Devil, don't come cuz I won't go

Devil don't come, cuz I won't go!
It's TOO HOT! TOO HOT!
Devil don't come, cuz I won't go!
It's TOO HOT down there!

Haha. I've been finding myself singing a lot of African spirituals
lately. I don't even k ow that many. Anyway, I have a photo category
for pictures I've taken of the temperature in our cars thermostat.
It's been so hot. I though July was the worst. It didn't cool off in
August, monsoons or no. We are baking.

It's been such a good week! We had quite a few lessons fall through,
but we've been getting good quality lessons. The people seem to be
progressing kinda slowly, but they're making steady progress . It
might just be because I'm nearing the end here and I don't have a
chance to stay here eight months like I did in Phoenix, so it's sad
that I might not be here to see certain milestones in their faith. Oh,
well. Going to go through the temple with the Amary's this week, so
that'll be exciting!! :)

Brother Sausage, the brother who is keeping a log and read all of
Alma? It's been crazy to watch the progress. Bit by bit. :p he told us
again that he didn't even know if God existed. We talked a little
about the Holy Ghost and his role in things and coming to know things
for ourselves. At one point he asked, "Do you believe people who
aren't members, or who aren't even Christians, can feel the Spirit?"

We told him, "Oh, definitely. God communicates with everyone
otherwise, non-Christians would never know there was a Christ if the
Spirit couldn't tell them until they did. "

He said, "I believe that." Then after a moment of thinking, he said,
"now, how can I believe that everyone can feel the Spirit, but not
believe in God? How does that work?" Haha.

It goes back to what President Uchtdorf talked about. A testimony is
a jigsaw puzzle—a piece here and a piece there. It's not a light
switch, it's not either on or off. There was a time I knew the Book of
Mormon was true but questioned whether or not Joseph Smith was a
prophet. How was that possible? Well, I had a testimony of one thing
and not the other, and for a while it was just reasoning "if A is true
then B is" until I gained a testimony of B. It was that way with a lot
of things, actually. It's okay to have doubts about things. As long as
what you believe is defined by what you believe, not by what you don't
believe. Because that wouldn't make sense.

There's another family that were teaching. Just a husband and wife
with no kids right now. She is less active and not really interested I
coming back, he's not a member and doesn't really have any interest in
coming. Which was kinda awkward, because when they told us that, we
were like, "okay....we don't really....know what to do then. " but
then we started talking about having the Spirit more fully in our
lives. We talked about the peace the Savior offers in John 14. They
said they wanted God in their lives more, but they were going to wait
until they had kids to actually find a church and determine what they
were going to believe....which is a little crazy. If I had a newborn
or a couple of young kids, I would hope that I would have already
figured out (at least mostly) how to gain my own revelation and
guidance from God, and already determined that He was even there and
that He cared. Seems like life would be crazy and unstable enough,
without undertaking that spiritual journey on top of it all. I know
I'm going to need God and draw on everything I've ever learned in life
and in the mission.

When we talked about that peace, though, and the strength that comes
to families and husbands and wives when they have the Gospel, you
could tell they wanted it. And while they made it clear they're not
really interested in the Church, they're interested in what we have to
say. They wanted us to come back and teach more. We're really excited!
:p it just goes to show, when you've got the why, you naturally want
to k ow the what and how. It'll all fall into place.

I love you all! Read chapter 10in Alma today! Two months feels like a
long time and a short time at the same time. :p I love being a
missionary and I love the people here in Copa!

Happy Monday! God bless! :)



Sister Stratford