January 25, 2016

HELLO EVERYONE!!! So it's been another awesome week and today I'm actually going downtown so this might be a little shorter... Sorry! 

MISSIONARY BROADCAST: AHHHH it was amazing!! Something that I really liked that Bishop Waddell talked about was the importance of being bold in teaching. It really shows our confidence and our faith in what we're teaching. I think at the beginning of my mission I was scared to offend people so I was a little casual with commitments but I've gotten better at that. One time I read this talk about being a consecrated missionary where it said, "missionaries are often too scared to offend people and in the process they forget to save them." Ah - I didn't want to do that. Anyways, I'm pretty bold these days because I know more than ever that it's all true!!!

Another part that I loved from the broadcast was when Elder Anderson was talking about keeping Christ on our lips. “Wherever you are—in a bus, on the street, in a teaching situation, or in a home with a member, if you are ever unsure of what to say, speak of the Savior. Testify of Him. Speak of His doctrine, of faith in Him and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This is your purpose. This is your charge.” I love it. It's so simple. The whole meeting was amazing! And I've loved reading my notes from it. I totally received revelation for what I need to work on - it was great!

SKILLS AND INTERVIEWS: I get more obsessed with President and Sister Clayton every time I see them. I'm pretty sure I got called to the CTM because of them. So at Skills and Interviews we gather together as a zone and are instructed by our zone leaders. One by one we leave the meeting and first meet with Sister Clayton. She was telling me how sad she was that my time was almost up but then she promised that we would stay in touch. That was way comforting to hear! I always feel so comfortable around her and I feel her love for me so strong! She's such an amazing example to me of supporting a husband in his calling. Wow - they are just the best team ever! We were supposed to share something we learned from PMG the previous week but we got distracted talking about other things. HA. My interview with President was AMAZING! Well, it was a little awkward when I started crying when I said how much I love him and Sister Clayton, but whatever! He gave me some great advice for things I can do to end strong! And then he said some really nice things to me! Ah man. It made me feel so good. They're amazing. Something interesting... President said something like you can tell a good mission president by his missionaries grand kids righteousness. Cool, right? I committed to him to raise a righteous family!  When I was leaving President he was like, "Can't wait to hug you in 2017 Sister." Ha. I promised him that I would be at their homecoming, so all is well! Sister Davis thinks it's hilarious how obsessed I am with them. I talk about them all the time. And I have their picture hung above my desk. HA.

NINO: Member referrals are seriously the best. We've been meeting with an older couple in the ward who are awesome!! They both have strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon but due to heath issues they are unable to come to church. BUT their son is living with them and he isn't a member. We were at their house and I invited him to join in on our lesson. We were so surprised and happy when he said yes! The lesson went so well and he had such great questions about how Mormons are different from Catholics. We taught the Restoration and he committed to begin reading the Book of Mormon!! The Elders went over last night to take the Sacrament to the couple and said that Nino had been reading the Book of Mormon!! YAHOO. Investigators who keep commitments are totally preparing to make covenants! We'll invite him to be baptized this week! YAY! 

SERVICE: We did some service the other day at a food drive and it was actually way fun!! We worked with a bunch of older people who love doing service! So touching. They talked about how much joy they felt from serving others. None of them were mormons but it made me think about how many good people their are in the world. Well we definitely talked about the Gospel and invited them to learn more and they weren't interested but that's OK we tried. One day they'll be baptized! :)

FAITH IS NOT BY CHANCE, BUT BY CHOICE: It's a talk by Elder Anderson and it's so good! He shares a story about a family who died in an accident and left behind 3 kids. One of the kids was on a mission and Elder Anderson called him to tell him the sad news. The missionary had so much faith and stayed so strong throughout the whole situation. While I was reading the talk I totally started crying. I realize more and more every day how much I love my family!! OH MY GOODNESS! I'm so grateful that the priesthood has been restored and that our family is sealed together by that power. WE ARE SO BLESSED!!! Anyways, I love you all and I'm so grateful that you've all stayed safe and righteous while I've been gone! Thanks for being so amazing! 

REFERRALS: Sister Davis and I LOVE asking for referrals and the ward members are so good to give them to us! :) At the end of last week we contacted 10 referrals and we have 8 more received that we need to contact! YAHOO! OH - this next Sunday I get to give a 10 min talk about missionary work! I can't wait, I'm so excited! I think I'm going to share powerful experiences that I've had in my mission where members and missionaries have partnered together to see miracles! Hopefully they will feel the joy of missionary work and be more motivated to be more involved! :)

OK, I love you all so much! And I can't wait to see you soon. In like 1 month! W-what!? Thanks for being so great! Stay strong! 

Sister Dayton