Another Transfer!

It's transfer number seven! I can hardly believe it, and we're already about a week into it now. Goodness. You're probably wondering what I'm doing this transfer, so let me tell you. On the Monday before transfers (which is on Wednesday) we meet as a zone early in the morning and they read off our assignments. In my mind I thought I might be staying with Sister Imazeki perhaps as a district leader, or maybe I would train because there were 17 new sisters coming to the mission. Well, I'm not doing either of those. I'm a Zone Leader. The mission has a hierarchy which goes Mission President, Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders. I've only ever been a senior companion, and the only thing I've ever lead in my life is sacrament hymns and my beehive class. So this assignment was most definitely unexpected for me. It was almost as surprising as reading my mission call to Temple Square. I'm excited to get to know and serve all of the sisters in the North 1 zone (the zone that I've been assigned to). I don't know them all very well yet, but I can already tell that they're amazing missionaries already. There are six companionships in the North 1 zone (not including Sister Moore and I) and three of the sisters in this zone are in their first transfer. My companion is Sister Moore and she is the missionary that everyone wants to be companions with, so we're having lots of fun. Sister Moore is from Colorado and goes to BYU-I and she is an amazing missionary.

 

This morning, Sister Moore and I conducted a training for our zone. It was a different experience for me because I've never really done anything like that before, but I think it went well enough. The foundation for this training was Matt 11:28-30

 

28.  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
 

I love these verses, they are some of my favorite. We talked about how we need to rely on our Savior as missionaries and that we also need to teach people about how they can rely on the Savior. I have found this to be true. My mission has become much more meaningful to me as I have learned more about who Jesus Christ is and how I can rely on him. He set a perfect example for me and through Him I can have peace now and have the promise of living with my family for eternity. What a beautiful message it is that we share. I am so blessed to be able to serve a mission; Heavenly Father knew that I needed it.

 

This week they introduced cell phones into our mission. No more pagers! The best part about these cell phones is that we are going to be able to text our investigators. The idea is that we will send them short powerful texts (ten words or less) on a daily basis so that they can keep close to the Spirit. The doctrine of daily contacts is taught in the Book of Mormon (Alma 21:23):

 

23  And Ammon did preach unto the people of king Lamoni; and it came to pass that he did teach them all things concerning things pertaining to righteousness. And he did exhort them daily, with all diligence; and they gave heed unto his word, and they were zealous for keeping the commandments of God.
 

I'm excited to see how keeping in better contact with people will help them to be baptized. We had an entire training on this because we really need to be obedient with these cell phones; they can easily be misused, but also if they're used correctly then we will witness lots of miracles. (The cell phones are new, so we haven't really been able to use them much yet, I'll let you know how it goes)

 

This week I've been working on diligence because in 1 Nephi 10:19 it says "For he that diligently seeketh shall find..." and I'm taking that literally. I'm trying to be diligent so that I can find people that are ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. The real life application of being diligent here at Temple Square means that I call LOTS of people in the RC. Yesterday I called people for two or three hours and only one person picked up the phone. It wasn't the person that I was looking for, but she told me that her friend (the person I was looking to talk with) already has a church and wasn't interested in mine. Such is the life of a missionary, I guess. I'll keep calling, though. I know there is someone out there that is just waiting for me to share with them the restored gospel so they can have these same blessings that I'm privileged to.