During ward conference on Sunday our Bishop shared three anchors to help us during life. First anchor ourselves to the Atonement of Christ because it provides us enabling power to overcome sin but also it helps us make the changes to simply become better. It helps us overcome circumstances instead of letting circumstances dictating the outcome. I love that! Second, we can anchor ourselves to the words of God through a living prophet. Our bishop encouraged us to be attentive to his words and the Holy Ghost will witness the truth of it. For example, as we follow the council to keep the Sabbath as His day our families will be strengthen, greater love will abound and we will see God’s hand in our lives more abundantly. Third, as we love one another by extending a lifting hand to others not only will we strengthen them but we will have more peace and a greater presence of the Holy Ghost in our lives. I have seen that to be true in my life and is a great reminder to serve more and be more loving. President Hruska talked about our journey of discipleship. He shared 2 Nephi 9:41-42 pointing out that the way for man is narrow, in that we need to choose where we stand. We choose by action or inaction. We embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and stay on His path by consistently and persistently praying, being humble, showing gratitude, increasing our faith, attending church and the temple and reading our scriptures. He emphasized that we are all on the path at different places so be compassionate, love and embrace others wherever they are. We can help each other along by increasing each other’s faith and acting in faith. It was a great meeting where I felt the spirit in great abundance.
Jessie and I went to the Lego Batman movie with one of her friend’s family on Monday. A well done, fun movie. We were in the Dolby Theatre Experience so our chairs rumbled and the sound was pretty intense. Bonus was the chairs reclined! Afterwards we went to the missionary pday activities over at our building. Jessie and I played speed basketball with other less skilled missionaries and then the card game “scum” with some sister missionaries while Aaron and boys played half-court basketball. Unfortunately, Zac came down wrong on his foot and sprained his ankle pretty good. Upside, basketball season ended last Friday. ;)
I had a companionship study with sister in Lake Jackson Tuesday morning and then I stayed for their district council. The sisters are working with two young girls (12 and 9) that want to be baptized. Their grandparents are members and go to church with them most weeks however their mom doesn’t think they know enough to make that decision. We made plans on how to address the mom’s needs to overcome this set back. I then headed back to Sugarland to have a great lunch with my Visiting teacher and the other sisters she visits. As always we had a wonderful time visiting about our families and how the gospel blesses our lives. Zac’s coach wanted a doctor to check out his ankle. Zac thinks the coach didn’t believe him but I’m sure his request is standard practice. The results? A really bad sprain with the prescription to RICE and wrapping which we were already doing. ;) Zac is pretty impressed with my wrapping skills. He didn’t know I have that talent. J Later that night we had a great family home evening with two Hispanic investigators at the mission home on Tuesday. We have opened the door for any investigators to come and be with us and it is proving to be very fruitful. The husband that was uncommitted made the decision to be baptized the first weekend in March. We had a recent convert join us and she was the best missionary in the room. The missionaries love being at the mission home with us and it’s a good thing for our family. It’s a little hard for the kids and I to participate as it’s been all in Spanish as of late, but still good experiences.
I played catch up on my Texas blog/Journal on Wednesday. Basically my blog is what I write here. The computer quit working about three or four weeks ago so all the entries I was working on went with the computer to be checked out. There was no salvaging the computer but they would attempt to get all our stuff off the hard drive. Yeah! They were able get all the files, etc. but in the meantime, we had to buy a new computer. Still haven’t retrieve and downloaded to this computer so this is why I haven’t posted anything for so long. No bueno.
I took a long drive to almost the furthest point in our mission on Thursday morning to meet four sisters for a companionship study in Victoria. We had a wonderful study creating lessons plans for three of their most progressing investigators. One of their biggest obstacles is how spread out the area is. They have a lot of rural areas and members are quite a distance from each other. However these sisters are very optimistic and really know how to plan to make things happen. I was impressed with their creative problem solving skills! I was so glad I took the opportunity to make the drive there and back. Plus on my ride home I got to talk to Allie the whole time. We got to chat about her classes which she is enjoying but because they are all at random days and times it gets difficult to go back and forth especially when it snows. That girl is not too fond of the snow. One day she wants to live in a warmer climate year round. :) She shared with me about her latest dating interest, her roommates’ fun antics and the latest on the Bachelor. All great topics for me. ;)
On Friday, I was out with two more sisters for companionship study and then spent 2 ½ hours visiting with less active members and street contacting good potentials in between the visits. Bode’s hair is now so long that we’re going to give him a 70’s perm and invite a family of birds to nest there. He really doesn’t need a perm though because he has natural curl. Natural curl that was hidden until we moved to humid Texas. It is crazy! Zac was invited to a masquerade birthday party being held at the Marriot hotel. He's definitely looking handsome. Jess is our UN connection as we have a string of Chinese, Latina, and unknown nationalities over to play each week. Life is good, loving our time, the weather is beautiful, all is well with the Hall’s in Texas.