Last One?

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you're all having a great week!! We have had an amazing week here at Temple Square - made better by the fact that it hasn't been super snowy! We had one day of heavy snow lat week, but it's sunny again today! We are ready for spring!

1. We took a motorcoach!! We had so much fun - they were all from Louisana. Honestly, those are my favorite types of motorcoaches because although we talk about the history with them, they are more than happy to talk about God. I think the south is a special place for that reason, for the most part everyone there are good God fearing people. We talked about prayer with them, and we got a few Amens from the group! It was so fun, and I know that the Spirit was on our tour. Everyone was happy, and Sister Honeycutt and I just felt so much joy talking to all of them and teaching them all about the gospel.

2. We truly teach all nations here - we were in the Tabernacle for 1.5hrs yesterday, and in that time we met and taught people from Mexico, Chile, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and the good ol' USA!! I was thinking about that as we were walking home - we truly get to teach so many people here, all those people we met in the Tabernacle we talked to about prophets and about modern revelation and how God still speaks to His children today. That is such precious knowledge and I'm so grateful to have it.

3. I love my companion!! We are best friends, and I'm so grateful to have her. She is definitely a great example to me of service, she is constantly doing things to help those around her and she's always serving me. I think my companions are one of the reasons I have loved my mission so much - they have each taught me different things and have all helped me grow as a person. I was certainly blessed with amazing companions.

I know that Jesus Christ lives, that He is there for each of us and that God's ways are not our ways. I know that the plan of our Heavenly Father is better for us than any plan we could make for ourselves. I know that prayer is real, and that there is an actual loving God in heaven who listens and answers. I am grateful for the many people I have met in this last year and a half who have taught me so much, but I'm more grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who has helped me become so much more of the person I want to be.

A wise church leader told me recently that for many of us in our lives, we go from being part time missionaries to full time missionaries and then, back to part time missionaries. Leaving my mission and taking off my name tag doesn't mean I am no longer a missionary, it just means that I get to multitask my missionary work with starting my life! I would encourage all of you to be part time missionaries, to wear a name tag on your heart and know that because of the promises we make when we're baptized, that we have the special opportunity to represent the Savior to the world. Do you know someone that could use the gospel of Christ in their life? I bet you do :) 

I love you all!

--Sister Black

0 to 100

Hello Everyone!!

It's been another great week!

1. We have three people on baptismal date! Armando in Mexico, Tony in Indiana, and Oswaldo in Peru! We are so excited for all three of them!! They all have amazing local missionaries, and we are having so much fun teaching these people and helping them keep their commitments so that they can come closer to Jesus Christ and be baptized! I am just constantly amazed by how much a blessing technology is and how much we can use it to invite others to come unto Christ.

2. Square is pretty quiet, but there are still people here that are willing to learn about the gospel! We took a walking lesson/tour the other day, and we started with just one person and by the time we ended we had acquired 15 people and we got to teach all of them about the restoration and about the temple and why we have them. I just love being in a place where so many people come every day because they are looking to learn something about the Church of Jesus Christ.

3. I just want to testify of the reality of our Savior Jesus Christ and the great change that He is able to help others make in their lives. I love being His representative for this short time here on my mission and getting a front row seat to the greatest miracle in the world - seeing first hand the effect of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in people's lives. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Sister Black

Grateful Hearts!

Hi everyone!

We haven't had a super eventful week, Temple Square is pretty quiet with the winter season being in full swing - except for the snow. The snow hasn't made a huge appearance yet this winter.. I'm sure it's coming though.

1. We had Zone Conference! We talked a lot about Abraham and the Pearl of Great Price... it was really interesting to me, because the thing I took away from all of it is that God loves His children so so so much. I definitely felt that as we sat and talked about ancient prophets and about our Father in Heaven - I felt that Heavenly Father was very mindful of them, and that He is still very mindful of us. That gives me a lot of comfort, knowing that when I go through hard times or challenges, He is there for me and He loves me.

2. We found a lot of new people to teach!! One of them is named Armando, and he's from Mexico! He is super sweet, he came online telling us that he wants to be closer to God and feel more of a connection with him. Something he kept saying over and over again is that you can't give something you don't have - and I really think that's interesting. He said that he wanted to bring more peace to his home, he wanted to bring more of God into his home... but since he didn't have those things already, he couldn't help his family with them. I totally agree with him - before we can teach anyone anything, we need to understand it. Before we can give someone something, we need to have it - in practical life as in spiritual life, I think there's a great lesson to be learned there.

3. Sister Honeycutt and I are doing great! We are getting along really well, and I am really loving having her as my companion. We are very similar and think a lot the same way, so it makes companionship unity very easy. I am really grateful for the assignment I've been given as trainer - I am definitely learning a lot more from her than she is from me.

I hope you all have a great week!!

