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

Gifts from Christ

Hello Everyone!!!

We have had quite the eventful week.... 

1. The Christmas Devotional!!! Since Sister Deighton and I are now considered "old" in the mission, we got to go to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional! It was absolutely amazing - President Nelson, our prophet, talked about 4 gifts that Jesus Christ has given us including an unlimited capacity to love, repentance, forgiveness, and eternal life. Those are 4 amazing gifts, and I have definitely been able to use each of them as I've served here as a missionary. Those are gifts that we as missionaries, and us as people, absolutely can not make it through this life without. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and for the gifts He gives me.

2. Fabiola! She's still doing amazing - so amazing in fact, that she wants to be baptized and has set a date for the 22nd of December! She is progressing so so quickly, and her local Sisters are great. We are really quite excited for her - she is making such great changes in her life, and we call her almost every day to talk to her and answer her questions and teach her how to be more like Jesus Christ. She sent us a message the other day after reading about the tree of life in the Book of Mormon telling us that she realized that reason she has felt so lost, is because she hasn't had God in her life and that she is so grateful to have found the iron rod :) 

3. Georgia! Georgia is really cool - she is from Greece, so teaching her is definitely interested with the time change. Luckily for us though, her English is amazing. She is another one that we are teaching that is just really exercising a lot of faith. She isn't sure if she believes in God yet, but she is willing to do anything we ask her to find out. I think that shows so so much faith - she is praying, and she doesn't even know if she believes there is a God listening to her. She's trying to be like Jesus, when she isn't even sure that He is really her Savior. I love the faith that she has - she is definitely showing me that faith is an action word.

Well everything is great her at Temple Square! We're doing a lot of online teaching and a lot of talking to members every evening with the Christmas lights - I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each one of us, and that God has a plan for us. I know that our agency is super important to that plan, but that as long as we try our best every day to be like Jesus, that everything will turn out great :) 

Love you all!!

--Sister Black