In The Great Wide Somewhere: 02/13/17

Sister J, me, & Loraine <3

Monday was so much fun in Destin with Ashley, but holy cow, Tuesday was not so much fun in Destin.

I was not in Destin Tuesday when the tornados hit, but I was in Crestucky about 40 miles north and that was quite a trip.

It was about three in the afternoon and we were hungry and it was pouring rain so we went to pick up some breadsticks at Hungry Howies.

Hungry Howies is huge down here. There's one in every city.

It takes place of Cafe Rio and Costa Vida (not in quality of food.. just in the frequency of location. may Costa Vida rest in peace<3)

We went in to grab our cheesey bread and go... when all of the sudden no lie..

the sky went green and the windows started rattling and the rain was blowing in a circular motion around the parking lot.

The trees were going NUTS cars were being blown off course and the door bell that rings every time the door opens at hungry howies was having a hay day because the wind kept opening and slamming the door.

We were scared. I have never seen rain like that.

So we sat in Hungry Howies hoping they had built it with materials similar to Captain Americas shield, and praying that the builders were wise men and built it on a rock instead of sand and we ate our breadsticks.

Things finally calmed down a bit, and we got a text from Madison who was like, get inside.

Then Ashley texted us like, bunches of tornados just hit Louisiana and that storm is headed our way.

It wasn't until the next day that we heard that one of the tornados in Destin hit Maguires..

what a nightmare!!! Poor Maguires ;(

Anyway that was the exciting weather story of the week, next up is the celebrity look alike comment of the week

"Sister Saunders I'm trying to figure out who you remind me of.. I think.. is it?

YES

Fergie.

You look like Fergie."

"WHAT? No way."

"Fergalicious."

smh

#notcomplaining

Tender mercy of the week

Sister J and I didn't have time to eat dinner on Monday and we were hungry

The thought popped in my mind

"I wonder if anyone will ask us if we've had dinner tonight."

Sure enough the second home we taught in, Sister Fetters asked us if we had had dinner and gave us some for the road.

"Take no thought what ye shall eat" Matthew 6:25

To me, Christ is giving examples of things that are taken care of and saying

"How much more must the Father be looking out for you? He's taking care of the birds, and the bugs, and the flowers. You are precious, He will take care of you."

And so will sister Fetters :)

Tuesday at district meeting we talked about Christ-like attributes

attribute:

We read the sections in preach my gospel about it and discussed them.

When we came to faith and hope, I said to my fellow Crestucky District

"I have a question for the jury.

What is the difference . between

. Faith . and . Hope . "

This is a question I have had for a LONG long time. I've noticed that it's super easy to name off the things about faith and hope that are similar or even the same as each other.

Some think that hope is easier and is something that can exist without works, I've heard faith is really digging in and working to prove that you believe what you can't see.

But Elder Holland said "There is always Hope. That's Hope with a capital "H" I'm not talking about wishful thinking, I'm talking about doctrinal Hope."

From that statement, I gather that Hope is a little more weighty than we give it credit.

I'm guessing we all have a basic understanding of what hope is, and what faith is, but what are they not?

The opposite of Faith is Doubt and Fear

The opposite of Hope is Discouragement

Which backs up the very inspired answer to my question

"What is the difference between hope and faith?" that came from my companion and the Elders in my district of 6 missionaries that day.

. Hope . is an expression of our trust in God that is manifest through our

. ATTITUDE .

. Faith . is an expression of our trust in God through our

. ACTION .

We have faith when we attempt to change a bad habit

Faith that Jesus Christ will help us and forgive us

and we have Hope when we mess up or fall short, that we can continue to try with "brightness" even cheeriness in our hearts. Hope keeps us moving forward and enables us to keep trying no matter what mistakes temporarily offset our progress.

Hope is realizing that those setbacks are actually part of the process that God has laid out in front of us.

Faith is believing in the Savior and His atonement, Hope is HAPPILY accepting every trial that comes our way and Believing The Savior not just believing in Him.

Together, Hope and Faith = Believing that He can because He already did, and Believing that He will because He loves us.

Faith.. knowing and believing in His capability to forgive and deliver us.
Hope... knowing and believing that He will.

It's one thing to hit a stumbling block and have faith that if we white knuckle it through we will be alright, and completely different thing to hit that block and smile having a hope that it was meant to be and that it will help us reach our potential.

"I know what this is Lord. A time to prove myself isn't it."

So in my opinion, Faith comes before Hope in sequence, but Hope is harder to have.
It takes constant mental control and lots of prayer.

Faith brings miracles, and Hope brings peace.

innerpeace -kungfupanda

The exact opposite of how I felt Friday February 10th, 2017:(

Let it be known amongst the nations that on that day, Sister Saunders was hit with some mighty shafts and whirlwinds.

And it came to pass that a man and his wife approached Sister Saunders and her companion (for the day) Sister Delgado and handed them a reformed book of John from the bible changed into "modern English"

The Sisters accepted the book on the terms that the man and his wife accept a book from them to which the man replied

"No. If you leave this here, I will throw it in that garbage can."

