be able to fill his shoes as our new district leader) It allowed us to look back at the last transfer and introspect about what we learned and who we have become. I received a LOT of revelation about what I need to continue to work on. I also realized that this transfer was a very humbling one for me. The Lord was trying to teach me some lessons and I wasn't quite getting them. So He had to humble me a bit and now He's hoping that I will apply what I learned to see more miracles this transfer! Sister Gordon and I realized that something we need to work on is trusting our investigators. We need to trust that our investigators will make good decisions even when we're not with them and just really trust that they will take the steps necessary to prepare for baptism! We realized that when we don't have confidence in our investigators, it's very hard to help them be baptized. We also realized that the theme of our transfer seemed to be "Learning to rely on the Lord and listen to the Spirit." We focused a lot on that this transfer and I know we made leaps and bounds at being able to receive and act on inspiration from the Spirit. 

Anyways, it's a transfer week again...but Sister Gordon and I are both staying in Nova (YAYY!) and Sister Stegelmeier and Sister Merrill are staying also (yay!). Our apartment is really great. I love the Davie sisters so much! Sister Stegelmeier has now been in Davie for 7 transfers. She's been here for her entire mission! Super crazy. I don't know if I could stay in one area that long. I'm SUPER SAD because Elder Pond is leaving but also because Elder Edwards is going home. He's super awesome and I'll miss having him around! He's been with me almost my whole mission. All of my mission friends are dying (mission lingo for "going home."). Basically everyone who was around when I came in is either already home or going home this transfer. It's actually really quite sad. Anyone who has a connection to my old area while I was there is now gone...that's a crazy thought! I guess it means I'm getting older in the mission than I thought!

Also...here's some exciting news that our branch mission leader shared with us! The Church is implementing a new mission policy called "mission leadership councils!" They will be getting rid of zone leader councils and instead have mission leadership councils....which includes (drumroll)...SISTER TRAINING LEADERS! Basically it's like having sister assistants or sister zone leaders. Super exciting. Maybe that means that Sister Stegelmeier and I will finally have our wish granted to be able to attend zone leader council. ;)

Okay, well that was long and probably not as exciting as usual...sorry! Still no baptisms. :/ Our investigator Fred was supposed to get baptized and we were SO excited for him but a whole lot of family drama came up. Next Sunday for sure!

Love you all,

Sister Kelli