--Sister Black

Dreams and Pants

Hello Everyone!!

So I'm sure a lot of you have already heard, but President Nelson announced a week or so ago that all Sister missionaries serving around the world are approved to wear dress slacks instead of skirts/dresses if they so desire! Sooooo guess who's wearing pants right now!?! Me!!!!! It's kind of weird walking around and teaching people not in a dress, but it's probably just because I'm so used to it. I'm definitely enjoying the pants and I'm super grateful we get to wear them.

1. We helped a lady's dream come true this week! We met a lady walking around Temple Square who ever since she joined the church about 10 years ago has dreamed of touching the Salt Lake Temple. She has been to Temple Square once before this week, but the temple was closed for cleaning so she couldn't go through to touch it. When she stopped us to ask about the Assembly Hall and then told us about how she was coming here early the next morning to touch the temple when the gates would be open, Sister Honeycutt and I had to break the bad news to her that again the temple was being cleaned and that the gates would not reopen for another month. When we told her, she quietly began to cry and then turned to leave. We were so sad for her, but there was nothing we could do.. until we remembered that we had just walked by one of our favorite security guards and thought that maybe he could do us a solid... so we told her to wait, and we ran to go find security. After a little begging, security agreed to open the gate so this lady could go and touch the temple before going home. We told her, and she literally wept the entire way through the gate and across the grounds to the wall of the temple. It was the sweetest thing I think I've ever witnessed and she gave Sister Honeycutt and I the tightest hug afterwards. It was really sweet to get to help her dream come true <3

2. We have found a lot of new people to teach this week! Most of them live in Central and South America - they are such a prepared people for the gospel! I am so grateful for the gift the Lord gave me of speaking Spanish and for being able to communicate with these people and help bring the blessings of the gospel to their lives. I love sharing about Jesus Christ with them and learning about their different life stories and hearing about their faith, and then getting to help build it. That's something I love about the Spanish speaking people that we teach - so many of them are so open to the gospel and so open about their lives - it's amazing how quickly they trust us. They are such a prepared people.

That's about it! We had to say goodbye to the Beehive House this week - the Church History Department has officially taken over and we no longer give tours there! So sad!! I'm grateful for the time I had to serve there - I certainly knew that I would gain a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet of God while I was here, but I didn't anticipate how strong of a testimony I would develop about Brigham Young being a prophet too. I love that Jesus Christ continues to call prophets to lead and guide us today - and now we have Russell M. Nelson - and what an amazing prophet he is.

I hope you all have an amazing week!

--Sister Black

Because He Loves Us

Hello Everyone!!!

We have had an amazing week!

1. CHRISTMAS! We had such a great Christmas! A lot of people from around the Salt Lake Valley donated different things and gifts to our mission and we all got a cute little stocking and had a great Christmas morning :) Square was closed for a while and we got to call our families, which was great!! I think the best gift I received, however, was from Elder and Sister Matthews... it's a true story they told us!

We had been talking about the importance of journal keeping, and about writing down the insignificant things that may mean something to us later. Anyways, an example given was how last week they had been walking through the Visitors Center, and they ran into one of the actors from the musical presentation "Savior of the World" performed in the Conference Center theater every Christmas. It depicts the nativity and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The actor told them that the missionaries on Temple Square did an amazing job and that two of the missionaries here had given out three tickets to the Savior of the World performance to a little family with a 4-year-old daughter. He said that he had the privilege of talking to this family before and after the show, and that he learned that the family didn't talk about Christ in their home because they wanted to give their daughter her own opportunity to choose what faith she wanted to follow when she was older, so the girl didn't know anything about Jesus Christ. Anyways, the show started and ended and afterward the actor went back to talk to the family. The mom gave him the biggest hug and told him that she had never felt anything like what she felt during the show, the little girl then hugged him as well and asked him - "Why did Jesus have to die?" the actor got emotional, and explained to her that it was because Jesus loved her, and wants her to come back to live with Him again. The little girl so excitedly said that that was exactly what she wanted - to go back and live with Jesus. The actor was so emotional when he told the Matthews this story, and wanted them to know that what we do here makes a difference. 

The Matthews told us this story as we ate lunch as a district, and asked if there would be a way to find the Sisters who gave out those three tickets. The whole time they were telling the story, I was thinking about a tour that Sister Deighton and I had given a few weeks ago, to a family of 3 with a little 4 year old girl who hadn't been taught about Jesus before, that we had given Savior of the World tickets to... after the show, the mother had messaged us on Facebook and told us that the little girl couldn't stop talking about Jesus and that they loved the show. I told the Matthews that I thought it was us, and they ended up getting us tickets to go see the show again and meet the actor! We talked about the family, and sure enough - it was them! 