We asked him why

He said because it goes against the bible because the bible says not to add to that book.

never heard that one before

I told him that in the Old Testament it also says not to add to that book... which would mean that we should not believe in the New Testament.

I then explained that what the writers were saying was "Do not add to or take way from or change my testimony, this book of scripture." Each writer wrote a different part of the bible and each individual writing is referenced as a book.

The Bible didn't even exist when he wrote that, and it was not connected to any of the other "books" of scripture.

Then he told me

"You were trained well. Have you ever considered that maybe the elders and big people who trained you might be interpreting it wrong?"

"All the time. Then I read it for myself and pray about it. So far, they have interpreted it right according to the witness I have received from the Spirit."

In other words, I wasn't trained by big wigs- I was led by my parents/teachers at church/prophets, seers, and revelators and I was taught by the Spiirit that what they have said is true.

I asked him

"If the Book of Mormon is nothing to you, would you say it would be like reading any other book?"

"Yes."

"Then why not read it? It will be like reading the newspaper. If you don't believe it is scripture, then surely it will be just like reading then paper."

"I cannot bring myself to do that."

"We will read the book you gave us."

him: "Oh that's the book of John in modern english"

us: "Hmm.. So it has been changed?"

him: "Just to take out the thees and thous and change a couple words so they're easier to understand.."

us: "So they took out some words.. and put some different ones in.."

of course I was doing my best to kindly point out an obvious issue here.

He then apologized and said

"I need to confess something. I don't think that we should stray from the King James version of the Bible because this book here, was written by a man. Which makes it not valid. I don't read it myself but I agree with you that it was written by a man so it's not valid."

I just love this man. He admits he's wrong then points out that his book was written by a man so it's not valid but also made it obvious he was dissing the Book of Mormon because the next thing he said was,

"Who wrote the Book of Mormon?"

Sister Delgado informed him that Joseph Smith TRANSLATED the Book of Mormon and I mentally told him that the book of mormon was written by many men but So. Was. The. Bible.

Then he jumped around asking us offensive questions and begged us to leave mormonism.

"Why do your name badges say Sister?"

"Because as ministers set apart for a year and a half we are called Sister to represent our spiritual tie to each person, we are brothers and sisters under a Heavenly Father."

"Oh so you're saying because I go by my first name I'm going to Hell?!"

"No..."

Then his wife even rebuked him telling him he doesn't do what we do.

Then he said, "Please pray about if the Book of Mormon is true."

"We have. And we will again. Will you pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true?"

"No."

I just do not understand this mentality will someone please explain.

I would totally pray to know if the watchtower is true or the kuran. Because I want to know. That doesn't mean I doubt my religion, in fact if I did doubt my religion I'd probably be less inclined to pray about another worrying about whether or not I'm actually right.

But it's not about being right, it's about finding the truth.

And even if we are sure we have the truth, we can pray about the lies to firmly plant ourselves in what we know is true.

This older fellow, his wife, and us actually kept the contention level to a minimum which is probably hard to picture given what was said (and a lot more than that was said)

but it didn't get super heated or contentious (on our part)

Somewhere in this conversation

this man got out of the picnic table bench

knelt down knee by knee

propped his hands up on the bench

folded his hands

and with tears in his eyes

he begged us.

on the cement ground at the park.

He begged us to leave "Mormonism"

He said, "Please ask God. Pray and you will know."

It was at this point in the conversation that I looked dead straight into his eyes with all the love in the world, the Spirit hit me like a wall and it filled the air as I said three of the most simple words in the world with power that is far beyond my own.

I. Already. Have.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

He got off of his knees, and tried to bash some more. I smiled and told him we love him as our brother and that we would be leaving now.

Later that day we met ANOTHER man that hit us with all sorts of anti material.

I was like woah... twice in one day.

He told us before we left, "Eternity is a long time to suffer in Hell sisters. I hope I see you again."

We thanked him for being concerned for the welfare of our souls and I said what Joseph Smiths brother Alvin said:

"I just can't believe God would want to save only a few of us."

then we left

I'd like to wish ya'll a happy valentines day tomorrow.
And a happy birthday to sweetie it's her birthday tomorrow.

Thank you for the valentines <3

I LOVE THE LORD with all my HEART

I love Florida

I love you

Charity is the purest form of Christs love and the Atonement is the evidence of it.

Remember as you are giving/getting flowers chocolate yummy smelling stuff and hugs/kisses and valentines and heart shaped pancakes/pizzas the greatest act of love ever to be performed in the history of ever

The Atonement

Remember to write Jesus a valentine tomorrow with all of the reasons you love Him on it.

Prayers For Matt and Lexi

please

and pray that my vocal chords will magically become that of angels because Saturday I will be singing come thou fount with three other sisters in front of an apostle of the Lord and the ENTIRE mission. ALL of the missionaries and Elder Stevenson of the quorum of the 12 apostles.

PRAY FOR ME I'm so excited.