oh HELLO family!! i feel like i just emailed you! :) :) so
first of all...... SORRY about the literal world's craziest/psycho-est email of
all time last week hahaha.......... literally, so crazy and i'm sorry. also i'm
starting to have a problem with the world literally aka elder goodale makes fun
of me by pinching all of his fingers together and shaking them emphatically in
the air and saying "LIT TER ALL Y" ........ aka a pretty good
impersonation of me. but whatever. it's fine :) :) :) fun fact: i developed the
world's worst migraine my life shortly after sending off that email hahaha so
whatever that's supposed to mean....... i recovered pretty quickly though :) :)
so i realized that i forgot to tell you like a bunch of
things. one of which is that we reached our goal for friends baptized exactly
this year!!! (well last year.) :) so that was a miracle -- literally -- because
this is what happened. (sis blood and i are both obsessed with mission stats
and stuff so we noticed.) :) the week before the year ended we were 5 away from
our goal and had 6 people set to be baptized before the year ended. the next
week we had reached our goal exactly. but what few people noticed (but sister
blood and i did) is that TWO of those friends with dates had DROPPED their
dates, making one less than our goal........ and that our friend in winnebago
and literally miraculously had a baptism. that wasn't scheduled the monday
before. how did this happen, you ask??????? FAITH AND PRAYERS, my friends!!!!!!
we finally heard the whole story (or parts of the story) on tuesday........
apparently some friend down in iowa or something had been taught all the
lessons and wanted to be baptized but hadn't yet...... so he came up to
wisconsin to visit some friends and decided that he wanted to be baptized asap.
soooooo....... he was! haha. crazy right???????????? and i mean it's not like
it even matters that the wisconsin milwaukee mission gets their goal exACTly
and not plus or minus one.......... but it was just SO NICE and MIRACULOUS of
the Lord :) :) :) :) :) so we loved that :) :) :) and of course we loved that
our friend in winnebago got to have that happen because we love him AND he's
training so it's cool :) :) hurrah for miracles!! they happen every day :)
:)
also elder proffit 1.0 -- i ate schwarma in chicago. i
forgot to tell you that. #avengersreference #itwasdelicious
I also need to tell you about my recently discovered
favorite scripture (i have so many.) MOSIAH 18:26. first of all i need to tell
you that i'm pretty sure the Lord just put Mosiah 18 in there so that it could
be every missionary's favorite. IT IS SO GOOD. but just listen to this part --
(i'm changing it just a tiny bit):
"And the [missionaries] were not to depend upon the
people for their support; but for their labor they were to receive the agrace of
God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of
God, that they might teach with power and authority from God."
let me talk about this for just a second. i've read this a
kabillion times but never really cared or noticed. until recently. my friends,
why is a mission so hard? why does it have to be this way?? (elder holland gave
a really good talk about this btw.) because of this: when we do things that are
impossibly hard, we receive the grace of God. and when we receive the grace of
God, we're having a personal experience with the Atonement. and that means that
I have a personal strong witness that it is Real. that Jesus Christ is real,
and that He is with us in our infirmities. I know this, because I'm living it.
and this allows me to teach with power and authority from God. :) :) So i'm
grateful that life is hard. I'm grateful because it allows me to know that my
Savior is real, and that He loves me, and that He's with me. I hope that there
is power in my testimony because of that. I'm not just saying this stuff......
I'm living it. and I get to share it. and I know it's true. and it's the
greatest thing of my life :) :) :) :) :) #SOHAPPY
in other news, we got to teach this week!! hooray!!!!! haha
:) :) :) we got to teach my lovely new friend O, who is 18 and getting baptized
on February 8th :) :) we taught the commandments with a fun new game that i
made up in the car haha (i'll send you a copy........ side note: i think i've
lost my sense of fun haha. because now i'm like, i know! for fun, we can read
our scriptures and talk about the blessings that come from keeping the
commandments!! that'll be a blast!!!! hahaha but seriously........ #sofun
#missionlyfe) ;) anyways it was a ball, obvi, and i loved it and i felt the
Spirit and i got to TESTIFY which is obviously my favorite :) :) yeahh!!!
:) :) also i would like to point out that she first was introduced to the
gospel because her neighbors had Bishop's Youth Discussion in their house aka
great idea right?? :) :) :)
also i would just like to point out that it is 34 degrees
today and the people behind me in the library are saying "we're in the
Bahamas! hand me a pina colada!" hahahahahaha #wisconsin #loveit
#itseriouslydoesfeelsowarmthough :) :)
speaking of warm, it was 20 degrees on thursday and i was 0%
cold. it felt like it was room temperature. i'm confused but okay with it.
hooraaaaay for above 0 temperatures!! haha :) :)
speaking of delicious, peppermint frozen custard <3 here
is a thing that is true: if you tell people that you like peppermint....... and
are really, really excited about it.......... (because when am i
not....)....... they will buy it for you. all the time. bringing you joy to
your joy and peppermint to your mouth and happiness all around :) :) :)
seriously though, nicest friends ever bought me a PINT of peppermint frozen
custard as a surprise, JUST BECAUSE they are so nice :) :) :) :) :) love them
:) :)
and once again, an entire paragraph of my letter home is
about food.......... hahaha. #rememberwhenigotafreedoorcountycherrypie
#anditwasthemostexcitingthingofmylife? #becauseido :) :) :) :) :)
in other news, saturday we got to do missionary work!!
