MAY 7th

This week has been a crazy one. I am relearning the long worn out call to "Forget yourself and go to work." This past week I was worrying and obsessing over my little imperfections and problems. I wanted to be perfect so that I might teach our investigators perfectly. Little did I know, that Heavenly Father wasn't asking for immediate perfection. He was asking for immediate improvement. I can't move a mountain if I'm lifting more than I can carry. So with that in mind, I'm reevaluating the use of my study time and personal pondering so that I may be a more effective/efficient servant of the Lord. It's amazing what happens when you focus all your energy to receiving revelation for those you love.

A funny thing happened this week. We had to drop two of our investigators because they simply were not progressing toward covenant making/keeping. This was probably one of the saddest days of my whole mission. I love these two people so much! What made it funny was that they were BIOLA grads. Now, in this area, when you hear BIOLA it usually is followed by a repulsed look or a clenching feeling in your gut. But these two people taught me more about loving your "enemy" than any other study of love I have done. They are my friends. I will miss them terribly. We exchanged information so that we can keep in touch after I am released. Who knew I could learn to love these people as much as I do!

Our investigator, Luis, dumped out all of his alcohol this week. That was quite the experience. We were trying to explain the importance of getting rid of the temptation. He didn't actually do it until his girlfriend, Sarah, bore her testimony to him.

Then we taught him about the importance of the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. He kept giving us a hard time about it. What finally touched his heart was when we all bore our sincere heartfelt testimony about the love our Father in Heaven has for those who keep the Sabbath Day holy. That was intense.

We haven't hammered out an exact time to call on Sunday yet...so for now I'm going to say keep the line open between 1 and 3:00 p.m. I hope that will work for you!

Love,

Sister Fielding