Oklahoma Weather: if you don't like it, just wait 2 minutes, it'll change

Aloha!

I recognize that discussing the weather is generally viewed as a boring thing to do to occupy one's time, but I think that that really only applies to people outside of Oklahoma. Because the weather here isCRAZY and COOL and MAKES NO SENSE. For example, it will be 70 degrees, sunny, and absolutely gorgeous during the week, and then during the weekend it'll be 9 degrees with gale-force winds and snow. Basically that was last week. To make it even better, Okies
don't really know how to deal with snow, so whenever they get more than a skiff the whole town shuts down. Thus, I am sending this on a Tuesday rather than a Monday. We still got out, but the libraries were closed.

But anyways, you're probably all bored of me talking about the weather so let's talk about what happened this week!

There were definitely a lot of highlights:

For one thing, a lot of people that haven't been progressing are starting to progress again because of an object lesson that we've been using about priorities. We read the end of Matthew 6 (from verse 24 to the end I believe) then bring out a container, 2 small rubber ducks, 3 bouncy balls, and some rice. We tell them that each of these objects represents things that we have to do during our day, with the container representing the day. With the items spread out, we ask if they think that everything will fit. Most of the time they say no, then we tell them that we'll try and get them to fit. We start with the rice (which represents basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, hygiene, and sleep), then put in the bouncy balls (more important things like work, family, and school) and finally the rubber ducks (most important things, like church, prayer, and reading). When you put them in in that order, they don't fit and the things that get left out are the things of God. Sad, no? So then we ask what we can do to get everything to really fit. We start with the ducks, then the bouncy balls, then the rice just fills in the cracks and everything fits! What's the lesson? Well in Matthew we have a promise from Christ that if we put the things of God first then everything else will fall into place! So if you are feeling that you can't fit everything into your life, take a look at your priorities and see what you could do different. (the only downside is that if you do this around children they think that they get to keep the toys. Sometimes they're really sad when you don't let them and then you have to carry around other things to bribe them)

Another highlight happened when we were out knocking. A member of the Elders Quorum Presidency gave us a list of less-active members to go check on, and one of these names led us to an apartment complex but didn't provide an apartment number. So being the intrepid missionaries that we are we decided to knock them all until we could find this guy. As we stood there for a minute contemplating where to begin, a man pulled up in his car and called to us. We went over and he said that he was a member of the church but wasn't active and could really use a Priesthood blessing. We told him that we'd come by later that night with some Priesthood holders to help him out. We went by later on and he said that he'd been wayward for a while but was starting to feel a desire to come back. Some of the brothers in the ward were able to give him a blessing, and the whole event caused me to think about how Heavenly Father really cared for his lost sheep. If we had been a minute later he would've driven by without even seeing us. If we had been in our car instead of on bikes he might not have recognized us as missionaries. But Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, knew what His son needed and placed us, His servants in his path so we could help him. I'm grateful that I was living worthy of the Spirit so I could follow its promptings in the subtle way that I did!

A second blessing that came out of that day is that we were able to eliminate 2 out of the 16 apartments and get a new investigator out of it!

Well I think that that's all I got for now. I've been really bad at taking pictures lately, so I don't even have any. Hopefully next week will be better!

Love you all! Have a simply amazing week!

~Hermana Holloway

Moroni 10:32-33