He is Listening. Are We?

Good morning everyone!

I've been hearing a lot of complaints that Utah is so cold right now. Sorry guys. ; ) Just for the record, this is the coldest winter California has had in 10 years or so but I'm sure it's still not even close. ; )

Scripture/Spiritual Thought:
I've got two this week:
Alma 2:30 - In this scripture, Alma is leading an army against the Amlicites, and was in the middle of a fight for his life. The part of the scripture that stands out to me is "Alma, being a man of God, being exercised with much faith, cried". When we exercise, we work out and practice in order to become stronger. By this point, Alma had a lot of faith. But he was also one exercised of faith, as in, he used his faith often. This meant that when he needed it, he and his faith were already prepared. He had probably already prayed that morning when he woke up, again as they departed, out of the valley of Gideon, when they got to the river of Sidon, and right before he started the fight with Amlici. So when he prayed in this moment, he was continuing to do the thing he'd been doing all day, and all his life since his conversion. His faith had already been stretched, warmed up, and worked out, and was ready for this next challenge, and he knew that because of his faith, the Lord would spare his life if it was according to His will. And the Lord strengthened him, so that he was victorious and was able to continue in the work of the Lord.

Luke 6:46 - I read this one and was like "Whoa, self-evaluation right there." If I'm understanding everything correctly, at the time He was speaking, the Lord was addressing some of His disciples, those who already believed in Him. He's basically saying, "You already know that I'm the Messiah, and you listen to my words as such, but why aren't you doing anything about the things I tell you?" I think that sometimes, all of us do this. We listen to some awesome conference talk and we think, "Wow, this is so helpful. This is really for me. I should do these things," and then a week later we've completely forgotten about it. It's important for us to pay attention to the direction that the Spirit is giving us and to actually act on it. We won't come any closer to Christ if all we do is listen to Him; we have to move. It takes action! It takes effort. It takes faith.

Favorite Spiritual Moment:
We had a lesson with Vanessa and Brian, two returning members who are siblings, this past Friday on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We had actually planned the lesson earlier in the week, but the first one got cancelled. We decided to go with the same lesson plan, and it was wonderful to see that it was what this family needed. They talked about how sometimes, they feel the Spirit but they choose to ignore it, so we talked about how we can receiving and act upon those promptings more fully in their lives. I have to say, I think that they definitely must be listening to the Spirit better than they're giving themselves credit for, because they've decided to start coming back to church now, which is a huge step.

Favorite miracle:

We had a great lesson with the Buss family this week. We had actually been reviewing the restoration, but at the end, before we left, we asked a question that led to a quick discussion on faith. Sister Buss responded that she's okay with just going on faith sometimes. She talked to us about how the Sisters before had talked to her briefly about the word of wisdom and that Sister Buss didn't like the idea because she drinks coffee. She's a very health-conscious person and she thought it was dumb that you can drink Coke but not coffee. But she told us that after they left, she prayed about it, and the next morning, she just didn't make an espresso. She told us that she hasn't had coffee in about a month now and that she does feel better. She still doesn't understand exactly coffee is part of the word of wisdom, and we don't either, but she is willing to trust God. It was so cool to hear! 

Yesterday, we had quite a few people at church. The Buss family was there, and so was the nonmember grandson of a returning member that we hadn't even expected. But we also got to see four less actives that we've been trying to get to church for a couple of weeks. It made me super happy to see all of them there.

Favorite funny thing:

"Don't worry if your tasks are small and rewards are few, remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you."

I saw this on a juicebox some member gave us and just about died. I thought I'd share it with you as proof that it's okay to be a little nutty sometimes. ; )

Sister Semenyuk has called me a bunch of random nicknames the past few weeks, including "Shakira," "body-builder," "alligator," and a couple of other ones. But lately, whenever she says "Okay" to something I say, she's actually been saying "Okay Google." I'm not really sure why, haha. That's probably her way of saying I'm a know-it-all. ; )

Other stuff:

The Buss family has some really incredible fellowshippers that have been helping them with everything. When the Busses have questions, they go to the Merrifields, the Holders, and the Frandsens way before they talk to us. It's kind of funny, because sometimes we don't know what's going on and the Merrifields have to clue us in. But it's really cool that these families are so involved with missionary work. I just have to say, we missionaries really appreciate it when members want to share the gospel with their friends!

Alright, I'm done. ; )

-Sister Garfield

Tada!

Some famous donut place that's in our area. I think Iron Man sat in that donut in one of the movies, but I'm not sure. Anyway, apparently it's well known or something.

Pretty sky on the way to zone conference

Sister Semenyuk's  first time in a car wash