Email No. 9

Hello Mommy & Co.!

This week was lacking in huge events. Besides the fact that it snowed...... again........ a foot.........on Jackie's baptismal date........ Which then had to be canceled........... But it's okay!!!!!! We texted her that she would have to have it pushed back, yet again, and she faced it with optimism and absolute faith. Oh how dearly I love Jackie. She is such an example of faith.

So we taught Haley again! Holy cow she is the most darling-est of things. She is so sharp and bright and just a funny little girl. She was wearing this pretty little green sweater and I told her that green is her color, and she flipped her head and said, "I know!" Hahahah she is so stinking cute! She wants to meet more than once a week so that we can move her baptismal date up. We asked her to pray and she initially said that she didn't want to. Then we explained how to pray and why we pray and then she said that she would. So she closed her eyes, bowed her head, and said, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the missionaries for teaching me..... I was just wondering if what they were teaching me is true?...... In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." Man oh, man it warmed my heart.

So there is a young man in our branch who asked if he could be tutored in math and we were asked to do it..... I freaked out. I was so happy. I love math and I love tutoring. But since it is not a "traditional" missionary activity, we had to get permission to do so. We did, and I tutored him this past week. Holy cow, I loved it. I just love using my brain. Another thing that I got to do this week was lead the music during sacrament meeting. Since our branch is ginormous, (the farthest person has to travel over an hour to get there) and we had the snow, there were not many people that got to come...... So we were asked to lead. It was awesome.

We will be having my first zone conference this week in Farmingdale! I am so so pumped. We will be riding down with the elders and a member of the branch. All of the missionaries in Maine will be there, so it will be fun to reunite with some (the very few) missionaries that I know.

Not much else happened this week. It was a pretty mellow one. Hahaha. No exciting stories :(

But. My testimony has grown EXPONENTIALLY this past week. I have grown to understand the Atonement so much more. I was studying from Alma 34 which outlines EXACTLY why we need the Atonement. Here is what it came down to: I cannot make it back to my Heavenly Father, whom I love, without the Savior. So I will repent, not because I have to, not because I will be thrust down to hell if I don't, but because I love my Savior and I love my Heavenly Father and I want to return back to them and the only way I can, is if I repent because "no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God." If we do everything we do because we love our Savior and Heavenly Father, all of our burdens will be lighter. We won't feel that repentance is such a negative thing. We won't feel that going through hard times is because Heavenly Father wants to "teach us a lesson". We won't feel like our callings are a burden. Every aspect of our life becomes flooded with light when we do things out of love for God. And hey. You want to know what that is called? charity. And after all, "if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth." So do what Moroni admonishes us to do and pray fervently to our Father for charity!!!! That doesn't mean that we have to be dropping off cookies to everyone's doorstep. It simply means that we do everything we do out of love. And THAT is when we become perfect. When our will turns perfectly in line with the Father's.

I love you all!!!!!

Pray for charity and you will never fail. 

Sistah Sewell