Primary are the elect of God

One of the highlights of the week for me was teaching the sharing time in primary. Who are the elect of God? The primary kids! They are fantastic. They are excited, they want to be good, they want to have fun, and they want to be kind. They accept the gospel with all their hearts. If only we had their enthusiasm and joy, imagine what we could do in our callings!

German rebuke

Also, we had the German elders pretend to rebuke us in German during "call in". It sounded like the Nazis were coming. It was hilarious.

Well God is obviously good.

I love you guys!

Double duty and hanging with me cousin....

Anyway, I am now covering two areas! Sister Rose of Banbury is now sharing Solihull with us, and we are sharing Banbury with her. Her companion finished her mission a week into the transfer, and there are no extra sisters until the upcoming transfer. I suppose it's part of my priesthood duties to cover two areas, and it's truly an honor that I enjoy as an APW. We call our area, Solbury. It sounds better and more convincing than Banihull. The exciting thing is that on Sunday I got to go to Banbury ward where I sat by me cousin Bradley Stewart, his wifey, and their daughter Ava in sacrament meeting. (Jessica is expecting a baby boy on Tuesday!) Then Bradley stood up to give a talk in sacrament. Then he taught the Gospel Principles class as part of his duty for ward mission leader. (He also used me for the object lesson where I was handcuffed and he told a pretty good story about one of his brothers - whose name will not be mentioned - got arrested and got his license taken away for six months for speeding. bahaha) Then I went to the temple prep class with Bradley and Jessica. Then we had missionary coordination with Bradley. HOW COOOL’S THAT?

On a side note...

I gave an old woman a hug and knocked her tooth out. Whoops.

Sometimes God tips you upside down

Isn’t it weird that sometimes what you think is the best thing for you, turns out to be the worst thing for you and how sometimes what you think is the worst thing for you, turns out to be the best thing for you. The experiences we need to shape us into capable servants of the Lord aren't easy or fun, but they are necessary. To make the changes we need to be better, we actually have to change and that requires doing things differently than how you've done them in the past. Sometimes it requires God to tip you upside down so that you can see the world in a different way and when you find yourself right side up again, you're grateful for the perspective. Besides, the worst experiences make the best stories. If the pioneers had a nice little trot out to the west, well for one thing, we wouldn't have half of the heart-wrenching melodramatic church films that we do today, and we wouldn't think much of sacrifice in the Kingdom either. I hate missionary work just as much as I love missionary work! and that's as truthful as I can be with you! But I am forever indebted to Him who called me and to Him who has been shaping me and teaching me, and for that, has been saving my life.

LOVE!

Madie

So what do you do for two days when your companion is sick like a dog?

*Call people

*Update the area book

*Watch Preach My Gospel DVDs on the new portable DVD players that they gave us!

*Read 100 pages of Jesus the Christ

*Make outrageous journal entries

*Draw weird pictures

*Get really excited when anyone calls and feel slightly pathetic that you can't handle not talking to anyone for more than a few hours.

*Make cupcakes

*Think about which skirt you would like to burn the most and where you would do it.

*Contemplate

*Realize that you've contemplated so much that it's now a state of mind and hope that someone calls you soon.

*Rejoice when AP Magpantay calls to ask a question!

*Fall asleep early.... out of exhaustion!

"Neato"

Ah yes, just two more transfers to go, and not enough time to pull out all the stops! I was going to decorate my planner with the Concords that Brother Wills printed out for Sister Whitaker and I, after finding out that we knew almost nothing about the magnificent aircrafts, but I thought that might look a little too trunky. Instead, I have the Concords on my desk (that oddly enough remind me of one of my favorite bands/tv shows...flight of the....) and in their stead, have stuck motivational stickers on every day of my planner. Who can have a bad day when you open up to Monday and see "YES!" or Tues to see "Nice work" or Wed to see...." awesome!" and "well done"? Man, positive mental attitude all the way. I gave the "neato" sticker away to our German District Leader since he didn't know what that word was. It's a sad day when they stop teaching the word “neato”. What has the world come to? Honestly, das ist nicht gut!! Anyway, part of the reason the motivation was needed was to combat the bad moods that have been bouncing off my companera and I as of late. But no sireeeee, no bad moods anymore! I'm sick of them! A good mood is my new bad mood. One off week and one lame week and now the spirit is happy, and so are we.

At any rate, things are going well as far as my APW (Assistant to the President's Wife) duties go. I can mix and bake and make frosting for cupcakes and do my hair and pick out sweet outfits all before personal study! Bam! Yes indeed, I'll make a good wife one day.

So our zone set a goal to double the number of baptismal dates in the zone from 10 to 20 this transfer. Well, they asked if we thought we could do it and I was skeptical. I've had experiences in the past of setting goals for numbers in the zone that completely flopped and I was left thinking, "what the heck man? That wasn't cool!" So, once at district meeting, our zone leader asked me how I felt about it, and I said that if they had prayed about it, and that's what they got, then we could do it. I was still skeptical, so I decided I needed to pray about it. As I did so, I had a wonderful feeling, and felt the spirit confirm that it was a good goal. Last night was Sunday, and the last week of the transfer, and after all the numbers had been called in we got a voicemail from the zone leaders, "22! We’ve got 22!" How cools that?

I LOVE YOU

Seeeester Pope