Elder Ballard #5

FAMILY!

 

Oh I have been waiting to write you all day! I miss you all! This morning has been absolutely crazy haha but I am ready to share with you all what happened this week. So, this morning at 1:30am we heard this EXTREMELY loud alarm sound. We all were trying to ignore it (okay...maybe just me because I'm lazy) when finally, Hermana Hankins says, "Guys....I think we should get up..." We immediately jumped out of our beds realizing it was the fire alarm and it wasn't a joke. We all go outside and had to wait in the gym until everything was clear to go. I still don't know what happened...but it took me at least an hour to go back to bed because I was so paranoid. But, luckily today is P-day and so it's okay that we're extremely tired :) Thank you all for the letters: mommy, daddy, Abby (LOVED my easter package! and send me a dearelder so I can get your idaho address asap! I forget what it is lol), Sister Crossley, Elder Vance, Elder Williams (my best friend who baptized me!), Paul, Elder Brownlow, and Amanda!! Letters truly make my day :) Oh and SARAH REBER, KRIS KETLER AND ELDER BROWNLOW....give me your addresses please :) Elder Brownlow, if you can send me a dearelder to let me know if you transferred or not that would  be awesome!

 

Okay, now the cool stuff. Does anyone remember when Bishop McMullen came to one of our stake conferences like, forever ago? Well, he gave a talk on Tuesday at our devotional and it was so good! He just got released from the bishopric so this was his last talk with the title of Bishop. He talked a lot on how we need to constantly be setting the example because all eyes are on us! He shared a story of a sister who would always see the missionaries at the corner of this street from her window. She would see them being well behaved and knew that they were of some importance. After watching them for a few days, they eventually went and knocked on her door. Because of the example they showed without even knowing they were being watched, the allowed them in her house to teach her and of course...eventually got baptized :) He taught a lot on how our investigators are being prepared RIGHT now for us and it's rarely us introducing them to the church for the first time. He did wonderful and I loved his talk!

 

Sunday was such an amazing day! In Sacrament meeting, Brother Jesse in our brance presidency gave an amazing talk. He shared this story that I want to share with you all. This mom received an email from her son one day and it went something along the lines of this..."Hey mom! Last night I had an experience that taught me a valuable lesson. You may all not like it but I thought it was a cool experience. It was 10:28 at night and some of the Elders came in my room and asked if I wanted to play some ball with their little basketball hoop they got in the mail from their mom (which is NOT allowed btw haha). I really wanted to but knew that bedtime was at 10:30 so said no. After they left...I still had the desire to go play with them even thought I knew that I needed to be in bed. So, I decided I'd flip a coin on it! Heads means I stay in and Tails means I go. I flipped the coin 10 times and each time was Tails!! But...it still didn't feel right even thought a part of me still wanted to go out and play. I turned the coin over on heads and it read 'In God We Trust.' I realized then that I was putting my trust on a silver coin then in my Heavenly Father. Don't worry mom...I went to bed on time!" The moral of this story is that Satan will try to make us be obedient until we finally end our days and then he'll start allllll over again the next day. We need to trust in God in everything and learn to be obedient so we don't slip into temptation and waste our time on the things that are not important.

 

During Relief Society I got to go up and share my conversion story! I had to get it approved by the mission presidents wife (obviously i did lol) and then I got to go share it! It was so fun. I only had 5 minutes but I was able to share the important parts. I had so many girls come up to me that day and tell me how much they loved my story and how they look up to me and all of this sweet stuff! It was so cute! Then, the best part, Elder Ballard came and gave the Sunday Fireside talk!!!! It's like, NEVER a general authority on Sunday's so everyone was pumped! Then...DAVID ARCHULETA DID THE MUSICAL NUMBER! He sang the Spirit of God and oh my gosh...I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at the end hahahahaha but only because he started to cry! It was so amazing. Really quickly, one thing that Elder Ballard said in his talk was something along the lines of, "The whole church should be grateful that mother Smith didn't deny her son when he told her that he knew for himself that the Presberayian (sp?) church wasn't true. How grateful we all ought to be that Joseph Senior didn't deny his son but said 'go do what the angel told you.'" His whole talk was based on his testimony of Joseph Smith and it was amazing! He is such a crack up too! He spoke right after Elder Archuleta sang and he said, "David Archuleta...you're a hard act to follow!" He also said, "None of you are perfect. If you haven't figured it out...well, figure it out." Ha! So funny.

 

I love doing this work! I love being here! I know that I am suppose to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Life may be hard but hey, remember...enduring to the end is last for a reason :) Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

 

 

Love,

Hermana Baeza

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