Hope On, Journey On-June 3, 2013

Hey everyone!!
It's been an awesome week, i cant believe how fast time is flying!!
It's so crazy but i'm loving it. So transfers are this week and I will
be staying put in Charlottesville which means i will officially be
serving in the Virginia, Richmond Mission :) :) .... BUT... I will be
training a brand new fresh off the plane greenie. Yikes. Haha I hope
president knows what he is doing since I still have 6 weeks left of
greenie in me haha but it will be great! My companion Sis. Tanner and
I will be training together so i'm not alone. Thank the heavens. But
bless this poor new girls heart. I hope she doesn't freak when she
finds out her trainer has only been out six weeks. Haha oh man.... i'm
so nervous, but soo excited it's going to be awesome!!! The work is
going great here, still a little slow but we have a couple of awesome
progressing investigators. Jocelyn actually just called us this
morning and told us she wants to be baptized on June 15!!! HOLLLLA.
I'm soooo stoked for her!! She is BEYOND ready. She already acts like
she has been a member for years, but we get to make it official very
soon and its so exciting!!! I can't wait! We met with a new
investigator this week named Chris and he has also said he wants to be
baptized but is just praying about a date right now. He just really
understands that he needs to find out for himself if this church is
true or not. He understands that we are just his guides along the way
and we arent trying to convince him of anything. It's his job to find
out for himself and that is what he is doing and he is just so pumped
about the gospel and i'm just so excited for him. He is so refreshing
to teach cuz people get the wrong idea that we are just trying to
convince them and get them to believe that what we are saying is true.
But in reality i'm just here to help them discover for themselves and
help them gain a testimony of this church and how true and real it is.
I wouldnt ever want anyone to join the church just cuz i sounded
pretty convincing during the lessons. In Moroni 10:3-5 it says that if
we have the desire to know for ourselves and if we pray to our father
in heaven with a sincere heart and real intent then we can come to
know for ourselves if this church is true. We all have that agency to
act for ourselves and come to know for ourselves. This week i read a
conference talk by elder holland that talks about faith and holding on
to the faith and testimony that we do have no matter how big or how
small. what we know will always trumph what we don't know! i know that
is true and i know that if we hold onto the faith that we have during
trying or difficult moments that those moments and the leap of faith
that we take will allow it to grow! I know that when life gets crazy
and your just not sure how you are going to make it through that it's
so important to have the faith that whatever comes our way can be
examined and resolved. In elder hollands words "dont hyperventilate"
haha i could use some work on that one...since that's exactly what i
did when i found out i'd be training :) haha just jokkkin. anyway,
patience is something i have been really working on and thinking a lot
about. sometimes it is so hard to be patient with yourself and with
others.... but if you think about it imperfect people are all that God
has to deal with and if he can do it... then so can we! Well at least
we can try harder to be better at it. None of us are perfect and we
all are seeking for the same thing in this life. we all want to be
happy. we all want to live a good, secure and happy life. The end goal
is the same for most everyone. We are all on this journey together and
we are all trying to do our best. I know how important it is to strive
to be patient. Especially as a missionary, cuz all of us missionaries
have sacrificed so much to be out here, we all miss our families and
loved ones and we came here so that we could bring others closer to
christ. We all have the same goal and none of us want to fail so i
just know how important it is to be patient with others on this
journey and to be understanding toward them. This week we had a zone
meeting and the ap's, stake pres, and sister training leaders were all
there. Pretty intense. Ha but it was awesome and one thing that
someone talked about was having Christ as our main motivator. I know
that one of my biggest motivators our here on my mission is my family.
I want to make you all proud and i want to return home to you all with
honor. Although, that is a good motivator, Christ should be at the
center of my motivation and i should constantly be focusing on him and
i know that through him i can receive strength and motivation to do
the work. He has called me here to virginia and he needs me to BE
HERE. Every bit of me needs to be focused on the work and how i can
bring others closer to Christ. He has done so much for us and i know
that if we go throughout each day focusing on him and allowing him to
be our main motivator then each day can be filled with new and
uplifting experiences that we otherwise wouldn't do without our
motivation centered on Christ. I know how important that is! And i
know it isnt easy at all but i know that if that is what we strive to
seek then we will be blessed!! I'm so grateful to be here and so
excited for the work to move forward in Charlottesville, Virginia!
Love you all sooooo much!! XOXO

Macy Kate