Worth the Sacrifice

¡Buenos Días!

I'm fairly positive I wrote home just yesterday, yet apparently it has been a week. Time flies by here in the mission field! I wake up, get to work, get home, plan, and sleep. Reflection happens when one realizes how much time has, in truth, passed. I have almost been on my mission for three months - what an odd thought! That's approximately one sixth of my mission, passed here in gorgeous Brooklyn.

I love the rain dearly! :)

A thought by Elder Oaks in *General Conference on Saturday prompted me to consider whether I was fully utilizing my time to its full extent here in the mission. Each night my companion and I look at each other, and some days are harder than others, but we ask one key question. "Is there anything we could have done differently?" Was there an activity that perhaps didn't lead to success that day? Did we talk to every soul we possibly could have? If the answer is that we truly couldn't have done anything differently, we allow ourselves to be at peace with our day. If there was something we could have improved, we try to implement stratagems to strengthen the weak area. We are constantly looking to try to become more Christ-like, intelligent, brighter, happier, effective missionaries.

We have several tools in becoming the kind of missionaries we want to be. One of them is: Zone Training Meeting! Essentially, it's a meeting where around 50 missionaries in 2-3 zones meet up and are trained by the Mission President and the Assistants to the President. So my Zone Training was all of the missionaries in the Brooklyn Stake and those on Staten Island. We learned how to plan more effectively to be more productive in the Lord's work. In implementing some of the ideas, we have shortened planning, and managed to fit more content into the condensed time. Definitely one of the best skills I'll take away from my mission, I believe, is in planning productive activities for every moment of the day.

In unrelated zone news, I am now a part of Zone 1. I figure it's called such because we are the #1, best of the best, truest Zone in the mission. Also in orthogonal news is the fact I am working on the Christ-like attribute of humility right now.

Views from the F Train

Freezing with Hermana Gourly

A beautiful thing about being out east are the number of rainy and cloudy days. I love the rain! There is nothing better than getting soaked from head to toe in pouring rain. Unfortunately, the heavens forbore, and though every day was quite cloudy (also, there's a chance I had meatballs this week) the rain was honestly kind of wimpy. It was cold enough that it seemed a bit like fake snow. It was like walking through the mist machine in Disney World. Expect colder and windier. Much windier. My umbrella was basically gone with the wind. *ba dum tsh* I even had a couple of Mary Poppins moments coming off the steps up to the train.

Looking for the N Train

Hermana Gourley loves me too! :)

Hermana Gourley and I waiting for the D train.

Interesting events of the week?

We find we get rather pointed commentary, often pertaining to the weather such as one fairly recent comment outside an Irish Pub we had to walk past, "and they said the sunshine wasn't comin' out today." Sir, I assure you the sunshine is out every day while the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth.

Also, I did yoga and exercise on the patio a few mornings ago. It was very brisk, but well worth the gargantuan effort of waking myself up enough to step outside. It was excellent, because Hermana Gourley could exercise inside and I could exercise outside and we could see and hear each other yet do our individual routines. :)

Food recommendations of the week are Lenny's Pizza in Bensonhurst and Las Margaritas in Bay Ridge. We had no groceries so we ate out a decent bit. I suppose that is why we get a bit more to spend than in some missions - we literally can't go home to eat hardly ever. It is often more than an hours travel time, which is time we don't have frequently! The nice thing about walking so much, though, it that I haven't gained a pound! The MTC scared me a bit, but out here in the field we are too active to be worried about gaining much. :)

*General Conference was amazing for me. I listened to three of the sessions in English, and the Sunday morning session in Spanish with my Ward. I loved listening in English, because I was able to easily apply principles and see how they applied to my investigators and I. However, being with my Ward listening in Spanish was absolutely celestial. We came with a less active who hasn't been to church in over ten years (since before she moved from Ecuador I believe) and came last week for the first time. We are working with her to strengthen her testimony. What was amazing though was seeing not just her but four other less active mothers and their children come and sit in the side pews right next to each other! They proceeded to help one another with their children and were edified and instructed together during the meeting. My heart warmed as I saw them increase in their knowledge of Christ as our savior. It is very difficult for many of them to come, as the father figure isn't often there or is working a lot of the time, but they make the effort and are blessed beyond measure for it.

"Between the Lions, between the covers of the book lets have a look
between the lions." 🎵

Elder Nattress told a story during General Conference about how his mother read the Book of Mormon to her children day after day because she was promised if she did so that she would not lose her children. Elder Nattress said that to him it was quintessential to know that even though he wouldn't listen or wouldn't appreciate what he mother did that *he* was worth the sacrifice his mother made. Heavenly Father knows how hard we try and how much we sacrifice to attend church. Let me tell you: it's worth the sacrifice. Church attendance brings blessings of spirituality, blessings of sociality, blessings of service. Heavenly Father will bless you, I promise that. Moreover, He sacrificed His only son for us because *we* are worth the sacrifice. We are worth more than anything to him - we're his children! He loves us dearly and wants us to return to Him. I pray we will all make the sacrifices we need to return to Him. It starts with the little things like going to church. It ends with glorious celestial splendor.

May that be your goal, as it is mine.

Besos y abrazos,

Hermana Ally Voss

*(In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have an opportunity two times a year to listen to many church leaders speak to us concerning guidance for our lives, and ways we can learn and become better members of our church. This is called General Conference)