Anyway I am glad you guys had a good 4th !! I can't believe how fast time has gone by!! Our 4th was good. We spent it at the Novaks with the Elders and did a hot dog roast and played some games then saw the fireworks.
We met some new people this week to teach and they are super crazy I am sure! They are all 3 homeless and live in the same camp as our Recent Convert who has been helping them learn. Well we had a super awesome lesson with them and then Harlan goes and ruins it by saying I am married to Stacy, but I am with Autumn like she is kinda a concubine I guess... This place is nuts for sure, but I am SO grateful to be here! So many people have kinda explained Decatur as a Sodom and Gomorrah and I am starting to kinda believe it. I am ready to take J Golden Kimball's advice and burn the place down and do baptisms for the dead :) Just kidding but how much easier would that be :) So teaching them has been great. I know that this experience as a missionary is really going to help me as a parent someday. So these three are all in their late 20s and they all act like teenagers. They said to us if you aren't okay with this situation then we are going to leave right now and never come back. So basically we have been trying instead of being blunt, because I know that would not work, we are trying to give them opportunities to learn for themselves that what they are doing is wrong. It takes opportunities to feel the spirit because that is what can soften their heart. And really it has been working. As they continue to learn, to pray, read, go to church etc. They are learning and finding the answers on their own. I am learning that it is not our job to sit here and tell these people what to do. No what we are doing is being their guides to finding answers on their own.
My brain is still at high speed right now and I am making connections with so many things even as I am writing this! That's what the spirit does :0 But I don't know if you have read this months Ensign (yes I finished the July Ensign even before July started ;) But there is an article about raising young adults and one part really stuck out to me.
- 5. Trust them with their decisions. This doesn’t mean believing that they will always make perfect choices. It means trusting that they can be resilient, that God is forgiving, and that life can be deeply meaningful even when it includes overcoming failure or enduring trials. Young children can be scarred by trauma, but young adults grow from overcoming obstacles rather than avoiding them. Provide emotional and practical support, encourage breaks from the stress, pray with and for them, and inject a little humor.
The part I highlighted really stuck out to me. These people are teaching have to learn by experience!! I love being an instrument of God and being able to let him work through me to help his children in whatever way he wants me too! I love this gospel with all my heart!
K one more thing though. Yesterday Sister Dewey our RS president gave a great lesson and I really wanted to share part of it with you. These are some Lies with the truth right after
1. Lie: Because of my Weakness and failings God is disappointed in, continually frustrated with, and even angry with me.
Truth: God loves me and rejoices in me because I am His child.
2. Lie: I am a terrible failure. I will never be good enough because I keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Truth: I am not perfect, but the desires of my heart are good, I can feel inspired to progress.
3. Lie: I am not as righteous, spiritual, attractive, or kind as that other person therefore, God must love that person more than he loves me.
Truth: God knows my individual potential and progress intimately. He doesn't not compare or rank me with His other children.
4. Lie: I have too many issues, hang-ups, and past mistakes to be blessed and happy.
Truth: No mistake, no personal challenge, no past circumstance is outside of the healing and redemptive power of the Atonement.
5. Lie: I need to prove that I am worth loving by being perfect. Only when I am perfect will I be able to experience love from God and from others.
Truth: Even though I am not perfect now I can have constant access to divine love.
All of these things have continually entered my mind. Especially as a missionary. But remember God loves you the way you are and you are better than you think you are!!
I love you and am super stoked to go to the temple tomorrow. It will be a treasured time with my Father in Heaven :) Have a good week!!
Sister Calton
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