Happy Monday everyone, welcome back to my weekly. I pray y’all are doing well and that y’all had an awesome Thanksgiving. It was a slow week overall I think because of the holidays. Only 3 member dinners and not a whole lot of people wanting to respond to us online either.
We started the week with fishing on pday which is always a good idea. We got skunked (didn’t catch anything) except for this little tiny catfish I caught by the shore. But it was still good to be out in nature. Fishing is so relaxing. We also went hiking as a zone! A.K.A. walking through the woods and getting off the trail and getting hundreds of burrs all over your clothing… It was SUPER FUN!☺️😑 But it actually was haha, we all had a great time. Something about fresh air is just super nice.
We had our first Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night at a members home and it was scrumptious😋 I got so so full! We had quite the adventure coming home though because it was already way dark and it was raining sooooo hard. I am the driver and it was maybe the scariest thing I have done on my mission so far. I’ve driven in lots of storms before, but never this bad. There were several moments I couldn’t see anything. God was definitely protecting us.
One night this week we didn’t have any members feeding us, so we were left to our own devices😂 We usually eat pretty well actually, but this specific evening we thought we would throw together all the food items in our freezer, fridge and pantry that we never ate and make one big dish! BIIIIIIG mistake!! So we had spam, pickles, oatmeal, a frozen Hungry Man steak dinner (including mashed potatoes, green beans, steak and gravy) and a can of baked beans! Yummmmm…. soooooooo that got thrown away REAL fast😂 But, we did try it! All I gotta say is that I am grateful for member meals!
Thanksgiving itself was a really great day! So my companion really loves running, and I am not a huge fan if I am being totally honest. I am not good at it and it hurts me so I don’t exactly see the appeal. But some other missionaries asked us if we wanted to take part in a Thanksgiving 5K fun run, and we said yes! Going in, my intention was to just walk the whole thing and I was perfectly okay with that. But when we got there, I decided I would try to run it. My poor companion would have to stay with me the whole time, and I wanted her to be able to run because she loves it so much. So that’s what we did! She tried to convince me it was not a huge deal and we didn’t need to run and blah blah blah…. but goshdangit! I was gonna try!!
I’m proud to say that I took only a few walking breaks, but ran just about all of it and even sprinted the last 150-200 yards to the finish line! Myself, my companion and 3 other Elders finished with a time just over 34 minutes and I felt FANTASTIC! Well, I felt super duper dead and had to actually lay down for a minute or so right after I crossed the finish line, but it felt so good! It felt good for a couple of reasons I think. 1. That was my first ever 5K! I was proud to have finished it! 2. I actually ran for most of it! It hurt. I wont lie. But I pushed through it and kept going. 3. I was really really nervous to do it… BUT I DID IT ANYWAY!
I think there are lots of things in our life that we are very much capable of doing but we choose not to do because we are scared of it. We shut down, we convince ourselves we couldn’t actually do it if we tried. I’m guilty of doing this. I think we all are. But I didn’t let it stop me and it felt way good.
I think there is a valuable lesson in that. God gives us strength to do the things we don’t think we can. All we have to do is DO IT! I was reading in Mosiah chapter 4 this week and this verse caught my attention. In this case, it is referring to the commandments and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but King Benjamin says..”… if you believe all these things, see that ye do them.” We know the commandments. We know what is right. Do we believe that keeping the commandments will bless us? I know I do. So if I believe that living in this certain way is going to bring me the most happiness I must “see that I do them”. Do those things you know to be right, even if you’re scared or don’t think you can. God will help you. Just do it #nike😂 You will be blessed, I know that’s true!
I hope y’all had an awesome thanksgiving and that you have a fantastic week! I love each of you so so much!
Scripture of the week: Mosiah 4:9-10
Get Busy, Get Lost!-Sister OldhamÂ