Honestly, it was a crazy week!
This week we had lots and lots to do, with no time to rest! Which is how it's supposed to be!! As I've said for awhile now, I can rest in 2022 lol.
Mt. Dew, cause it was my birthday and I needed to party hard
So, as I said last week, I went to a leadership conference down in Pocatello where Shane Littlefield was the presenter. He discussed different approaches for how to do missionary work and, honestly, he instilled a new fire in me! I'm so excited to implement the things he taught. One of those big things was being consecrated. He said that there is a difference between being obedient and being consecrated. Consecration requires obedience, but those who are obedient aren't always consecrated. So, he told a story of an AP he had while he was a mission president that talked about how he wanted to be more consecrated, so he gave up basketball. The mission president was confused and said, "You don't have to do that, basketball is not at all disobedient!" and the AP said, "I know, but the basketball game we play as a zone every week is super fun for me and I think about it all week. Because I'm thinking about that, my mind isn't 110% focused on the Lord." THAT'S the difference. I am an obedient missionary, but I decided this week that I would work on being more consecrated. Me and Sister Hyde came up with a plan and went through with it. And now, this week, we have seen so many blessings! I know that it's because of our goal and desire to be more consecrated.
So, this week, the other ZL's, my STL comp and I, got to teach what we learned last week to our whole zone. It was a lot of fun! We got to present all of these points and share how the work we put in this week was helping our work as missionaries, and we helped motivate them to do the same. It was really great! I even got to sing a solo song at the end (p.s. I honestly take Elder Pitcher's talent for granted... we hadn't practiced the song even once before we performed, and he had never actually played it... he just kind of listened to it, and then we performed it... when he goes, who's gonna accompany me lol?). It was awesome! Zone Council was a success, and it was awesome to be able to give a training at it!
This week, I also got to go on an exchange with Sister Tyler, a missionary serving in Kimberly right now. It was fun to spend the day with her! Funny story: That morning, I had pulled out a granola bar to eat for breakfast, and she mentioned that she has a really severe allergy to nuts and so I had to wipe down our table, throw out the granola bar and brush my teeth so I didn't give my companion an allergic reaction! It was wild lol, but luckily everything was okay haha.
We were able to take the next big step with our branch this week! We now have 2nd hour classes!!! We had a cute little primary singing time with all our favorite kids, a youth class with a couple youth in attendance, and an adult Sunday school class where people participated and had a lot of fun! It was so cool.
Primary for Swahili Branch!!!😄
The cutest kids ever after we taught the plan of salvation!
The branch is still mostly investigators, which was cool because we filled three full classes for people to go to, even though they weren't members yet!!! We got really good feedback from everyone and it was amazing! Also, for Sacrament meeting this week, our translator was sick, so... guess who translated? That's right! Me! It was really cool though! I sat at the front of the chapel with my fancy microphone and stuff, and then I spoke Swahili words into the microphone for everyone to listen to on their headphones. Normally, the meeting is entirely in Swahili, but because so many of the people who actually speak were sick, and it was a fast and testimony meeting, I just translated whatever parts of it were in English into Swahili. I had a lot of fun and it really tested my language skills. General conference, here I come!
Now a kind of funny story from this week. There was someone we had been teaching who was really interested! He asked really good questions and like when we came over. But, this last visit was a different story. He listened to our lesson and then proceeded to try and convince us we were wrong and that what we believe was stupid. He kept trying to catch us in our words, and wouldn't let us talk at all. Finally, my companion jumped into the conversation, taught a fire principle about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we both said we had to leave. He proceeded to say, "We're not done here," and we just looked at him, said, "Yes, we are," and left. Honestly, wild experience. We knew we needed to leave, and we were bold in that thought by telling him that. Crazy.
Spiritual thought for this week!
I was reading the Restoration Proclamation given last year at General Conference. I forget how good it is! As I read it, I marked anything that related to the five lessons we teach as missionaries. I read through it five times and marked each time a different lesson. All five lessons were present! The proclamation is so beautiful in it's wording and in its testimony that Christ lives, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us, and that God still speaks to his children today. I can testify that no matter what is thrown at me to make my testimony weak, it will not prevail because I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon and what Joseph Smith experienced in the 1800's happened. It's real. It's true. "I knew it, I knew God knew it, and I could not deny it". - Joseph Smith
Well, that's about it for me this week! I hope you all are doing well and that everything is going fine and dandy! Nakupenda kabisa sana, na ninyi ni moyoni wangu daima!
Check out the blog! www.sistersydneycopeland.blogspot.com
Pictures of the Week
African party, (honestly when am I not at an African party?)
Phui, long story short he got stuck in New York on his way to Africa and needed a friend
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