Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Group E-mail 4/7/14

Sister Colton and I had a pretty great week this week filled with laughs, adventures, living prophets, and miracles.

So April Fool's day was really funny, but kind of a fail. I shall explain. I will just skip to the afternoon. So we went to service at the nature center in the morning and afterwards we went to Sis. Farnsworth's house. Sis. Farnsworth is a member in the ward who is Carrie's age (a lot of people in our ward are Carrie's age and it really throws me off) and she is hilarious! She is one of my favorite people. We were going to her house to role play with her so she could practice answering questions about the gospel that her friends have because she has a hard time with that, and asked for our help. When we got there, she said that she had to go and take dinner to somebody, but that we should just stay and wait there because she would only be a few minutes. So she left. Sister Colton and I were really in sync that day and didn't even have to talk. We just looked at each other and ran out the door. We parked our car on another street, ran back to the house, hid all of our stuff, and shut the blinds and turned off the lights, so that it looked like we had left. Then Sister Colton hid on the stairs and I hid in the pantry. And we were going to scare Sis. Farnsworth when she walked into the kitchen. When she got home, she took the one path we didn't plan on her taking, and went up the stairs. Sister Colton scared her and Sis. Farnsworth got a really big kick out of it. She really likes to get scared.

Then we went to our original plan that we had come up with. Cockroaches are a problem in Houston. We have had a few conversations with Sis. Farnsworth about how she really doesn't want cockroaches in her bathroom. So what did we do, on Monday at Walmart, we bought fake bugs and then painted them all black so that they looked like cockroaches. We had just come straight from service, so we needed to change into our proselyting clothes. Sis. Colton went into the bathroom to change first and hid all of the bugs in the bathroom. We've also had conversations with Sis. Farnsworth about how she is embarrassed when we use her bathroom and there is no handtowel. We don't care, but she does. So, Sis. Colton took the handtowel, so that when I went into the bathroom, there wasn't one for me to us. So I had to ask Sis. Farnsworth for one, thinking she would come into the bathroom and see the bugs. She just threw the towel at me and didn't come into the bathroom. I changed and when I came out Sister Colton made another attempt to get her into the bathroom. That didn't work either. So we gave up, thinking that she would find the bugs in a couple of days. We started role playing, and then Sis. Argyle, another lady in the ward, came over to drop something off. She told Sis. Farnsworth she needed to use her bathroom and went in. Sis. Colton and I just started cracking up laughing. When Sis. Argyle came out of the bathroom, she told Sis. Farnsworth that those bugs got her for a minute before she realized they were fake. They both got a kick out of it.

Then we went to dinner at the White's house. Our plan there was to tape one bug to the inside of their toilet bowl. So after dinner and a message, Sis. Colton went to use the bathroom. She was in there FOREVER! It was so awkward. And to make it even more awkward, you could hear her getting the duct tape. It was hilarious. We left and Sis. White texted us a little while later and told us thanks for the present. We asked if she had gotten at least a little freaked out. She replied, "No. Sis. Farnsworth posted a picture of what you did in her bathroom on Instagram, so I went to go check my bathroom." We tried. Sis. Farnsworth did text us later that night and told us that her son went into the bathroom and said "Mom! Come here. There are big bugs in the bathroom that will get us."

Anyway, it was a pretty humorous April Fool's despite us not be very successful.

General Conference was awesome! I loved it! My favorite talk was probably Elder Holland's. I also really liked Elder Rasband's, Elder Andersen's, Elder Scott's, President Uchtdorf's, Elder Ballard's, and Elder Bednar's. What I personally got out of General Conference was the importance of being obedient and living the gospel. I also thought a lot about how we should treasure up the words of the living prophets, as well as the scriptures. There was a quote that I noticed was used in last October's conference and this conference. It is from President  Harold B. Lee: "The only safety we have as members of this church is to … give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet. There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your [personal] views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; … and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory’ (D&C 21:6).”
When we follow the words of living prophets, we will not be led astray.

Elder Hales in the last conference said, "The greatest blessings of general conference come to us after the conference is over. Remember the pattern recorded frequently in scripture: we gather to hear the words of the Lord, and we return to our homes to live them." And 1 Nephi 19:24 says "Hear ye the words of the prophet [...] and liken them unto yourselves." Now that General Conference is over, make sure that you take what you heard in conference, then notes you took, and the feelings you felt, and make a game plan for how you can become better. Listening to their words doesn't mean much if we don't become better because of what we heard.

And to wrap up this long email, an update on the Guidry's. We haven't been able to officially meet with them in a long time because they have been so busy. Megan told us two weeks ago that she shouldn't be too busy this week so that we could meet with her then. I texted her on Tuesday, but she again said she was busy. On Thursday morning I texted her and told her "It would seriously only take 20 minutes and the Lord will bless you." And then told her that if she didn't want to meet with us anymore, that she just needed to tell us. She responded and said, "Tonight's good. We can meet tonight. How about 6?" So we met with her that night and it went really well. They've still been reading the Book of Mormon. We talked about how the gospel can bless our lives and invited them to watch General Conference. Sis. Noorda was their with us and invited them to watch it with them. And we set another baptismal date with them for the end of the month. So yesterday they went to the Noorda's and watched the Sunday morning session of conference. Megan texted us last night and told us that she really loved conference. And Sis. Noorda called us and told us all about it. She just kept saying "It was so awesome. It went so well." Megan and Tim both really loved it and they played Conference bingo, which they also enjoyed. And Megan went up to Brother Noorda and started telling him about how she was getting baptized this month and asked what she needed to bring and what it would be like. She texted Sis. Noorda later that night and asked if there was a way she could watch the whole conference. So the Guidry's are doing great! And General Conference is amazing! You can always count on the power of a living prophet and apostles.

I am so grateful for a living prophet and for the chance that I have to be a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ. It is a remarkable blessing.

I  hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

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