hooray!! even though it was SO ICY and probably more dangerous than the cold of
monday & tuesday haha. we met a new friend and talked to her for a while,
then asked if we could leave her with a prayer..... she said yes and closed her
eyes, we asked if there was anyone or anything she wanted us to pray for
particularly, she talked about her friend and started moving her hands around
while she talked about her and the energies of the universe and how God is
everywhere.................. and then she opened her eyes and said "thank
you so much! see you again!" ......... hahaha we were like
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is that a prayer?????????? it reminded me of my friend M that
we talked to in Green Bay.... when we asked her if we could say a prayer, she
said, "You know what? Our conversation was a prayer. The Creator has heard
our words!" okay, yes, but.... haha. Sister Erickson: "I think
sometimes he likes us to fold our arms and say "Dear Heavenly Father"
at the beginning........" hahaha love her :) :) anyways. adventures in
missionary land!!
on a more serious/spiritual note though.... we had the most
AMAZING lessons in Church yesterday, seriously, Spirit was so strong. in Gospel
Principles we talked about why God sent us here in families (great
question!!!!!!!!!!) and then in Relief Society we talked about everything we
know about God because of the Restoration.......... and HOOOLYYYYYY COOOWWWWWW
it was so so good. Seriously. Wanna get pumped up to share the gospel??????
take a second and think about / talk about everything you know about Heavenly
Father. that we ONLY know because of the Restoration of the fulness of His
restored Gospel. I mean........ seriously. WOW. too, too good. seriously
though, you should do that for a family home evening or something :) :) :) it
got me pumped up!! let's tell the world!! :) :) :) #planofHAPPINESS
also on saturday, i was backing sister blood and the car
spun on the ice. not like in a circle, just like it would not go in reverse. so
i laughed a lot even though we were stuck haha. we got out of it. but then as i
got in the car i slipped, said to myself in my head "oh, i'm slipping, i
should catch myself," and then DIDN'T and ATE IT so hardcore on the frozen
ground hahahaha owwwwwwwwww ;) but i'm actually fine. just a big baby hahaha.
we laughed a lot. and i have a pretty good bruise. and the worst part was
probably trying to get up again because the ground was frozen and hard and
salty and cold. but i survived ;) #woo #gome #penguin #slidingfordays
#helpivefallenandicantgetup ;)
also i need to inform you that i no longer recognize any of
our family members. i got a christmas card from the Linfords and said, out
loud, "WHERE is the BABY???" before realizing that the boy i thought
was eli was actually flint......... weird. also i got some pictures from gramma
from new years & Christmas and i recognize none of the children haha. #old
#gonesolong. :) :)
in other news, i love r and h w. (r? r?? R WHAT ARE YOU
DOING IN HEWE!!!") because they are like 60 and still sooooo in love and
they tease and are funny but are also soooooo nice and loving always and i just
ADORE them and they make you feel so so good when you're home and they bring
the missionary spirit to US haha. aaaaaand i just love them and am so grateful
to be here in kettle moraine, so what else is new. :) :) :)
well family, i think that's about it for this week! i also
decided that next november for national novel-writers month it should be a
breeze since apparently i write a novel home every week haha ;) seriously. if
you've made it this far...... congratulations. for you, a prize. this really
nifty footnote thing that i found this morning. :)
2 Nephi 9:20 "O how great the holiness of our God! For
he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it."
footnote a by "holiness" takes you down to THIS hidden gem --
"heb. quodesh -- committed, consecrated." whaaaaaaaattttttttt???
yes. because i've been studying for a long time about how to become more
committed & consecrated (see the letter from the first presidency at the
beginning of PMG.) apparently, holiness & knowledge are related to it. but
i haven't figured out how still. gotta keep on studying. CAN I JUST SAY ONE
MORE TIME THAT PREACH MY GOSPEL IS THE GREATEST BOOK EVER OBVIOUSLY APART FROM
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES BUT SERIOUSLY IT IS SO GREAT. everyone should read it! and
if you have any amazing insights, share them please :) :) :)
LOVE YOU SO MUCH FAMILY. so grateful God sent us here in
families :) :) We are here in families because GOD KNOWS that it is in family
life that we have the greatest potential for maximum joy. God lives in a
family. We are part of His family. His family is the source of His joy. My
family is the source of mine. :) :) :) So so so eternally grateful for God's
plan for families, and for the Restoration of His gospel that let's us know
God's purpose for families :) :)
I love you so so much!! I love this gospel forever!! I love
mission life!!!!!!! so excited for you Jacob :) :) :)
love you all!!! Xoxoxoxoxoxoxox sister cece proffit :) :) :)
i
MEANT to say that peppermint frozen custard brings joy to your SOUL, and i
meant to relate it to the gospel aka if you are excited about things people
take notice :) :) but i forgot. obviously. haha :) :)
" make you feel so so good when you're IN THEIR
home" haha struggles J
No comments:
Post a Comment