Even Enjoying the Slumps!
Well hey there!
This week has been a lot slower than last week. We only taught like half the lessons that we did last week, and a few other things seemed to get thrown at us this week. But I just am glad I am companions with Elder Stallings, because he is the type of guy that is willing to laugh about the unfortunate stuff with me and that makes it just work out a lot better. So although it might have seemed like we were in a slump sometimes, I felt like we were able to make the mood lighter somehow and laugh it off or pray it off!
Last Monday we had set up our coordination meeting for that night at his house instead of the church, because we haven't had one with our Branch Mission Leader for about 5 weeks now. But they had to cancel again. So that was disappointing, but the good thing was that we got to really deep clean our apartment that day!
Chrissy and Terry still have the date of April 5th for baptism, but its getting closer and we have had a few appointments cancel with them. Luckily we managed to see them both once this week. The lesson with Chrissy went really well. Brother Duffy was with us and we said a prayer beforehand to help us know how we could present this lesson of the Word of Wisdom in such a way that would help encourage her and commit her to stop smoking. When we taught the lesson, although their were a lot of distractions we taught with the spirit and she had already decided to stop this next Sunday (yesterday) and she agreed to have a blessing after church on Sunday too to help her. Well come Sunday she shows up at church and we went up smiling greeting her, asked how she was doing, and immediately she said, "I already gave in this morning." We held in our disappointment, and said that its okay, and to just try again and that we would still love to give her a blessing after church. We talked to her in Gospel Principles and she said today was "just one of those days" and was not feeling well. So that sucked! But we still got to give her a blessing. She asked me to give the blessing part, and what Heavenly Father told her was especially, "you can overcome this and you will be able to, but not unless you do what is asked, reading the scriptures, prayer sincerely, and really working at this." It is amazing to be the mouth piece for God's counsel to his children. Elder Stallings then gave Brother Doray (Chrissy's husband -returning member-) a powerful blessing and Heavenly Father clearly stated to him that he needs to be the rock for his family and needs and is able to overcome smoking as well. It was really crazy the feeling we both had after those 2 blessings. We had also participated in a blessing during Elder's quorum and after those blessing I turned to Elder Stallings and said, "You know how people describe how after using the priesthood it can be tiring? Well, I think I know what they mean now. I feel drained!" But what a wonderful opportunity it was. We went over to their home that same evening (last night) and taught Terry. We had plans to teach him Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom.....it was a possible the worst lesson ever! Andie was the absolute opposite of helpful; distracting in every way! Brother Doray tried to help get her and Terry to listen, but it was too much. Terry was messing around with every thing he could get his hands on, and their 2 dogs were just yapping their heads off and every other minute, one of them would yell the dogs name and tell them to "SHUT UP!" That only added to noise and interruptions. And somehow, we pushed through the lesson, and it really was forced because the spirit couldn't be there. We didn't even talk about it for 5 minutes after we got in the car we were both so frustrated and saddened about how it went. Once I got back home, I was praying about being stressed and Heavenly Father gave me everything I needed to feel better about it all! I know he is so aware of me and I am ready to tackle our new set of problems with a renewed enthusiasm! There is nothing better than being able know He answers your prayers!
We were supposed to see Cynthia, the lady we were helping with Family History, but she forgot and had to set it up for 2 weeks away because of doctor appointments she had this week. So that happened on Thursday, and for some reason NO ONE was home and ending up teaching NO ONE that day. Thats always pretty depressing! And to top it off the big tragedy of the week happened. We were pulling up our driveway that evening, and Elder Stallings swung the car around in front of our wooden steps to then back up into the stop we normally park, but when he thought he put the car in reverse it was still in drive when he quickly hit the gas and when FORWARD into the steps a few feet in front of us! We both freaked out! He backed up and we got out to see the damage. It cracked a foot-by-foot chunk of the bumper off and broke the stem of the window washer fluid pump going into the window washer fluid tank, so that all flowed out as we stood there shocked at what just happened. It was definitely still drivable and it didn't brake the headlight! So for now we are still able to drive just fine but we are going to have to bring it to a collision body repair shop as soon as we get the estimate approved. So yeah, Elder Stallings felt soooo bad especially because he hasn't ever hit anything since he starting driving. But like I said, even the hard things we were able to laugh off and so that night we were crying we were laughing so hard about each others reactions when it happened! We had done everything we could to fix the problem so we found it in ourselves to still laugh it off! We already have soooo many inside jokes, and it is pretty great! hahah
Anyway, like I have said, although bad things happen sometimes, we can get through them. Its like what my mission president told us in our last Zone Conference: "Make a list of all the things you can't control and then don't worry about them." Its so true, if there is something I can't control why let myself stress about it! I have enough to stress about with the things I can control! haha
So yeah, I know I supposed to be here and even though I have challenges, I am still supposed to enjoy life and I have the ability to CHOOSE whether I will be happy or not. I have the ability to CHOOSE to let things bother me or not! What a great gift God has given us! Use it well, and I know we will see the blessings!
I hope y'all have a wonderful week!
Love y'all! :)
-Elder Swalberg
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