Hi!
So a little bit about my new area, La Junta. It is a small town and reminds me of the towns down in Mt. Pleasent, Manti, etc. La Junta is about 1 hour east of Pueblo. The area we cover is huge. We live in La Junta which has 10,000 people and we cover several other towns which are much smaller-Ordway, Fowler, Las Animas, Swink, Rocky Ford, etc. The climate is about the same as Pueblo which means not a lot of snow. There are about 450 people on the ward roster and between 60-70 come to church each week. So there is a lot of potential work for reactivation. The bishop, who is new, is very focused on bringing back those less-actives. This ward is the second highest baptizing ward in the mission. They had 39 baptisms last year.
The first day we got here, we spent all day and several nights, cleaning the house (not apartment) which had been lived in by Elders for several years. It was gross!
We have to travel to Raton, New Mexico for our district meetings which is about 1 1/2 Southwest of us.
We met the ward on Sunday and they were so excited to have Sisters in the ward. I guess that it's been 6 years since they've had some. The ward, especially the Gonzales family (recent converts) are always sharing the gospel with family and friends and inviting them to meet with missionaries. Most of the baptisms last year came from member referrals. It's great that the members are heeding the call of the prophet and doing their duty to be member missionaries. Something exciting though, last year the missionaries baptized a guy from Mongolia! He was here at the Junior College as a foreign exchange student. I was sad to hear that he is at BYU-Hawaii for school.
My new companion is from Fairview Utah but her family moved to Virginia when she was a Junior in High School. She came back to Utah to go to SUU for college. She has five siblings, four girls and one boy (weird...)
We had zone conference yesterday and it was awesome! There are some things that we talked about that can able to everyone. We talked about the armor of God and how the only thing that is not covered is the back. He said that we need to be the protection for our companion and to watch their back, to help them not get into trouble and to be obeident. As families, friends and husbands and wives, we should all watch each others back so that Satan won't be able to overtake them. The mission president also said that we don't have anything on our back is because we don't retreat. This is an ongoing battle with Satan which started in the pre-mortal world. It is an ongoing spiritual battle to protect ourselves from him and to save others from him.
We also talked about how every ordinance in the church is an ordinance of forgiveness. Think about that. Also, when we partake of the sacrament, we are renewing ALL our covenants (baptism, temple and personal). So there is some food for thought and remember not to take the sacrament lightly. If we do our part, the Lord promises us to always have his spirit to be with us. That is the best gift he can give us.
Remember the church is true, so keep the faith and win the war!
Love Sister Sumsion
Monday, February 22
2 Down, 13 More to Go
Hi!
This week we had a wonderful mission conference with Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Halestrom from the seventy. We got to shake his hand so that is what the subject line is for. I only have 13 more apostles to meet. I loved both of their talks. I would like to share some notes from the conference.
Elder Halestrom's talk:
-There is no other organization that can turn young people, who are in the most selfish part of their life, into unselfish people.
-Your mission will be your foundation, your spiritual foundation for the rest of your life. You will KNOW who you are; you will know your relationship with God and that faith and trust will be so grounded into your very being.
-He talked about how we can be taught by the spirit. He said that we need to follow Moroni's advice in chapter 10:3-5. First we need to have real intent which means that we will act upon any answer or direction that God gives us. He asked us the question: "When we learn something, do we have the intent that we will follow what we learn? Second, we need to have faith in Christ. Third, we need to have a sincere heart. So we need to do these three things if we are to be taught by the spirit. We need to have this mentality when we go to church, when we go to general conference, when we read our scriptures, etc.
-He said that the greatest thing that we can give to the Lord is our WILL. Actually that is the only thing that he hasn't given to us. Everything he ask from us (time, money, etc.), he has already given to us. He tied this back to learning by the spirit. When need to be saying, "Whatever you ask Lord, I WILL DO!" if we are to be taught by the Spirit.
Elder L. Tom Perry's talk:
-He said that as members of Christ church, it is OUR responsibility to declare to the world that the power of God (the priesthood) is again on the earth.
-He talked alot about how it is essential that Christ church be set up as an organization. He shared some scriptures with us. Luke 6:12-13; Matt 17:1-4; Eph. 4:11-15; Articles of Faith #5; D&C 13; D&C 110
-He mentioned that if someone sends in a letter to the apostles that is asking a doctrinal question and it can't be answered by pointing to the scriptures or a church manual, they send the question to the prophet who takes it to the Lord in prayer. I thought that it was really cool that the only person who can receive revelation that clarifies doctrine and can find out the true interpertation of scripture is the prophet.
-I love seeing apostles not in conference because they are so much more relaxed. Elder Perry is the third in line to be the prophet after Elder Packer and he joked around that he is checking Elder Packer's blood pressure everyday. He said that he doesn't care how long he lives as long as Elder Packer lives one day longer than him. It was great to see that these men aren't aspiring to be the prophet. In fact, they would rather not have that responsibility on their shoulders. I come across alot of people who think that the leaders of our church are power hungry.
