MARCH 12th

Oh my goodness. I want to send you what I sent my mission president. (Normally I write you first but I needed time to process what you had sent me.)


Dear President,


I'm writing you first today because I need a little time to process what my mom sent me. I have been greatly humbled and motivated by her words. I'm sure you probably heard about the tornadoes that hit Indiana. They hit two towns in my home branch the hardest and killed somewhere to 30 people. In my mind I thought, "I should be really concerned about this. This should be really worrying me. My family hasn't emailed me and I don't know what is going on!" But in my heart, I felt peace. I felt calm. The Lord has everything under control and He always will. It was one of those moments where I just knew that my family would be okay. I feel very blessed right now to be serving a mission at this time. I know that because of my service and my family's righteousness, they were preserved through the storm. It's like a modern Book of Mormon story!


This first week with Sister Shaver has been interesting. Between tightening up loose screws and having appointments drop like crazy, we have been working hard to move this work along. The single's ward is booming! The family ward is...being worked on. Sister Shaver is a great missionary already! I have almost forgotten how new she really is. She has no problem taking the lead in discussions and her teaching skill is way advanced. Whatever they are doing in the MTC, I wish I could have gotten some! We have been focusing a lot on getting our investigators to keep progressing. Sister Shaver has this gift of teaching simply and clearly. She knows how to follow the Spirit in her teaching. I have no reason to boast in my training skills because she came that way! It is so fun to watch her grow and progress! It's even better when people ask her how long she's been out and she counts days instead of months. We get a lot of wide-eyes from that.


Kristian has already set his baptismal time. He is so excited to be baptized that he just can't contain himself. He texts us all the time with questions that show true conversion. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has blessed us both with such a genuine investigator.


I have found a powerful theme in the mission. I'm calling it, Don't Take It For Granted! It stands for not only my time as a missionary, but the gospel as a whole. As a born and raised member of the church, I have come to realize how much I have taken the gospel for granted. I feel like I have truly converted more deeply to the gospel of Jesus Christ and now I want to never lose it! Whenever I teach, I find myself repeating over and over to not take this message for granted. This truly is a great plain and precious truth we have in our lives!


I am counting myself really fortunate that I and my family (branch family included) are being obedient to the commandments of God. That is the only reason, I can see, that would preserve us from those disasters.


I am short on time so I have to go. I love you!


Love,


Sister Shavonne Fielding