Dearest Familia,
This week has been full of growth and some cool experiences and I am excited to tell you about it. :)
Where do I start? Well I will start at the lows and work to the highs :)
This week has been full of growth and some cool experiences and I am excited to tell you about it. :)
Where do I start? Well I will start at the lows and work to the highs :)
Well I am not a very negative person, I believe in being happy and optimistic. Yeah bad stuff happens and I get frustrated, mad, I yell sometimes, just like everyone else, but I don't dwell on it. I get over it really fast and I keep going. But these last couple weeks I have been feeling like my fire, my energy and motivation was starting to go out, and one night I was laying in bed and I just felt this darkness starting to creep into my heart, this depression, this desire to just give up trying so hard, and I hated it. I didn't know what was wrong, I am not like that. Even at the hardest moments of my mission, I still have been optimistic, and hopeful. So I just started praying really hard that The Lord would help me be able to see something in my day the next day that would get me excited and bring the light so that the darkness would leave. I went to bed feeling really peaceful, and the next day I can't say there was an exact experience, but the darkness was gone, and I was back to my old self mostly. I was happy and excited about the work. Anyway, since then I have been pondering on that experience, and I realized that feeling came from just the whole general feeling that surround this branch and area. Hermana Miller and I have really been trying to figure out what is holding this area and this branch back and I finally realized it is this negative attitude that surrounds this area. Everyone here just kind of has a bad attitude, the missionaries, the members, etc. and quite frankly I am %100 over that. This branch has had some of the worst kind of drama in the past little while, but I am done letting satan use that against us. It is time to move on and to help the members step up. So yesterday I was telling Hermana Miller all this and we made plans to start getting the members excited and seeing them as they can become and treating them that way. To start sharing the goodness, and the excitement. To start expecting more of the members, so that they start expecting more of themselves. These are some of our plans:1. Helping members see their own potential and building them up
2. Not speaking negatively or pessimistically about the ward between ourselves or missionaries or members
3. Changing OUR attitude
4. Working our hardest in the other parts of the work so that we can expect the blessings of Heaven in all that we do
3. Changing OUR attitude
4. Working our hardest in the other parts of the work so that we can expect the blessings of Heaven in all that we do
5. Pray for pure charity for our members so we can see them as they can become6. Build up the other missionaries- show them what they're doing well and help them feel confident, and help them be excited
7. Talk up this area
When people get there transfer call their are less than excited usually. I don't like that. When people get their transfer call to Bloomingdale they are pumped. Because people talk about Bloomingdale like the promised land. That's how I want Rockford to be. We have lots of other more in detail plans but I didn't want to bore you. Just be waiting to hear about the miracles that are going to come. Yeah, winter is coming, but sunshine is coming to this area. Hermana Miller and I are so excited. So ready to start changing things, even if it takes awhile.
So with that as I have been reading in the Book of Mormon lately and just reflecting on my own experience and the experiences I have seen of others, I have come to realize the tactics satan or the adversary use to drag us down. Satan attacks us and drags us down through our emotions. Through fear and confusion, he plays on our passions, or trying to make us feel unworthy. He entices us through our emotions. Think about it, all decisions are made from a feeling first. A desire, a passion, a want, or need. For example, when Joseph Smith was in the sacred grove, he really desired an answer, Satan tried to stop him from praying by making him afraid. Satan gets people to break laws of chastity by playing on their passions. He stops people from doing member missionary work by making them afraid, or doubt, or feel uncomfortable, awkward etc. This is why we receive this commandment from God, "I would that ye would be dili
Anyway, this is getting long, so I will end shortly, I have had some awesome experiences this week, that have reminded me how incredibly grateful I am for my testimony. To be a missionary. To have this gospel. I am never lost of without help for too long. We met some awesome people this week, if things go well I will tell you all about them next week. I know I am doing The Lord's work. I have so many moments where words that aren't my own come out of my mouth and other people come closer to Christ because of it. I am so grateful to be an instrument in his hands. Pray for the Rockford branch. Pray for this area. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Fight the good fight. :) I love you so much!
Love,
Hermana Simmons
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