March 24, 2014
One of our ward members asked us if we could tutor her five year old neighbor. So we went there and he is the cutest little kid in the world!! He is in first grade and they are learning so much more than I ever was!! But I decided I want to be a teacher when I come home :) Actually I decided maybe I will help you out in your classroom for a while and then decided if it is really something I want to do :) But my Patriarchal blessing talks about me enjoying primary children and I know its true :)
So, so much has happened this week I don't even really know where to start. I wish I could simplify it and just tell you it all!! I have a story about it being dangerous. So we read your letter about Decatur and laughed cause it seems so much better according to your paper :) But really it has the highest unemployment in Illinois. And sadly no one wants to get a job because they earn more off welfare than they could from any job. So we went with a ward member and talked to a group of unemployed people about volunteer work, that was fun. We have been strictly forbid to go certain places at night. Oh and best part of all of this... I live next to a prison!! hahaha I love this place :) But really the crime only comes from gangs and everyone knows us as the Jesus people or Church girls and they love us. Especially the kids. I feel like they sent me to a third world country :)
But a majority of our investigators are African American and I am loving it!! I am going to come home with an accent hahaha jk but we laugh way too much about how they speak! Oh and cool story everyone here has their own religion and does not want to become Mormon, but they love having us over to talk to them. Doesn't make sense! Two of our investigators told us they don't want to be Mormon, but they keep saying that God has sent us there for a reason. There are a lot of hard headed people out here! But as we teach them about Christ we are letting the spirit testify to them truth and then slowly their hearts are softened.
So we are in a district with 6 elders and us. And last week we were talking about our investigators. We have a couple that isn't married and the guy is a member. So we were talking him and he wanted us to come and meet his wife. But before that we had District meeting and we were telling the Elders that we were going to get them married totally joking knowing it was going to take forever. Oh and the Elders had little faith in us. Well today at 4 I get to go and be a witness for their wedding :) And she is going to get baptized in the next couple of weeks and then next year I am totally coming out when they get sealed. Funny thing about it is that the elders won't know until tomorrow that they are married. All this area needed was sisters :) I will have to tell you the story about their wedding sometime though!
So randomly the quote "You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take" came into my mind this week and it reminded me of you mom!! I applied it to missionary work in that we aren't going to get any investigators if we just walk by people instead of talking to everyone that we can!! Sister Montgomery is SO good at it! We even talk to people while we are stopped at stoplights :) Hahaha they work is progressing and we are loving it!
I was reading Jesus the Christ and read about the Unrighteous Steward. The moral of the story went along the lines of this "If they are so prudent as to provide for the only future they thing of, how much more should you, who believe in an eternal future provide therefor! If ye have not learned wisdom and prudence int he use of "unrighteous mammon" how can you be trusted with the more enduring riches?" -James E Talmage. How true is that!! Heavenly father has given us so many blessings especially money. And when we use it wisely and are prudent then we gain more wealth! The same comes with our spiritual knowledge! But if we are weak with our money or blessings then how could God trust us with eternal riches? So this is what I am trying to work on. Being prudent :0
So last little thing. Sister Montgomery shared this quote with me "There are some who make living the gospel seem like a sentence to a rock pile. It's not living the gospel that's hard. It's life that's hard. It's picking up the pieces when covenants have been compromised or values violated that's hard. the gospel is the GOOD NEWS that provides us the tools to cope with the mistakes, the heartaches, the disappointments we can expect to experience here." - Sheri Dew. I have seen this SO much!! The gospel is truly the greatest thing and I know that we can only have true everlasting happiness as we live the commandments. I saw an old lady the other day with a lot of wrinkle lines. It made me sad to see that the biggest ones came from frowning :( Yesterday at church I met a 94 year old member who had just as many wrinkle lines. But she was so much more beautiful because one her wrinkle lines definitely came from smiling too much because she was still doing it, and two because her beauty came from inside :)
The Church is true!! Love you all and I hope you have a good week and enjoy your trip to Nevada. Tell everyone I say hi and I love them!! Keep your heads up and all that other good jazz. Oh and SMILE :)
Love
Sister (Whitney) Calton
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