I think for me, the most powerful thing about this isn't that the little girl was so touched when she finally learned about Jesus Christ, but how the actor we met couldn't speak of the experience without getting emotional - they seemed to have had just as big an effect on him as his show had on them. 

I have a testimony of the reality of our Savior Jesus Christ, that He lives and loves us, and that He wants for all of us to return to live with Him - that's why Jesus had to die. So that we could all live.

Merry Christmas <3

--Sister Black 

The Most Wonderful Time

Hello Everyone!!

The transfer happened, and my P-Day is now on Mondays! I have a new companion, and I'm training again!! Her name is Sister Honeycutt and she's from Georgia, and she's the sweetest person. I absolutely love her, and I'm super excited to be with her this transfer!

1. I love training!! Training is by far the best assignment in the whole wide world. No worries about anyone besides the people you're teaching, and your companion. I love the opportunity to be a trainer because I think it pushes me to be a better missionary - I want to be a good example, I want to be more obedient, I want to be a good companion and I want her to enjoy her mission. I remember how much I love my trainer and how much I looked up to her and was so grateful to have her, I knew she loved me - and still does -  and I want that for my new missionary! I've also learned that with missionaries, there isn't much of a one size fits all method for training. Sister Ioane and Sister Honeycutt are so different from each other -  it's so fun though!!

2. We had our devotional with the General Authority 70! It was seriously one of the coolest experiences of my life - the whole time I was just thinking about Jesus Christ and about He is the master-servant, and about how He did things to serve His apostles that you would think that they should be doing for Him. For example, washing their feet. During the devotional, we all walked into the room, and all of the 70 stood for us as we walked in, after the devotional, they formed a line to meet us and shake our hands - all things that I should have been doing for them! It just made me think of how Christ is, and how He instructs those that are great among us to be our servants - I could literally see and feel of their humility as we were with them. Something else I took away from the devotional, was the music- when they sang, you could feel and hear that they were not singing just to fill time or to follow the program, but that they were singing to praise God. I loved hearing them sing.

3. Merry Christmas everyone! I love the Christmas season - although I'm not converted to the whole "white Christmas" ideal - I'll take the green warm Christmas any day! I love how people act around Christmas time. I love that they want to help others and that for so many people, they want to think of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for this second Christmas on my mission, I have loved the opportunities I've had to focus on Christ during Christmas. I think that when we celebrate the birth of that baby in Bethlehem, that we need to remember to also celebrate His perfect life and resurrection, because, without those two things, He would have just been another baby. 

I love you all! Merry Christmas!

--Sister Black                       

Temple Blessings

Hello Everyone!!

We have had another great week here on Temple Square! Crazy to think that this is my last preparation day for the transfer - that week that they sliced off of this transfer really makes a difference! We'll be going into a seven week transfer here pretty soon - we'll see how it goes!

1. Temples!!!! We have had such a great week with the temple - on Monday, our zone did a service project there where we helped clean! It was such a great experience last time we did it, that we decided to do it again. It was great - we were cleaning chandeliers and lights again - but at the end, and after a little begging, they let us go up the spiral staircases in the towers (cleaning on the way up of course) and we got to see the assembly room! It was absolutely magnificent. It's a temple specific room, so it's not replicated in any other temple although some other pioneer age temples have assembly rooms. It was here specifically that they would hold the solemn assemblies - where we all raise our hands and sustain the next prophet to lead the church after the prophet dies. There was certainly a special spirit there.

2. This morning, we were in the temple and while we were sitting and thinking, there were only 2 other people in the room with us. They were whispering about their lives and their missions and people they knew - and although they were whispering, it was so loud!! It actually made me think - whispers are so loud in silent rooms. It made me think about the Spirit of God - the Spirit often speaks in a whisper, and so frequently I've wished that He would talk a little louder so that he could be easier to hear. But I thought today as I unwittingly eavesdropped on these two girls conversation, that if I can make my spirit and my mind like the temple - free from dirt and clutter, a calm and inviting place, that the sound of a whisper can truly be very loud and I will be able to hear the Spirit more easily. Something to think on.

3. I met a family on Square the other day over by the temple model, it's a cut out of the temple that allows people to see the interior. Anyways, it was a dad and his three kids, and we started talking about going to the temple. The dad ended up opening up to me after his kids had walked away, telling me that their mom wasn't active in the church anymore and that it makes it really hard on their family and for him especially to try and keep his kids active in the gospel, when their mom is actively working against it. I don't know if our conversation did him any good, but it really made me grateful for my family and for temples - the blessings we have when we're faithful to the promises we make inside, and the strength we receive from regular temple worship. I think there's a reason that President Nelson encouraged the women to make it a more regular part of their lives.

It's getting chilly here in SLC - we've got some serious snow and we're all bundled up... hot chocolate has become a great after square routine. Love you all!

--Sister Black