salt and peppering Mo'City

YUP! That's right. I'm back in Morgan City and I brought Sister Wily with me:) She was my companion in New Iberia. So now we are what's called a salt and pepper companionship. One English one Spanish! Sister Stennett is in New Iberia with my old companion Hermana Sagers! crazy stuff. so instead of having Morgan City as Spanish sisters and New Iberia as English sisters, we are both salt and pepper companionships! 

 

I can't remember what all I've told y'all about Sister Wily but I'll tell ya about her again. First off, she's awesome. Second, she's Samoan and Hawaiian which makes her more awesome. But she's from Utah, West Jordan to be exact. She's 19 and super talented. She has an incredible singing voice and amazing ukulele skills. She's teaching me to play the ukulele. I now know 8 chords and some different styles of strums. It's fun! Life is a party with the two of us but we work hard too. The past few days there hasn't been too much work though. She's got headache problems just like me! So I've had lots of study time which is nice. I feel like I'm catching up on all the time I missed studying when I was the one super sick. We're working on helping her get better so we can hit the ground running! Morgan City better watch out because we're coming to reactivate and baptize them all :) There is a TON of less active work to be done here. I was looking at the ward list and made a list of the youth, since we are the young women's counselors. I came up with a list of about 20 youth. There is currently 1 active youth! Yup, lots of less actives!! 

There is one active Melchizedek Priesthood holder that lives in the branch and he just happens to be Sister Wily's "Uncle". Crazy and awesome! I use quotations because he is not literally her uncle but I've found that all Samoans are related some how. And they call everyone Aunt and Uncle. I think her mom and his wife are first cousins. So we've already been spoiled by the Alberts! They had all the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday. It was delicious and we didn't go home empty handed. 

 

So here are so cool connections I had this morning while studying. I seem to always have the best personal studies on Preparation Day! This morning was no different. Then in companionship study the things that Sister Wily learned went right in line with what I learned. She shared first and talked about a District Meeting that they had had a few months ago where the District Leader talked about getting LOST in the work. He used different chapters to form the word lost and Sister Wily ended up rereading on of those chapters today which reminded her of the acronym. So, to get lost in the work we Love, Obey, Serve and Teach, which spells lost! pretty cool! So this morning I was reading for the 60 day challenge (can't remember if I mentioned this, but at the beginning of them month President Wall challenged us all to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days because the Book of Mormon play is coming to New Orleans next month and he wants everyone to have a fresh memory of the Book since people are going to have questions.) and the I read where I was already at before the 60 day challenge began. I ended up reading the first few chapters in Mosiah as well as 4 Nephi.

 

First, the insights on Love. Well it's about love, obedience and unity. In's 4 Nephi 1:15-18 it says:15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. 16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. 17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of-ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. 18 And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away, and there was no contention in all the land.

The people loved God so they kept the commandments (obedience) and because they kept the commandments they were all unified and prospered together!!! It all began with love :) And it says that because of this they were the happiest people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. That is a pretty bold declaration but when you love God, are obeying his commandments and are unified with those around you, you can't help but be happy! Nothing could make you happier! 

Now for the insights on obedience and service found in Mosiah 2.Alright, here we go. So in verse 4 it says that the people had been taught to keep the commandments of God so they could rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men. I loved this! When we keep the commandments we have reason to rejoice and we are filled with love. The highest degree of obedience is when we act out of love for God but as we obey we are filled with love so even if we didn't start by acting out of love, that is what we receive to keep us obeying. Then in verse 22 it says that all that He requires of us is to keep the commandments and if we do, we will prosper. So we keep His commandments and He blesses us and we prosper. Then verse 24 teaches us that these blessings come immediately. We don't always have to wait for the blessings because He immediately blesses us. Then last but not least, verse 41 teaches us that when we are obedient we will be in a blessed and happy state! And we will be blessed both temporally and spiritually! We often forget about the temporal blessings we receive and focus on the spiritually. But this verse testifies that the blessing come both spiritually and temporally! 
And for service there is the well known Mosiah 2:17. I thought about this verse in relation to the other connections I had made and it made me realize that we tend to serve out of love . Sometimes because we love the person we are serving or because we love God or both. Either way we are acting out of love to serve others and God. 

 

Now for the last part of losT. Teach. I didn't read anything specifically about teaching but when we love, obey and serve, then we will become more effective teachers. We can't get lost in the work until we are working on each part of the acronym. Love, obey, serve and teach! Maybe this next week I'll continue to study L.O.S.T. and come back with more insights on teaching. We'll just see what happens!

Here is my address! I plan on having a normal transfer so this is my address for the next 6 weeks :)

207 Trevino St Apt #1 Berwick, LA 70342

con amor,

Kim