Hey family,
How are you this week? I hope really well! Well this week has
been kind of long ha-ha Well I have a new companion and her name is Sister
Petersen and she is from Draper, UT, of course everyone is from Utah. But
she is pretty cool, she is 20, tall, really thin, she doesn't talk much but
that's ok, she is a sweet girl and we get along well! This week has been
a little shy of
Sister Petersen and I have done a lot of tracting and I
mean A LOT! But that's ok, that's how you find people. We also have had some
really good lessons with Darien this week. Sadly, he told us that he is on
probation right now, so we had to cancel his baptism for this Saturday. He was
really bummed as were we, but we were able to teach him about repentance and why
restitution is so important and he understood why he needed to make up for what
he had done. He is still really determined to be baptized and he said that he
would work hard and try to make it there by next year. Unless he pays his fines
then he can of course be baptized earlier, but we will see. Darien really loves this gospel
and all that he is learning and is really doing very well. He still comes to
church and is making friends with people in the ward so that is good. We don't
really have many other people right now that we are teaching, but we are
working with a lot of less actives and so that is good. I love working with
less actives, Peter and Paul are doing well. They both better understand why church is so important and making more of an effort to come to church and
keep the commandants. Well I had an interesting experience this
week. So the other day Sister Petersen and I were out tracting and
we were going around saying prayers with people. We knocked on a door and a
young lady answered, she looked about 19 and we asked if we could pray with her
and she said, "that is so weird that you are at my house, I was just talking to
my son about God, so sure come on in." So we went in and there were two other
young girls in there around the same age, another one of them had a young child
like 4 or 5 and then 2 guys that were
boyfriends to 2 of the other women and the girl that answered the door was single, but
anyways, we went in and sat on the couch. The house was a bit messy and
unkempt, there was tons of alcohol and cigarettes on the table and everyone was
very messy and yelling/ cussing at one another, not in a mad way just as normal
conversation, but very weird to me. We were able to say a prayer barely with all the noise and then the girls in the house were kind of trying to get a feel for us and they started asking us all these questions, like how old we were, if
we drank, if we smoked, if we knew how to tork or whatever and if we partied,
junk like that and we both just said no, and with the most shocked look on all their faces
they all bragged about how much of a drunk they all were and how they partied
and what not. They then were making comments like, well girls you need to go
out and live, and all I could think in my head was "Are you kidding
me?" They sit at home all day, none of them have jobs, and they smoke and
drink all day, go to parties at night and are trying to raise 2 children under
the age of 5 all together. That doesn't sounds like life at all to me or that I
am missing out on anything. They asked us what we have done with our lives
being so amused at the fact that we were in our 20's and had done nothing and
all we could say was, well we both were at a university before we came here doing
XY&Z, we are now serving an 18 month full time mission, I have volunteered
and been a mentor in a program for underprivileged children, I have had the
opportunity to travel some, I have had several different jobs and learned
different things from those, I practice music and art all the time, except for
not as much now because I am on a mission, when I go home I plan to continue
studying and bettering myself in anyway that I can, and it was like that all
went in one ear and out the other to them. It was maddening almost, and
yet after all of that their only response was, "well, ya but when
are you actually going to go out and live?" I had nothing to say, what
could I have said? Their definition of living and mine are worlds apart, and no
matter what I said they could still not fathom the fact that I did not
"party" and therefore had zero life experience. Last October in the
priesthood session of general conference Elder Uchtdorf gives a talk called
"You Can Do It Now" and in there he says, "One of the adversary's
methods to prevent us from progressing is to confuse us about who we really are
and what we really desire." Is that not true? I am so shocked at the
way people live so contently in these kinds of situations and think that its
going to bring them happiness, or that they have really accomplished much.
It is the perfect example of getting what you want in the moment and not
realizing how it could destroy you later, what was funny about being with those
girls is they all talked about things that they wanted to do, be rich, be
smart, be whatever and yet they have all coped out for drugs and alcohol and
their excuse is well I'm just a drunk anyways or whatever. Elder Uchtdorf
also says, " Satan's purpose is to tempt us to exchange the priceless
pearls of true happiness and eternal values for a fake plastic trinket that is
merely an illusion and counterfeit of happiness and joy." So many people
aren't willing to work for what they want, so they do what is easy and live in
discontent. Anything that is virtuous, lovely or of good report or praise
worthy, shouldn't we all seek after these things? How cunning is the
adversary!? The gospel is the only thing that will help us to see past these
counterfeits, to know what is truly of worth and what brings real
happiness. Anything that shortchanges you of the blessings of eternity is
never worth it. God want's us to be happy and successful, yet so many aren't?
Well maybe that is because so many really aren't following God at all. The
counsel and promises from the living day prophets are so important, as we
listen to them "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you."
Well I love you all and I hope and pray for you all the time.
Sister
Jamison
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