Cool miracle for the week: We went tracting in a small town called Las Animas. After 10 minutes of tracting we were let in by a woman named Joan whose niece had just died and she seemed very depressed about it. We talked alot about the Atonement and the Restoration and how this church can bring her more peace than anything else because it's Christ Church. She accepted a date to be baptized and has read from the Book of Mormon since then. She told us, when we asked about baptism a few days later, that she knew that this was the right thing and she knows that it will bring her peace. Now we just have to get her to church.
So after leaving Joan's house, we were in awe because so few people let us in and let us teach them a lesson. We went back to tracting. Both of us felt like we should no longer be on that street so we picked another street that we felt good about. Within five minutes of tracting, we street contacted a younger lady outside her house. She, Katie, also let us in and we taught her a 1st lesson too. She also accepted a date! Never has that happened where we got two new investigators within five minutes of each other! It was crazy! We had Katie pray before we left, about the BofM. She told us that she felt like this could be true and would bring her closer to God. After leaving Katie's house we looked at each other and said how awesome God is and the miracles we get to experience in his behalf.
I love my Heavenly Father and the power of faith! For without faith, miracles could not be. Miracles can and do happen everyday as long as we turn to the Lord and have the faith to trust him and his will. Give the Lord the one gift you can give, your will and many miracles will happen.
Remember the church is true so keep the FAITH!
Love Sister Sumsion
This week we had a wonderful mission conference with Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Halestrom from the seventy. We got to shake his hand so that is what the subject line is for. I only have 13 more apostles to meet. I loved both of their talks. I would like to share some notes from the conference.
Elder Halestrom's talk:
-There is no other organization that can turn young people, who are in the most selfish part of their life, into unselfish people.
-Your mission will be your foundation, your spiritual foundation for the rest of your life. You will KNOW who you are; you will know your relationship with God and that faith and trust will be so grounded into your very being.
-He talked about how we can be taught by the spirit. He said that we need to follow Moroni's advice in chapter 10:3-5. First we need to have real intent which means that we will act upon any answer or direction that God gives us. He asked us the question: "When we learn something, do we have the intent that we will follow what we learn? Second, we need to have faith in Christ. Third, we need to have a sincere heart. So we need to do these three things if we are to be taught by the spirit. We need to have this mentality when we go to church, when we go to general conference, when we read our scriptures, etc.
-He said that the greatest thing that we can give to the Lord is our WILL. Actually that is the only thing that he hasn't given to us. Everything he ask from us (time, money, etc.), he has already given to us. He tied this back to learning by the spirit. When need to be saying, "Whatever you ask Lord, I WILL DO!" if we are to be taught by the Spirit.
Elder L. Tom Perry's talk:
-He said that as members of Christ church, it is OUR responsibility to declare to the world that the power of God (the priesthood) is again on the earth.
-He talked alot about how it is essential that Christ church be set up as an organization. He shared some scriptures with us. Luke 6:12-13; Matt 17:1-4; Eph. 4:11-15; Articles of Faith #5; D&C 13; D&C 110
-He mentioned that if someone sends in a letter to the apostles that is asking a doctrinal question and it can't be answered by pointing to the scriptures or a church manual, they send the question to the prophet who takes it to the Lord in prayer. I thought that it was really cool that the only person who can receive revelation that clarifies doctrine and can find out the true interpertation of scripture is the prophet.
-I love seeing apostles not in conference because they are so much more relaxed. Elder Perry is the third in line to be the prophet after Elder Packer and he joked around that he is checking Elder Packer's blood pressure everyday. He said that he doesn't care how long he lives as long as Elder Packer lives one day longer than him. It was great to see that these men aren't aspiring to be the prophet. In fact, they would rather not have that responsibility on their shoulders. I come across alot of people who think that the leaders of our church are power hungry.
Cool miracle for the week: We went tracting in a small town called Las Animas. After 10 minutes of tracting we were let in by a woman named Joan whose niece had just died and she seemed very depressed about it. We talked alot about the Atonement and the Restoration and how this church can bring her more peace than anything else because it's Christ Church. She accepted a date to be baptized and has read from the Book of Mormon since then. She told us, when we asked about baptism a few days later, that she knew that this was the right thing and she knows that it will bring her peace. Now we just have to get her to church.
So after leaving Joan's house, we were in awe because so few people let us in and let us teach them a lesson. We went back to tracting. Both of us felt like we should no longer be on that street so we picked another street that we felt good about. Within five minutes of tracting, we street contacted a younger lady outside her house. She, Katie, also let us in and we taught her a 1st lesson too. She also accepted a date! Never has that happened where we got two new investigators within five minutes of each other! It was crazy! We had Katie pray before we left, about the BofM. She told us that she felt like this could be true and would bring her closer to God. After leaving Katie's house we looked at each other and said how awesome God is and the miracles we get to experience in his behalf.
I love my Heavenly Father and the power of faith! For without faith, miracles could not be. Miracles can and do happen everyday as long as we turn to the Lord and have the faith to trust him and his will. Give the Lord the one gift you can give, your will and many miracles will happen.
Remember the church is true so keep the FAITH!
Love Sister Sumsion
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