I'm training!

July 28, 2014
Did you know in September I'll have one year of my mission left? I'll be a third of the way done! What?!?!?! 

Anyways. I have to make this clear, I am in Barbados. Not Trinidad! 

And I'm staying for (at least) one more transfer! President Mehr called us on Saturday and I answered. He asked how we were and everything and then he told me that I would be training! Ah! This actually wasn't that surprising. The Elders have been telling me since my second transfer that I would be training just now. President Mehr read my companions name and I would not be able to replete it back. I asked where she was from and he said the pacific. I later found out that she was from Hawaii! She's an islander! It's going to be great to be training! I'm so excited! 

Random Sister Feltis lesson quote: "Come as you are". Yes, I quote Nirvana when people ask what they should wear to church. I am waiting for the day when someone gets it. 

During Zone conference a few weeks ago one of the other sisters (Sister Kime) talked about (and this is from C.S. Lewis by the way) how we are a little cottage and Heavenly Father wants to make us into a mansion but in order to do that he has to tear us down so he can build us up. We aren't usually willing to be torn down because we can't see the bigger picture! I talk with Sister Cragun (my companion who is going home on Tuesday!) a lot about how the biggest blessing about being a missionary is the eternal perspective you have. Whenever someone rejects our message or isn't progressing we get so so frustrated because we see how much it can bless them! I'm reading through D&C with the church manual (all of the church manuals are inspired by the way) and the other day I read sections 39-40. They're about this random guy named James Covel who was a Methodist minister for 40 years! 40 years! He heard the restoration and knew it was true and that Christs church had been restored. He went to Joseph Smith and asked him to ask the Lord what he should do. The Lord answered and told him that "...IF thou wilt hearken to my voice...and IF thou do this..." (verses 10-11 emphasis added) then he would give him "a blessing so great as you never have known". It was all up to him if he was going to get a blessing SO GREAT. It was an "iffy blessing". If he did it then he would be rewarded. But that "if" included giving up his ministry. The Lord had to tear him down to make him into a mansion. Section 40 says that James Covel "received the work with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word" (verse 2). The Lord was going to give him the GREATEST blessing but he wouldn't allow himself to be torn down to be built back up. It's sad to see all of the prideful people who won't even think about giving things of the world up to come closer to Christ. But we all have our agency and at the end of the day we have to work out our own salvation. It's amazing how much more of the gospel "clicks" in your head when you are studying and reading by the Spirit. This gospel is true and we can be made into the person our Heavenly Father needs us to be to bless those around us but we need to hearken to his voice and do the things he asks of us. If we put our salvation in his hands then we won't fail.