03/15/10

Hello Everyone,

So...this past week has been quite the character builder. On Friday we talked to the Elders in our area who had received a call from a member in the ward Bro. Ratliff. He was asked to give a talk in church on missionary work and he wanted us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve". The Elders accepted and told Brother Ratliff that they would tell us so he didn't need to give us a call.

When they told us we were singing in sacrament meeting my first reaction was "No way"! but the Spirit softened my heart and I decided to just do it. It took me awhile to become excited but my fellow missionaries were patient with me and we all wanted to help Brother Ratliff with whatever he needed. He asked us to sing the first verse of "Called to Serve" and he wanted the congregation to join in on the second verse.

When we were up there singing my leg (the right one) was shaking.... bad! I don't know why but I guess that's my soft spot for when I have to sing in public. We made it through and I quickly came to the conclusion that that was a lot better than having to do a solo.

When the congregation joined in on the secong verse I thought "Wow, that sounds a lot better when everyone's singing". After we sang and sat down Brother Ratliff continued with his talk and said " As good as they sounded, wasn't it better when we all sang together"? He then bore testimony that that's how missionary work should be. Not just the missionaries working alone but the members also getting involved and helping out. It was a really good talk and it was worth getting up there singing to help him get a good message across.

We also had our Zone Conference earlier in the week and it was nice to see President and Sister Cutler. They talked about changing for the better and continuing to improve ourselves. President Cutler used a really good scripture from the Book of Mormon in Moroni Chapter 9:6. I don't remember it word for word but Mormon is writing to Moroni telling him about all of the bad things that their people are doing. He knows that their hearts are hardened but Mormon tells Moroni to continue to be diligent. He tells him that they have a labor to perform and if they would cease to labor, then they would come under condemnation.

President Cutler gave us the same incouragement and it's something that Sister Boyd and I have shared when we have our dinner appointments with members as well. Sometimes we don't see the "fruits of our labors" but we still need to be diligent and go about doing good. We need to keep preparing ourselves and become better in this life. The verse reads a lot better than I can so feel free to look it up:)

The area here is still going well. My Spanish is going well also. I still don't/can't speak as much because I don't have anyone to really speak to, but I still study everyday and my understanding of the language continues to improve. Since Sister Boyd and I are both English Sisters and the area that we're in doesn't have a lot of Spanish, our Mission President wants us to study the language for 1/2 hour instead of and hour.

Other than that I can't really think of anything else this week. I still love being a missionary. It's great to be able to share the gospel with people and help them feel the pure love of Christ.

As always thank you all for your support and love. Have a wonderful week. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love you guys,

Sister Green