Monday, June 22, 2015

One stinkin' whole year! 6/22/2015

Hello people that I love oh, so much!!

This week has been a really great one for me and Sister Hallam.  I am having a blast training Sister Hallam, she is so amazing. She has no fear. Sometimes I feel like she is training me!! Well, this week had brought a lot of reflection...I can't believe its been a year. I still feel like a new missionary at times. I was reading through my journal from when I was in the MTC and it was cool to see how much I have grown though. It sounds cliche but a mission has been the best thing that I could ever do for myself. Its been the best thing for my life. Before the mission I felt like I knew the gospel and I believed it but I didn't really KNOW it was true. It was a good thought and it brought me happiness and hope. On my mission I feel that I have truly come to know of its truthfulness and it is wound into every fiber of my being! I am SO grateful.

I was studying the Plan of Salvation this week and pondering upon the Fall of Adam and Eve. The Fall has always been a hard one for me to fully understand...As I sat there pondering and going through everything that made sense I came to the Fall again and I asked Heavenly Father if he would just help me understand it...to help me feel in the missing peice. And the thought came to my mind clear as day.."They had to sin to be kicked out of God's Presence." And as I continued pondering it finally occurred to me that the only way we could become like Heavenly Father and live with him again was by coming to earth. Heavenly Father wasn't going to just kick us out of Heaven. He couldnt' because we were clean...Adam and Eve had to have a choice. But its that choice that allowed us to come to earth and to progress. Moses 1:39- His work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. That is his only purpose! For us to be like Him and live with Him forever. And the only way we could learn here on earth was be having weaknesses and making mistakes..its a part of life. Thats why Jesus Christ is everything...without Him and without his example to follow we would be completely lost..doomed to misery forever...Oh how grateful I am for my Savior. He is my redeemer. And I know it! I want to be like Him and I want to be the best I can be so that I can return to live with Heavenly Father and continue to progress so I can one day be like Him. Our purpose here is to find joy but also help others to find that joy as well....It all just clicked for me yesterday. Sorry for my rambling but I hope something I said will help someone who's reading this. Yesterday we talked to a young man who said he believed in Science, he said that he found comfort in knowing that he didn't have a purpose in this life..that we as humans weren't really that significant..that we were just part of the science of the earth and when we die we will just decompose and basically just die forever...as He was telling me this my heart was just breaking inside. I respect his beliefs and am in no way criticizing them but it made me very grateful for the knowledge I have. I know that I have a purpose here on Earth, I know that I truly will live forever, and I know that I am a big deal to the man upstairs and that he knows me personally and not just me but everyone that has ever lived, living, or that will live. He loves us, we are His everything!

So in other news...The Lord blessed us with 4 new people to teach about the only true church on the face of the earth! :) Mr. Oliver who we found through tracting...we were walking up his driveway as he was pulling in to his house...so an awkward situation turned into a good one as he let us teach him the restoration and agreed have us come back! SIster Hallam did amazing..she taught him like she had been doing it for years. I love her. We also started teaching our neighbor who lives in the building next to us. She is so sweet! She took us to this cute cafe and we sat outside and taught her. She told us that she stayed at a Marriott a couple of years ago and found Book of Mormon (surprise!) so she took it and started reading it. Well when we invited her to learn she wanted to learn more and how to read the book! So we are going to start reading with her..she is so amazing, I already love her! We met with Mrs Crawford finally this week...we have been trying since the first time we met her 2 weeks ago...She is the one who was having problems with her old pastor. Well we taught her the restoration and she seemed to really be interested. She told us that about 10 years ago when she was switching between churches she prayed that someone would just show up on her door step...well here we are 10 years later! Talk about TIMING. It's always in his timing. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and we talked to her yesterday and found out that she already ordered a book to help her better understand what she is reading. She is really prepared, its amazing to see. And then Sandy, we don't know her all too well yet but she fed us dinner last night. We will teach her again next weeek! Aww blessings come when you have faith. Me and Sister Hallam have been trying so hard to be obedient and just do everything we can to find people to teach...the Lord has sure blessed us.

Well that's all for this week....I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us. He knows us perfectly. And I know that if we rely on Jesus Christ and truly live His gospel we will be so happy and we will one day be with our families forever with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the love and support this far on my Jesus Journey. Have a great week and share the gospel!!! 

Love, Sister Innes

"One year celebration at Olive Garden"

The view from our back patio 

Sis Hallam makes me really good food!


District lunch with our STLS

New missionary and trainers meeting

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