Missouri Winters are COLD

Missouri has the weirdest weather. It's 60 degrees one day and then 10 degrees the next. No joke. My fleece lined tights may or may not be the best thing that's happened to me this winter. The weather has been rather eratic and I feel like that's how this week has gone too. Just up and down and all over the place... mostly ups though.

 

Ups:

- Joyce is recognizing so many of the blessings in her life from keeping the commandments. She is SO happy. All the time. And she has even stopped swearing... she told us she used to have a little bit of a mouth, but without even thinking about it she rarely uses those words anymore. It is so amazing how the gospel really changes people, even on the little things, without them even knowing. Ah! It is an amazing thing to watch.

- We had an amazing lesson with Joyce on tithing. We were a little nervous to teach this one, because it takes a lot of faith to commit giving 10% of your income to the Lord. She had had a lot of questions about it in the past and wasn't too keen on the idea. This was the last thing we needed to teach her before her baptism. The lesson was full of miracles. She fully understood the need to pay it and recognized that there were lots of blessings that would come from it, and committed to live the Law of Tithing!

- Joyce is also a walking Word of Wisdom ad... I was telling her how I have loved not eating so many treats... and she was like, "you know what you learned Sister Call... moderation in all things." Who is this lady?!

- We are starting to teach a second grader! Whoohoo! Her family moved back into the ward and are coming back to church... so they want to get her ready for her baptism! I'm so excited.

 

Downs:

- It's been cold cold cold... That's all. Bundling up can get rather exhausting, but at least it helps me stay warm.

- I'm a little under the weather... I might have the flu. Going to the doctor today to get that checked out.

 

We have had some funny finding experiences. We talked to this one guy yesterday that was very obviously on something. It was unusually easy to set a return appointment with him, but whatever! He said he had met with missionaries in the past, so who am I to judge? It's kind of funny that I am learning more now about drugs and intoxication than I ever did in high school and college.

 

So all in all it's been a great week. As always we talk to so many different people everyday. Something that has really struck me is that God does not change. We talked to this one lady and she was talking about how "with it" her congregation was. How they really focus on current events and keeping up with the times. They don't focus much on the scriptures or any of that because it's just not as important as current events and things-- that the scriptures don't correspond well with the events of the world...

 

 I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the Bible to be guideposts in our life. I am grateful for the answers that they give me to my questions, and the guidance that they give me as to how I can live my life and be happy. I am grateful for the guidance of the scriptures to keep each of us grounded, through tests, through trials, through everything. It is such a blessing to be able to learn and read from their pages daily and I love study time as a missionary.