Good Plans

I wish you could hear the thunder and the rain outside right now. The rain is pounding down and the thunder is booming. I think that's one of the things I'm going to miss most about the South, is the rainstorms. They make the ones in Utah seem pretty weak.

We have had a good week here, and it looks like we're going to be really busy this week as well. I'm glad, because it makes it easier to stay focused. Whenever we don't have a whole lot going on it makes it really easy to start thinking about how close December 10 is.  

We went on an exchange this week. Sister Earl came to Camden with me, and we had a lot of fun together. We had a lot of appointments, including teaching our Book of Mormon class. We had a good amount of people there and we got into a really good discussion. The topic was patience. After that we were able to see a part member family we taught a lot, but hadn't seen in a couple months. Since we've seen them the nonmember has finished the Book of Mormon. She loved it and wants us to start studying it more with her, so that she can understand it better.

One of the things that I've admired about all the missionaries I've served with who were about to end their missions was their determination to keep improving to the end. I've been trying to have that same attitude this transfer. And it's amazing how God is helping me to have opportunities to check my progress. And I'm seeing that I am still improving and there's still things I can work on. It reminds me of something Sister Titus said the last week of her mission, "We're never really done. And it's never too late to be the best missionary you can be." I love that the gospel is all about eternal progression and striving for perfection.

We also had a really good lesson with another part-member family this week. We taught them at his grandma's house, who is a very strong member of the church. We talked about who God is and our relationship with Him. Both of them said they feel like their relationship with God isn't as strong as they'd like it to be, so we committed them to pray together every day. I think they're starting to realize how much being a part of the church and living the gospel is going to help them, and help their family. We're seeing them tonight, and hopefully we'll help them get to the point where they'll be willing to come to church.

We're going to have Thanksgiving with one of our less active members. She didn't really have plans and we hadn't had anyone sign up for Thanksgiving yet, so we decided it would be fun to have Thanksgiving with her, and she's really excited about it. So we should have fun.