Week 7

What an amazing week! Time out here is flying and all of the days are becoming a big blur! This week was an exciting one my first Zone Conference which was incredible! I love our mission president and to be able to learn from all of the great missionaries out here was so much fun! It got me so stoked to become a better missionary and to do better things for our area. I came out of conference with awesome ideas and thoughts for not only myself but for our investigators and also a huge gratitude for the companion I have. Sister Schwarze is awesome and I am so glad that right off the bat i was able to follow all of the rules and not doing things the right way now seems foreign. Not that there are bad missionaries but in conference they just touched on things like making sure we are in and out of bed on time and for me i've only known that and so it is not effort to be obedient so it was just another way the Lord has blessed me so far in my mission. The work here is really taking off and it is amazing! Cody is continuing to progress right along! Slowly, he has a lot of oposition but he loves it and wants it! We also recieved the greatest new investigator, she is golden and ready! She has a sister that is LDS and the way she got in contact with us missionaries, we had a lesson with her, she ate it up! She commited to be baptized she was excited she came to church and loved it! So awesome! It truly is a testimony builder of how great member refferals are! We have focused alot on the members and the role that they have in missionary work. Statistic: 1:1000 get baptized if we were just to find them by knocking.. whereas 860:1000 get baptized if they were reffered by a member. HELLO! crazy difference. It is my role as a full time missionary to teach and to get individuals to commit and progress towards baptism but you as members have the role to prepare those people, preparing can be just simple gospel conversations, sharing what we believe, serving, inviting them to things! There is no way someone could say yes if you dont invite them! Members make such a difference and it is a promise that each one makes at baptism that they will be witnesses of Christ and serve others. General Conference is coming up and I am seriously just so excited! A PROPHET is speaking and it's a great opportunity to in a simple way invite someone to watch it. We had dinner with a member family last night and we shared pretty much just what i said about members and what they can do, they have the easy role just being a friend and an example, we missionaries take care of the hard stuff but this family took our message and ran with it! They were throwing out names and setting goals and commiting to invite people to watch it with them. It was so awesome! The other awesome thing that happened this week was I did my first transfer! I went to another area with another sister while she came here to take my place and boy it was different but way fun! It was strange being back in subburbia! I got to commit someone to be baptized in their door step. Coolest experience! It was neat to see how other sisters do it and i learned a lot! Most of all it made me love my area more! I missed it the whole time i was gone! I love my area and my investigators the Lord has truly blessed me with great charity for these people! Texas also got RAIN! woo hoo! Very exciting and an awesome thunder storm last night, we were knocking as it was beginning and people were thinking we were crazy this one man opened the door and just got wide eyed, i couldnt help but laugh.. the situation was hilarious because it looked so dark scary windy like and we were just there.. haha good times! Oh another funny moment of the week I got dirt thrown on me by this little girl while we were talking to her mom. Literally she threw a handful of dirt on me and i was covered! It was HILARIOUS! I truly am loving it out here! Our investigators are truly just great and I had this awesome experience yesterday while we were out that i didnt even recognize till this morning. While we were out knocking I realized I was sharing the principles that I had studied earlier during my personal study! With out even realizing it or conciously trying the spirit was helping me use the knowledge I had recieved earlier. Not only was it fullfilling the promise made in D&C 11:21 but it made me think about how you sometimes can miss the small ways God helps us and plays a role in our lives unless we take the time to think about it and look for him! Nothing is just coincidence! Heavenly Father is aware and knows us better than we know ourselves he is in our lives and we just have to take the time to see it! So amazing! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this gospel and love being a missionary! I hope all is well and that you all can find opportunities to be member missionaries and to see Heavenly Father in your lives! I miss you and love you to pieces!

 

Sister Camarella!