Learning A Lot

Well first off, let me tell y'all about some of the things that happened this week before I go off on a bunch of things that I learned.  First, last Monday at 8:55 we felt prompted to go and see Sarah before we went in for the night, and it turns out that she quit her job at Arby's and is moving down to Panama City... she ended up moving that night, I am so thankful that we were able to go and talk with her one last time and give her our phone number in case she needed anything.  It is really sad to see her leave, cause she was slowly moving forward, but there is no doubt in my mind that she will receive the gospel one day, just not today.  Later in the week we went to visit some of the people that were in the Greenhead area book and ended up meeting 3 part members, 2 of which really want to learn more!  Both families have a lot of problems and hard times, but I know the gospel with help them so much!!

We went to visit this less active Hispanic member, and talked with him for like an hour, and I am so thankful that I am serving in the states, cause I got a little taste of what some of the missionaries in foreign countries have to go through.  This man was soo humble!  He has had 4 strokes in his life, and at one point couldn't move half of his body, but he prayed everyday that God would heal him.  He didn't just sit around and wait either, he would literally crawl out of bed and his house to go to work, cause he needed food.  Eventually he regained all of his strength back but he is still very humble!  He works almost everyday out doing manual labor, but makes less than $30 a day... he said that the happiest moment in his life is when he can feed both of his kids (both in their 20's).  It made me realized how lucky and fortunate I am and honestly kinda made me feel really guilty!  I have been blessed with so much, and there are so many people out there that work so hard and have nothing, and yet they are so happy.  I truly do love this man and have learned so much from him already!

We had a dinner with President Well (a member of the mission presidency who lives in the Chipley ward) and he told us about how when he was in the Stake Presidency his favorite thing was releasing missionaries. He talked about how some would grow so much and be very tender towards their mission and express their love and gratitude for serving, and then there were some who would be so happy to leave and take off their name tag.  He could tell those ones didn't learn a whole lot.  It made me really want to leave part of my heart here with the people of the Tallahassee Florida mission.  I definitely love the people here, but feel like I am holding back, and could give more of my love.  I don't want to be this missionary who didn't learn anything, I want to learn all that I can and come home someone different from when I left.

Elder Sabin and I sat down and listened to one of Elder Holland's talks titled "Remember Lot's Wife" it is one of the greatest talks that I have ever heard and would highly suggest all of you to listen to it.  It talks about not looking back to our past and wanting to go back to our old life, but keeping our heart looking forward and seeing who we can become. my favorite part was when he said "Why would you go back and open up some wound that the Savior himself died trying to heal?"  I learned so much from this talk and am truly thankful for our Savior who made it possible for us to put our past behind us and never have to look back, but we can look forward at the endless possibilities that are in store for us.

I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have a great week!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

Splits with Brandon

Aukema's Land