Mission Journals

Today I discovered one of my most FAVORITE things to do with my Jeffy! That is, to read our mission journals together!! It was an idea we had yesterday after talking about how we wanted to get to know each other in a new way, rather than just being together every day. So we started with him reading about his first day in the MTC, then mine, then his next day, then mine, etc. It was soooo great to see how similar and different our days were, to see our likes and dislikes (gym time and eating healthy were both favorites of ours), and to see our testimonies as they began to develop. We've decided that in addition to our scripture reading every night, we will each share a journal entry. This will make our experiences more personal to one another, and help us to form better friendships with the people the other met while serving.

Lately, I've been thinking A LOT about my mission. Like incredibly a lot. Yesterday I actually met an elder in the MTC that is going to be assigned to Riverside California on visa delay, until he can head out to Argentina, his real mission. BOY WAS I JEALOUS!!!! I told him what wonderful people he would meet and how President and Sister Reeves would become like parents to him. It really made me really "homesick" and made me wish I could serve another mission. On that note, I can't WAIT for our mission reunions coming up Oct 1st!!

Today was also our first Sunday in our new ward!! (It's our 5th ward for the year, -singles ward, moving into our apt together in the married ward, trying the family ward, moving again and attending the family ward, and now the married ward!!) and we're REALLY planning on this being a permanent change! Our new bishop, Bishop Clare seems to be sooo in-tune with the spirit. Today we had a new member meeting and he discussed how he wants to help build Zion from the ground up. Stakes consist of wards, wards consist of families, and families consist of the fundamental husband and wife team. This covenants made in marriage make the husband and wife more important than anything else in the building of Zion, because if they can center their marriages on Christ, and the families become righteous and zion-like, then so will the wards, and so will the stakes. He pointed out that it doesn't matter how great a prophet is, if the people aren't willing to follow him. Thus Zion can't be built from the prophet down, but instead, from the people UP!

The ward is organized a little bit differently, but I definitely felt the spirit as he explained it to us. We are divided into 10 districts in the ward, each district containing 6 couples that live near one another. (reminds me of the mission!) They are entirely responsible to look out for one another. Cool thing about this is our District is having a group FHE tomorrow night! They also get together every Saturday night to play games, and they came over one of our very first days here to tell us that!

Another difference in the ward is that callings are not extended permanently. Instead, each district takes turns. One week they will be in charge of Sunday School, the next week the nursery, the next week, the activities, etc. This provides for a lot of variety, a lot of learning, and assures that no one will simply just "blend into the background," everyone will be working on something!! I think this is an incredible idea, to train all of us in all the various callings so we will have more skills in the future. The most amazing thing I've noticed about this ward so far is that it seems as a result of this different structure, everyone is more friendly than I've ever met. Even the people you would expect to be shy, seem to be very confident, outgoing, and social at church. They have truly become a ward family, and we're excited to get to know them all!

Jeff has a mission companion in the ward, and I know a kid from high school that is in it. I also have two friends from work at the MTC that also attend our ward. So it looks like we're off to a great start in this ward! I'm just soooo grateful for the Lord helping me to be able to switch my shift (which can be very difficult to get covered on Sundays) so that we would be able to attend this ward! The Lord truly blesses us soooo much!