Macon, Georgia: Becoming the '4th Missionary'!

Hey Y"ALL!!!

This past week went by super fast! We were so busy and had so many things that went on! We had a multi-zone conference with Elder Kopishchke from the 70! He is AWESOME! (and no we haven't received our i-pads yet... lame!) This had to have been my favorite missionary meeting I've been to! He shook all of our hands one by one and then taught us by the spirit! He really didn't come with any training or lesson prepared for us. It truly was incredible! We learned a lot about new tactics in teaching and committing and getting peeps to church and how to best involve the members! Its pretty much based on love, true Christ-like love! The second part of our meeting was a question and answer discussion. Missionaries were able to ask questions that were gospel related. I kept having a question popping up in my mind and finally i got the courage to raise my hand. I asked him about free agency and obedience and how God knows all things and pretty much how they are all related. It was AWESOME! He answered my question with SO many scriptures and he went DEEP!!! Wow it was incredible to learn from a man who is called of God! Obedience is the key, we cannot be acted upon it is our choice if we follow God. We are responsible for who we become. God cannot make us, even though He loves us dearly and wants us to return and live with Him again. Elder Kopishchke answered my question and went even further for 30 minutes! I had so many missionaries come up to me after and thank me for asking my question because they learned so much as well!

This past week I felt prompted to read a talk that I've had for my entire mission, but never had any desire to read it, until now. "The 4th Missionary" is a very long, but mission changing talk from over 10 years ago. This mission president goes and explains how there are 4 different kinds of missionaries and the first two are disobedient and the last 2 are obedient. The only difference between the 3rd and 4th is that they willingly are obedient because they want to! Their heart and mind are in it, not just your actions! So profound and it truly has altered my mission for the better! It has altered my life even! "Be true and faithful in your head and your heart, not just in your behavior."

We saw Cyrus again this week! He was taught lesson 1 all the way back in February. So we asked him to tell us what he remembers from that lesson. He remembers a lot! But he also mixed up a few things too. So we retaught him then and there! He (like always) was getting ready to leave, so we set up a return appointment with him for tomorrow! And our ward mission leader and his wife are coming! Cyrus is excited about that, cause they share similarities with being in the military.

We had two great lessons with Bethany last week! We taught her about the BOM and committed her to read and pray about it. She said she will, she says she can read a book this small in 3 days! the other time we went over we taught her the Plan of Salvation! It was incredible! We had Charity Thompson with us, she is a sweet 17 year old in the ward and her friendship with Bethany is really helping! We bore our testimonies of how we know that families can be together forever, that we all can return and live with our Father in Heaven! We also recommitted her to make time for the BOM, not just to read it when she does have time. Because that time will never come. We need to show Heavenly Father hoe seriously we want to learn from the scriptures. That also goes for members of the church. Make time for the scriptures everyday! Make it a priority and your lives truly will be blessed even more with direction, comport and peace!

So funny story! Saturday evening the Elders took us to meet a referral in a nursing home who they met and said she wanted Sisters. We meet Jennifer Scott, sweet lady in her 50's who has a deformed body but a very alert mind. She was at dinner, so we got to meet her table buddies! This sweet older lady liked me so much that she reached into her bag and kept pulling out boiled peanuts that were just chilling at the bottom! lol! I even got a penny when she handed them to me! haha! I just told her thanked her and told her how much we loved boiled peanuts. SO sweet of her, Sister Schmidt and I were giggling as we walked down the hall!

I love y'all so much! Don't forget to smile! XOXOXO

~ Sister Tara Willie