Week 4

February 24, 2014

Well I just lost my last email so here I go again... the joys of public libraries...

 

Mark is doing so well! We did the Stop Smoking Program with him on Thursday but he had already quit on his own Wednesday so he only has 2 days till he's been a non smoker for a week! He told us the reason he chickened out last Saturday, actually a lot of reasons. For one he knew that if he did he would be baptized the next week which scared him a little, it all came really fast. Then the next time we saw him he told us a different "real reason" that was actually pretty funny. He told us his life story of how every one of his girlfriends and his wife have nagged him to stop smoking. He didn't have a problem with it but it became his "pacifier", and only way to be stubborn. It was always the thing that his, that he would do whether anyone liked it or not. Which is really funny, cause he's not stubborn or rebelious at all. But he called himself childish and feels like stopping will make him have to grow up as I was listening to this I was just restraining from being like, "MAN UP!" He admitted to being childish. Anyways, don't remember what we actually ended up saying but he quit that day.

Another cool thing that happened with him was we went over and he was talking about the reading assignment he left him and said that reading the scriptures and learning the gospel made him sad. When we asked why he said it was because not everyone knows about it, and he feels almost guilty/unworthy for getting all this information that no one else has! (maybe he doesn't know about the 15 million other members?) But wow, he has the purest heart, he already wants everyone to feel the joy he has felt. We are so excited, wish he could get baptized this weekend but we have Stake Conference. It is super cool, of all the people, he is the one that only Sister White and I could have found and taught, it's hard to explain why, but it is definitely an impression I get every time we teach him.

 

It has been a really interesting week. Sister Birmingham and I used to tract 7 hours every week like it was nothing. But Sister White and I have been slacking on it for a while because we've had a lot of work to do. We taught over the amount of lessons our Mission President set for each week, but the tracting went downhill to like 5 hours because it's been so cold. But the weather was nice this week so we finally got it again! I feel bad because it sounds like we were using the cold as an excuse but we have also had a lot of time open up. Mostly I'm just happy about it because we have seen so many miracles in one week!

 

Oh, big news. That lady Janet I had talked about before is doing SO GOOD! We had dropped her for a long time but we are helping her quit smoking tonight! Sister Gatlin has been such a huge help to her, it has been awesome to see. Janet will start listing all of her problems that match Sister Gatlins perfectly, but Sister Gatlin was out of the church much longer so it is hilarious.

Janet- Ive been out of church for 20 years-

Sister Gatlin- 35 years!

Janet- But I've been smoking for-

Sister Gatlin- 35 years!

Janet- I have had problems with--- for the longest time!

Sister Gatlin- I had those problems for 35 years Janet!!! You can do it!

 

Other than that I am doing well. The fast has been so good but so hard! Every night I write down the things that work and the things I fail on. Then the next day the adversary tries super hard on all the things I succeeded on the previous day. I am learning to turn to prayer more and more, which I didn't really think was possible. I am learning so much about how the Lord would have me serve. I have prayed a lot for him to show me my weaknesses, I sort of stopped asking once I started this because I had so many weaknesses I was working on already, but wow.... he has definitely been showing me my weaknesses every single day. It is super humbling! Things I didn't even have on my list he has shown me are my greatest weaknesses. I hope I can be humble enough to change and make them strengths.  

 

 

Love you all a lot! Hope you're having a good February!

 

Sister Stevens