Monday, January 19, 2015

Behold, He Changed Their Hearts



Hey Family!
How is everybody? First off, my foot doesn't seem to be fractured! It felt a whole lot better this week. Second, we got our car back! I'm still not convinced that its fixed, but we will see. We were able to drive it out to Tampa without dying! Although we had the elders wait for us so that we could follow them in case something were to happen with the car. There is pretty much just fields and woods between here and Tampa so if we had broken down we would have been in a heap of trouble. So we are like, how about we just follow the elders, then if we break down we hopefully won't get murdered right? Well about ten minutes in to the drive they decide to just take off without us!! We never did catch up with them :( And on the way back they had the nerve to ask us if we wanted to follow them again! Elders! Ugh! But we did make it there and back just fine. And our zone training was incredible! They made a ton of changes!

The main topic of my email today is change. Because we have seen a whole heck of a lot of it over here lately.

First change, they changed the mission boundaries between us and the Fort Lauderdale mission and they swallowed up an entire zone of our mission. We lost 30 of our missionaries! Its so crazy. Some of the missionaries I have served in the same wards with and its so strange to think that now they are in another mission! They have to make a ton of adjustments. They won't have ipads anymore so they have to learn the old fashioned way of doing things. They have to learn the ways of a new mission president. They have to work with new leaders. It was a very hard change for them to make. We were shocked when they announced it.  

Second change, they took away one of our ipads! Turns out there were some problems so now rather than us each having our own ipad each area has an ipad. So when someone is transferred the ipad will be left in the area like a phone or a car. So its basically just an electronic area book now. But from my understanding that is what it was intended to be in the first place.

Third change, me!

To be honest, I went to the zone training with a pretty bad attitude. I was thinking to myself, "I'm already doing everything that I'm supposed to be doing and its not working. What else can they possibly have to tell me?" I was grumpy that day:)

But they told me a lot. Actually, I think the spirit told me a lot. The things they talked about were mostly just changes in the mission. But the spirit took that atmosphere of change and took that opportunity to change me a little bit. I realized that no, I really wasn't doing all that I could. I was still withholding some of my heart and my will from Heavenly Father. I was still being a little bit lazy with things. I was still letting fear overcome faith way too much.

So I left with the desire to change. The next day was an incredible day. I made a special effort to talk to everyone. I was a little more persistent when we went to peoples houses and they really didn't want to hear a message. I was a little more bold with members who really didn't want to give us referrals. I was a little more careful with our time and made sure that we didn't waste any of it. And we were able to teach four lessons that day! Which made for a weekly total of five! It took a little bit of extra effort, and it really wasn't easy. I had to stretch. But then miracles happened! And I felt so much more satisfied and fulfilled going to bed that night.

Its crazy what a little extra effort can do:)

I also made an effort to change my attitude. With a good attitude, its a lot easier to love!

So moral of the story, don't be grumpy like me. Just be happy and let God change you. He really does know best.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love always, Sister Rowland

No comments:

Post a Comment