Monday, November 26, 2012

Gathering Israel


Hello friends and family!

Ok, so this week was AMAZING!!! It was also a little hard because of the holiday but I made it through! And that's thanks to the wonderful Thanksgiving that we had with Sister Beck (the Sister we live with) and 12 of us missionaries! But I will write about that in a minute...

First of all... Monday the 19th was a pretty good day! We did a lot of cleaning of our house for Thanksgiving and just had a very relaxing Pday. As much as I loved doing things with my Zone in Chino, it's also nice to relax and get some much needed things done around the house.

Then that evening, we went to the Edginton's for Family Home Evening. They invited us and Jack and Lori over! Jack is a member of the church but had been inactive since he was 17 years old and Lori is one of our investigators. The Edginton's are an amazing couple that invited us all over to have a lesson and to teach a little bit about prayer. And it was something that Lori really needed. The Spirit was very strong during the lesson and at the end, they showed a Mormon Messages video on us being children of Heavenly Father and it really helped Lori understand a little better. It was really cool. Those Mormon Messages are amazing things! I love watching them when I can! They really make the gospel better to understand!

Then Tuesday the 20th, as we were out visiting people.... Every road we went down (Lone Hill, Route 66, and Amelia), there were cops everywhere standing outside their cars with what we think were either semi-automatics or tranquilizers. We weren't really sure. But it was pretty scary! I just wanted to go home because I wasn't feeling safe. But we went to a members house and asked if they knew what was going on and they said that the Glendora police go all out when a really small thing happens because there isn't usually a lot of crime around here. So that made us feel a little better... But only a little... And then as we were driving down the road, we saw a helicopter circling the church and this housing development with a big spot light. So at that point we just figured that it's probably just a bear or something that was around. We ended up never finding out what the heck was up but we'll just say it was a bear because that makes me feel better :)

Then Thursday the 22nd, Thanksgiving! That was a good day! Like I said it was a little hard because it was the first major holiday that I wasn't with my family but it turned out pretty good. We got up early and did all of our studies and then went out to the kitchen to help Sister Beck prepare for our lunch. We spent the rest of the morning cooking and cleaning. And at 2pm, we had 12 missionaries over for lunch! It was just so relaxing and tons of fun! We sat and talked with one another and it felt like one big happy family Thanksgiving.

After lunch, a couple of the Elders played the piano and Sister Beck's husbands Trumpet for us and we all sang her a song to say thanks! And then after cleaning up this huge mess in the kitchen, we sat down to take a nap during our dinner hour, and at 5:45 pm, four of the Elders had come back to get some pie because they had to leave to another appointment. So after showing them their leftovers that we packed up for them (I never want to see  Turkey again LOL) we sat around and talked with Sister Beck and laughed and enjoyed time together. And we got another choir concert from some of the Elders. So that was a lot of fun! It was very relaxing and enjoyable!

Then Friday the 23rd was an AMAZING day! After our weekly planning, we drove to Arcadia for a mission wide conference. And guess who spoke at this conference??? Brad and Debi Wilcox! Yes, Sister Wilcox's parents! It was wonderful! I wish I could have had it on camera! I love Brad Wilcox! He makes everything so simple and understandable! And that's exactly what he did this time around! He talked about the gathering of Israel and what our job is in doing so. He said that we all know we are Children of our Heavenly Father and that we all know we were saved for this time but that's everyone on the earth, not just members of the church. So what is our purpose? He said that our purpose is to gather Israel! We are members of the church at this time for a reason. And I wish that I could explain it better but he had some of the missionaries come up and stand with signs with the names of Jacob's children to help us better understand where we come from and our purpose. It was just AMAZING!!!! I really wish I could explain it better but it's hard to explain over email. But if anyone has ever heard or read one of Brad's talks, you know it's amazing! And it was fun to be with all the missionaries in the mission and to see old friends! I loved it!

Then that night we went over to the Salisbury families for dinner and tree decorating! We had so much fun! I had so much fun! haha I really wanted to decorate a tree this year and when they asked us if we wanted to help them, I freaked out a little :) And Sister Salisbury said that she sent mom pictures so that's good because my camera was being weird all night.

And yeah, that's about all that happened this week! It was a good week. Kinda hard because so many people were out of town or they didn't want to talk because they had family over but it was good! And one of the best parts was when we went over the the Vanwyk's for service on Saturday and Sister Vanwyk had bought me Stroopwafles! OHMYGOSH!!! I was so happy :) haha

Well, gotta run write President! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Love you all!

Love, Sister Wheatley

No comments:

Post a Comment