Lubbock or leave it

Guess where my first area is..... Lubbock!! Ah! I am so happy about that.

But Lubbock is huge (geographically, even though it always seems like we are basically in the middle of nowhere), so guess what my first area of Lubbock is... College Park II.

Aka we are in the YSA ward with all the Texas Tech students and we go finding on campus all the time. SO fun, right?  I am pleased.

Mi companera is Hermana Olsen. But we call her Sister Olsen because we speak English. And one of her recent converts calls her Sister Ocean. Minor speech impediment. Nbd.

I love Sister O so so much. Seriously. Here is some advice for you future missionaries:  Pray now for your trainer. I prayed and fasted for Sister O before I hit the mish and my oh my, she is so great.  She is so dedicated to the work, it's insane. She follows the rules and she is always trying to improve. She is always thinking about the investigators and what they need. And she is just so patient and encouraging with me!

And she is hilarious.  She impersonates everyone with accuracy that you would not believe. Love it. Lubbock or leave it. That's what we say every time we say Love it.

Also, she has only been out three months. Aka 12 weeks. Aka she just finished her 12 week training the day before I arrived. So we're kind of "in it together" she always says because she is pretty much learning along side me. That's what she says, but I'm like, "Please. You are amazing. I don't know anything."

I have learned an unbelievable amount this week, my friends. Unbelievable. And I continue to be humbled. I am STILL struggling - kind of - with faith, I think? I don't know. There are just so many things I have to do to improve my knowledge, my skills, and pretty much everything. But every single day I just  push on a little bit more. 

I really have to take it one day at a time. I wake up and pray that TODAY I will do my very best. I will really try to focus and learn and just try to listen to the Spirit and do His will. That is what I will do today. And at the end of the day, I tell Him what I did. And the next morning I say, "Okay, today I will do my best. Today."

One beautiful day at a time.

Would you like to know what I learned in personal study this morning?  Okay, here's some background:  Sister O and I are focusing a lot right now on members and getting them involved because really, our ward just hasn't "caught the wave" of missionary work, yet. Yet.  And we are trying to visit a lot of less actives and recent converts to get to know them, share a thought, rekindle that faith, and invite them to come to church.  But we can't do it alone! We NEED the members to be there to invite with us and fellowship because we are going to leave, but the members aren't, you know?  Anyway, Sister O and I were talking last night as we laid there in bed and I was saying, "I know it is so important to go get those less actives, and I honestly feel way more comfortable and myself talking to them than I do to investigators, but at the same time, sometimes it is hard for me because they are choosing not to come! They are members and they have the gospel, but they are choosing not to read the scriptures and come to church and it seems almost weird that we have to go motivate them."

Now. Before you freak out, let me say, I do and did know that it is very important to reach out to them, but I was just expressing that it is sometimes weird to me and I need to learn how to change that and how Christ would go about doing that.

So then this morning I was reading Mosiah 4 and I read verses 16 - 21 and wow!  Go read it. It totally applies to the gospel and to less actives! Because listen to verse 17: Perhaps thou shalt say:  The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just --

And then verse 19: For behold, are we not all beggars?  Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold........And for the gospel!

God has given me my testimony. He has given me a mother who taught me to come to church and to follow Jesus Christ. He gave me a sister who reads her scriptures every day and encourages me to do the same.  He has given me everything! So it IS my job to go to the less actives and motivate them to come to Jesus Christ. It is time for me to impart of my substance, so to speak, and not just to those who have never heard, but to those who are falling away.

No one can do it alone. I have not done it alone, and I never could do it alone. We have to do it together!

And like I said, I knew this in my brain, but these verses really just explained it to my heart and I am just sooo so excited.

The church is true, my friends.  So true.

Love, Sister Brittan E Plante