Charity Never Faith

Hello hello everyone!!

Well what a week it has been. Sister Veater and Sister Kartchner have been sick most of the week but I've been totally fine which is weird because when you're in a trio if one of you goes down sick usually you all go down sick! I plan on drinking plenty of airborne to avoid getting sick. But because they were sick this week was pretty slowish. They just didn't have the energy to keep walking around and going to a bunch of lessons. Plus they didn't want to get anyone else sick. But since they were both sick and resting I can say that our apartment has never been so clean :) haha. While they were both resting I was reporting on lessons, making phone calls, writing thank you cards, and doing what I could to be as effective as possible and then I resorted to cleaning the apartment :) which I have found is a healthy stress reliever...I know mom you probably never thought that I would actually like to clean right?? Haha. 

Oh also!! Sister Abana told me that two of our investigators from Medford were baptized last week and then two more were baptized on Saturday!!!

And things have been pretty hectic because Sister Veater goes home next!

So this last week we had to pass off Mildred and her family to our District Leader and his companion. Last Monday after Pday we went with the Elders to do a little bit of a "pass off" meeting at Mildred's To introduce the Elders to them and they also wanted to feed us. They fed us this Ghanian dish called Fufu. It basically just this starchy ball of really thick mashed potatoes. It wasn't bad but the catch is you cannot eat the fufu by itself...you have to have some kind of a soup or something with it to wash it down...I figured that out after the first bite haha. it wants too bad though but oh my heck it fills you up fast lol. And they fed us some kind of chicken, okra broth with it too because I told Mildred that my papa loved okra so she insisted on making it for us! Then the Elders had to leave in order to make it to another one of their lessons and we finished teaching everyone about The Plan of Salvation.  It was such a spirit filled lesson. Mildred is progressing so well and she understood everything in the The Plan of Salvation pamphlet so well that she turned around and helped us to teach the rest of her family! It was great. We read with them some scriptures about The Plan of Salvation in the bible and all Mildred kept saying was "Wow I never knew that that is what that meant in the Bible! It makes so much sense!" And it did. I was so grateful that the lord has prepared this wonderful family. Mildred, Love, Blessed and Apple will all be baptized this month!! And I am so excited!! They are amazing!! 

We also saw one of our investigators this week named Stephanie. Stephanie grew up agnostic but she wants to believe in God. I can't say how difficult but humbling it is to teach someone without a Christian background. The fast of having to God and Jesus Christ has really helped me to appreciate that I grew up believing in them. That my parents taught me who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. It's something I don't think I ever really appreciated until I taught someone who never had that in her life. Stephanie is awesome. 

Oh and also we had Zone Training this week and President and Suster Anderson came to which we got to role play with them and I totally messed up so bad in front of President...but that's okay! Haha

And in honor of Valentine's Day I just wanted to share one of my favorite quotes from Elder Holland, forgive me for copying and pasting like half of his talk but he says my testimony better than I can say it myself, and every point I want to make in these few paragraphs...

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all--“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it."

"I testify from the bottom of my heart, with the intensity of my soul, to all who can hear my voice that those apostolic keys have been restored to the earth, and they are found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who have not yet joined with us in this great final cause of Christ, we say, “Please come.” To those who were once with us but have retreated, preferring to pick and choose a few cultural hors d’oeuvres from the smorgasbord of the Restoration and leave the rest of the feast, I say that I fear you face a lot of long nights and empty nets. The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.” That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well. To the youth of the Church rising up to missions and temples and marriage, we say: “Love God and remain clean from the blood and sins of this generation. You have a monumental work to do, underscored by that marvelous announcement President Thomas S. Monson made yesterday morning. Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.”

"To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,” we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I know it's long. But with that I want to share what I've learned about Charity or the pure love of Christ. I know from personal experience that Charity truly never faileth. Pure Christ-like love will never fail us. In time nor in eternity. And I know that obedience to Gods commandments shows our love for Him. And if we truly want to become like Christ we will strive to be charitable. Strive to have a "love of God and of all men." I testify of the Saviors divinity and of His Atonement that makes all righteous things possible, and all negative things able to overcome. I love Him. I am eternally indebted to Him. And I will serve Him and give Him everything that I am. Because I love Him. 

I love you all!! Happy Love day this week!! Until next week! 

~Sister Amy Callaway~

Me eating the Fufu...and also a giant teddy bear we found at Rite Aid that was the same size as me! And then at Zone training!