Week 45, 8/16/2021

WAAAIIIITTT WHAAAAT?!

Gator-love is religion out here!

That was the basic mood for the whole week...let me tell you it was a WILD week.

First of all: I'm getting transferred! I was only in Mandarin 1st for 6 weeks and I'm really sad about it. 😭 I was so spoiled here: we have the nicest apartment in the mission, with a huge gym (not like that matters or anything 😉lol) there's so many amazing families here, and our guy Eddie and his friend Ken are well on their way to being baptized.  I seem to have a pattern in my mission: find and teach people...but leave right before they get baptized :/ Anyway I just really love it here!  Sister Horn and I just found our groove, and I JUST got the hang of being a technology specialist. I guess I loved it too much and I was a little too comfortable because I'm going somewhere where there is sure to be some challenges.  

I'm getting transferred to Gainesville Florida covering a family ward and a YSA ward, training a new missionary, I'll be a Sister Training Leader, and we're whitewashing.  (that means we're both new to the area, replacing the old missionaries) Soooo I'm feeling a little nervous. But honestly that's what a mission is all about!  It's about the challenges, and constantly getting pushed beyond your comfort zone.  I'll go where Heavenly Father needs me to go...but I can't help but still be a little disappointed that I didn't get to spend more time in Jacksonville. 

So that was transfer calls!  Sister Horn has already been in this area for two transfers so we thought she would leave and I would stay... NOPE! She's staying, we were so surprised!  Anyway now on to the rest of the craziness of this week.

On Tuesday we had a ton of awesome plans: we were going to visit some members and do some service but it all got cancelled last minute so that left us sitting in our apartment frantically trying to come up with a new plan for the entire day.  That's when a member called us and asked us to immediately come over and help her neighbors move because they were getting evicted. We drove over there and were ready to help, but we quickly realized that the situation was a lot more intense then we thought.  There was lots of yelling, swearing, and crying.  A group of people were violently throwing furniture from this beautiful house onto the side of the road.  Apparently they found out they were getting evicted an hour earlier for reasons that we don't really know, but we did know that this family of 7 suddenly were without a home.  For majority of the day we helped move their belongings out of the house and needless to say, it was very sad. I also felt very strongly that was exactly where we were supposed to be.  We couldn't change the situation, we weren't going to start teaching them, we were just there simply to serve them and help them feel loved.  That's what being a follower of Jesus Christ is all about, helping those in need.  I don't know where they are staying now or how our service really impacted them, but I know that we were able to be there and help for a reason.  (Mosiah 2:17)

Saying Goodbye

Now that I've talked about loving others, I'm going to talk about Melissa.  We actually don't love Melissa lol.  We reached out to her because she was formerly taught by missionaries and she said that she would love to meet with us!  We were so excited!  Little did we know we were getting majorly set up.  Turns out she is a trained Bible basher and she is determined to destroy our church.  It was the worst Chipotle dinner ever. She came very prepared to tell us why there is no logical way the Book of Mormon could be true and how it contradicts the Bible, after dinner she kept texting us and sending us anti material to "read and go over before our next visit". 🙄 It was a complete waste of time.  But it actually strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon a lot.  All of her "evidence" that the Book of Mormon could not be true was ridiculous, and once we had read and addressed her concerns she then refused to actually read the Book of Mormon.  Sadly there is no way to logically prove the Book of Mormon is true, we can't shake Joseph Smiths hand and ask him about it or see the gold plates.  What we CAN do is read and study the book with real intent, and then pray and ask God if it is true.  Getting a spiritual witness is the only way to prove to yourself that it is true.  Once you have that, it's really easy to see through Satan's weak attack on the Book of Mormon.

I think it's good to be informed about what is said out there about our religion and to understand what peoples concerns are.  But if you ever have doubts about the Book of Mormon, don't go to the internet or people who hate the church for answers.  Go to reliable sources on lds.org or even better, ask God about them and I know he will answer you!

I have so much more to say but this is pretty much the longest email ever haha.  We had a great rest of the week filled with visits, pickleball, service, and yummy dinners :) and Eddie and Ken came to church yesterday!

I really have loved serving in Jacksonville, and I'm sad to go so soon but I know that I have work to do in Gainesville now.  I love this work so much!  I know that this is Christs church and the Book of Mormon is another testament of him and it is the keystone of our religion. Y'all should read it:)

Have an awesome week!  I'll be emailing you next week from Gator City so stay tuned! Love and miss y'all, if you made it this far then congrats you are a true homie.

-Sister Bonny❤