MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR...(transfers)

It's OCTOBER. YESSS. I love everything pumpkin and halloweeny and fall ish. :)

Transfers are in ONE week. Hear me? One week. This cycle was one week shorter than normal but I can't believe how fast it came. Let me just tell you my prediction- Sister Amorim and I probably won't be together another cycle. Which is SO sad. But it's OK. We will see what happens...!! I have loved having her as my companion. We sure have fun together.  

General Conference is SO soon and I can't explain how happy that makes me. The General Women's Conference was Saturday night and I enjoyed that SO much. I really loved Uchtdorf's talk. I took lots of good notes. I love this gospel.

This is.....

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE LDS MISSIONARY 

(Haha)

Alright people lets get right to it. Honesty hour. You are not allowed to judge my honest "natural man" thoughts okay!? HAHA I'm only human. I would be straight up lying if I didn't tell you this was a HARD week!!! (But it was SO GOOD for me.) A much needed hard week. #missionaryrollercoaster.  There was one day that was EXTRA hard. My companion and I were street contacting, People were rejecting us right and left!!! It was way hot outside. We both had colds, we had no car to get to our next appointment, and I happened to just find out that my BFF from birth got engaged. (Talk about the struggle right!?) haha don't worry I know how selfish this sounds. 

Anyways I was questioning things like..  why can't I talk to my family whenever I want, why can't I be home to see my best friend get married, why don't we have a car to get around, why is nobody listening to this message that will give them eternal life!!! why can't I listen to my favorite music, Why am I out here with random people that I don't even really know, why am I not at home making money, why am I sacrifcing my body and eating whatever the members put in front of me .. Why why why. It was one of those "natural man" moments. You know, sometimes we as humans have those moments. Yeah...? (Even missionaries) Hahah. Well my companion and I were having a ROUGH day. We came home to the apartment to eat lunch and we both shed a few tears. (If only you could watch us like a movie.) two 19 year old girls thinking it's the end of the world because the mission is HARD. Hahaha. My best friend just got engaged. It was just icing on the cake. We BOTH were like What. Is. This. Mission. Thing. (Talk about companion unity) 

We decided to pray together because #prayalways (2nd Nephi 32:8-9) we prayed that the lord would soften our hearts and help us be more optimistic. 

The day went on. And we talked. And we walked to our next appointment. On our walk it was hilarious because there happened to be a live band playing some lovely jazz music. Haha we laughed and smiled as we walked passed. Then we saw a box of the cutest puppies!! We then saw our new investigator Tia! And she happened to be going through some tough things that day and she was starving. I was able to give her my granola bar and my apple sauce and let her borrow our phone. The day went on I started to see lots of little tender mercies.

My "why" thoughts started to become WHY am I being so selfish.

I started thinking okay abb. WHY are you out here. Why. What am I doing this for. What is my PURPOSE? I was then led to think of the missionary purpose.  My purpose is to invite others to come unto christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

My purpose as a missionary is the Doctrine of Christ. My purpose is the SAME ish as Christ's purpose. I am kinda saving the human soul yeah!? I thought about that a lot. Christ is So important. He came so that WE could live with our Heavenly Father again. So that we could inherit the kingdom of God.  

3 Nephi 11:33 this is Christ speaking to the people in the Americas after his resurrection.

"And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God." 

And then he continues to talk about how we need to become as little children and repent and be baptized. 3rd Nephi 11 = Happy Abbey. 

(Side note: Sunday was the Primary Program and I had tears in my eyes I loved it SO much. The children were so special.) 

Later Sunday I did my Book of Mormon reading and I was in Mosiah 3 and in verse 19 it says

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

I have read that verse multiple times in my life but it was exactly what I needed to read right then. Kinda a tiny slap in the face. Like hello Abb wake up for a second and quit the lame natural man thoughts. It just connected everything that I was thinking about. Natural man, putting off the natural man, becoming better through the atonement, become like the little children. 

Conclusion to my thoughts. 

I am a missionary. And I am sharing with others the grand recipe to eternal life. And tho it's hard, tho I am sacrificing some things, I CAN GIVE 18 months to help further Gods work here and help save some human souls. And thank the heavens for the atonement so that when I DO have those natural man thoughts, I can change and become like the sweet sweet children that sang in the primary program. My mission is my favorite thing In the whole world. I wouldn't come home if somebody paid me a million dollars to come home. This experience is one that I will cherish FOREVER. Serving a mission is like nothin else. Hard and tiring and hard. I love it. I LOVE IT. 

CTR. Love you alllll. 

Love,

Abbs