Peaching and Preaching

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Another week here in Nampa! This week we were threwn for a loop and found out that the mission was changing how we were counting numbers. Sooo we had to start focusing on teaching a certain type of lesson and it meant that a lot of what we were doing doesn't count in our numbers. Long story short, we did a lot of things this week and were really hard a work, but when we told our leaders the numbers of what we did, it was pretty low. So that was disheartening. Buuuut, we're doing well and we know we were doing good things, so we're happy with our week.

As for exciting news for the week, we got permission and were able to go to the church orchards in Marsing this week! Our ward has their own row of peach trees (and probably more produce that I didn't hear about) that they have to take care of. So we went as a ward and us missionaries got to go too! It was really fun and really cool to see the view and everything. But the fruit isn't that big yet, it's just starting to grow. What we were doing was lightening the branches. We go through and take off a lot of the peaches to leave space between them. This will lighten the branches so that they grow bigger and better. And it'll decrease the chance that the branches will break off from weight. So we waste fruit to save the rest of the crop. Sound like a parable or something?

Other exciting news, we have this brand new investigator whose name is Nancy. She's 14. We met her family a few weeks ago, but we didn't get to teach her anything because she was out the door. But we went back and got to know her a little better and invited her to a ton of activities. And she actually came to sports night and had a good time. And then she was going to come to mutual but then they were just doing stuff for girls camp, so she didn't go. We went back later that night and told her all about girls camp and invited her to come. She wants to come and was really serious about it! And she told us about how she has a lot of friends who are members and is really interested in what we believe and going to activities. It was a really cool blessing to meet her and she has a really big desire to learn.

Speaking of activities, we also had a ward fireside/bonfire activity. We had a literal FIREside. It was really fun and us missionaries shared a message of Jesus Christ. Each companionship talked about a different aspect of the Atonement. The Atonement is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It includes His bleeding and suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion, and Resurrection. Those 3 parts. What Hna. Poblete and I talked about was how the Atonement lifts our burdens. The talk in General Conference by Elder Bednar about burdens helped a lot. In this life, we have to have some burdens and stresses and experiences to be able to grow and learn. We would be stagnant if we didn't go through hard things. We would never learn anything if we didn't have to test it out and try different things and stretch ourselves. With that said, the Atonement is there to help us in our burdens. Jesus Christ will make our burdens feel lighter. We will still have them, but they will be lighter because of the strength we receive from the Atonement and Heavenly Father's love for us. And through that divine help, we can make it through ANY trial or burden or experience we face on earth. That's pretty comforting to me.

Hope you all have a great week and I love you!

Con amor,

Hermana Shirley

1) The bonfire

2) Sometimes you just need a ice-cream-truck-treat. TMNT anyone?

3) Tried a new angle. Flattering, I know.

4) Nancy

5) Us all working on the last tree.

6) The view over the valley.