Monday, February 2, 2015

Thankful for the Tender Mercies



Good morning! I'm so surprised every monday morning to see that it's been another week out in the mission field.  I bet it was nice that you and dad got to go to St George for the weekend, and made it a priority to attend the temple.  I've been craving another temple trip! That's interesting that President Hughes brought that up at stake conference. A recent convert we were just talking to last night was asking us about FLDS and all these break-offs of our religion that she saw on some website.  Please, if it's not on lds.org or another official church website, don't read it! It will start getting you confused (Heavenly Father is not a God of confusion) and then the things they say will start to make sense, and then you'll question your testimony of the truth.  It's all just poison! Don't even read it to prove it wrong, just stay away. 
We had apartment inspections last week, and this week we were informed that we need to move because we've been having some recurring problems with the maintenance and such.  So we got to do some apartment shopping!  That was fun (: we haven't found a place for sure yet, but we're getting closer.  There's only so many apartment complexes in Barnesville, and half of them are under the same management, haha.
                              Look what I found in our trunk! If you can't bring the girl to the game, 
                                                     the game will come to the girl (:
Some updates on a few people: We met with Geisha this week.. Not sure if I've written about her, but she has 3 little girls and they're just the cutest family.  Probably most comparable to the Carthon's. Anyway, we still haven't met her husband because he's a truck driver and is always gone, but he thinks the Book of Mormon isn't true and all this stuff.  By the way, his dad is a preacher. AHH, why is everyone's dad a preacher?? But I still definitely have faith because Shira's dad is a preacher, and she turned out quite swell. I just want to meet Geisha's husband and then we'll move forward from there. 
West called us up the other day.  Turns out he had surgery again, and I guess he just wanted to see us.  I'm not sure what his status is, but he wants to start over in the lessons because his faith just isn't there anymore.  Maybe this will be good to really get a solid foundation.  I'm glad he called, I missed him!
We taught Keegen (Jenny's son, Tia's brother) again this week! He's 9 and is really quite smart.  Haha so he wanted another lego lesson, but then he got minecraft (a lego video game) for Christmas, so he made this huge church with a baptismal font and everything! I can't wait for him to be baptized (: We just taught him about prayer and Jesus Christ.  Gotta start with the basics!
We had a great stake conference this weekend! Always a good time.  We got permission to go to the adult session, but we only got there for the last talk, which was about ward councils and how to build up the ward.  I'll write later about why we were late (: the sunday session was really good though.  The stake presidency was changed, so Elder Soares from the presidency of the 70 was there.  He basically gave a recap of President Monson's talk from this past general conference, but he talked so much about studying the scriptures that he didn't have time to talk about the other two points haha. He told a story of how he and his family went on vacation, and because they had recently studied about keeping the sabbath day holy, they needed to go to church on sunday.  They did, and they met this guy who was later able to take them to the hospital to help with a miscarriage.  Moral of the story: Study the scriptures diligently, act on what you read, and keep the sabbath day holy! It was cool that I was able to relate because of my testimony of not playing soccer on sundays.  I hope that story comes in handy one of these days..
The Deals, the family's whose house I skyped at for Christmas, called us sunday morning.   Of course, the one time they decide to go to church, it's stake conference! Hahah oh goodness.  Hopefully they'll make it next week.

                                               Look at Seth go! and Shira's poor car :( 
Okay, so why we were late to stake conference on saturday.  We were actually in a car wreck.  No worries, everyone was fine, we were all just a little flustered.  It totally wasn't our fault, we were just driving down the interstate (Shira was driving), and someone decided to pull out of a gas station without looking. We were probably going to plummet to our death and roll off the side of the road into the trees (all the roads here have huge ditches on either side.. don't ask me why) but I'm guessing it was an angel that steered our car back on the road because Shira said that the steering wheel wouldn't turn once we were hit. What a miracle though. It flattened the tire, and neither door on the passenger side open, but luckily that's all the damage that was done.  I found myself very grateful after everything that happened.  I'm grateful that everyone was okay, and that the car was still drivable.  I'm grateful for Seth, who works at a car place right across the street, and who stayed late that night and was able to change our tire.  I'm grateful for the gas station worker, who already knew the guy and where he lives, because it was a hit and run.  I'm grateful for Bishop Allred and Brother Governo who came to the rescue even when we didn't totally need them, but they still came. I'm grateful that Shira's kids weren't in the car at the time.  I'm grateful that we were still able to listen to 30 minutes of the adult session.  I'm grateful that our phone was charged and working so I could call 911 for the first time. 
Even when I could have been mad that the witnesses all said the driver got out, checked to see if his car was okay, then drove away, and that a woman came back and claimed that it was her driving, I'm not. There's just no reason to be mad when I know that Heavenly Father's hand was there with us the whole time. I'm thankful to be a missionary and so close to my Savior.  I'm thankful for the restored gospel, and the peace and happiness it's brought me.  I'm thankful for the few people who opened their doors to us this week, and actually wanted to learn more about the gospel.  I'm learning every day to enjoy the tender mercies from the Lord.

Love, Sister Facer

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