"Solidly Awesome" Week 14

Hello Family,
Wow...this has been eventful week as it sounds like yours has. I may possibly be finally getting into the routine of being a missionary. I realize that I am even thinking a lot more like missionaries do. How weird is that? Here is the other thing, remember how I use to hate stories that missionaries told. I would totally be like...get over your mission you crazies. Yeah.......well the Lord has a way of changing people. Haha I love listening to crazy experiences from missionaries. I ask R.M.s in my wards to share stories with me. I seriously cannot get enough of them. Is that ridiculous or what. So. Brothers and brother in laws will you please send me your craziest missionary stories...I will send you one of mine. Which is probably the weirdest thing that has happened to me in my entire life. Seriously...super crazy, but I will not divulge it until I hear some of yours.

 This week has been pretty awesome. We have seen a multitude of blessings. Last night we got a referral and we decided to stop by immediately. Well, we knocked on the door and she invited us right in. She is basically awesome. We are going to meet with her again tomorrow so I am pretty stoked. We also were able to make dinner for a family this week. They are so solidly awesome. We took them Idaho Tacos....no one here calls them that....and brownies. They loved them. We will be visiting them again this week. It's kind of funny sometimes I am out doing things, and I think I would never have had the guts to do this before my mission. How funny huh? I got several letters this week. I so enjoy letters. Britton is dead on. Letters from anyone is awesome. I seriously eat them up. I got some from aunt Gail and ann and grandma and the webbs and the wades. If you see them, thank them for me. I really do just love letters. I spent an hour and half this morning writing letters to people. In most missions you have Zone activities....we however do not. To many elder sister relationships forming. So, I have a lot more time on prep day than other missions to write. Thus, I told you I would write back to people and this morning I sent out 9 letters. Honestly, it is like a tension reliever for me to write letters to people.

 Mother Dear, our X navy Seal is in the Hospital. When I visited him the other night, he told me to tell you happy birthday. He was born the same year as you so, i think that is why he said to say it. haha. He is solidly awesome. He was telling us all about being a navy seal. Not to many details because that is against the code of being a seal. He loves the show burn notice ( amity, ken and ben) will appreciate that. He has surgery today, so yesterday we fasted for him. He called to thank us the other morning for being so loving to him. Honestly, you can't help but be loving to him. He is probably the most converted man I have ever met. We keep praying that his family will want to Join too. I love them to death as well.

 Ok...the whole business of the mission splitting. I will find out in a couple months which one I will be in. The mission president in the Chicago Illinois mission will be Paul Woodbury, President Fenn is the president over the Chicago Illinois west mission. I really do not have a feeling of either places that I am going. I honestly don't care either. I will have been out 8 months when it happens and will almost be half way done so it truly won't matter to me. I do like change of pace of things, but whatever the Lord intends for me I will do. I have basically given up my own desires because I know that the Lord knows best. Umm...what else can I tell you about my mission....oh i know...I have been studying a lot in my scriptures. Something I have noticed about miracles is that they come according to our faith and our gratitude.If you look at the saviors example, he gave thanks before he did anything. Think of the times when he fed the 4,000 he gave thanks and blessed the bread and fishes. Remember when he raised lazerus from the dead he said, " Father, I am thankful this day that I am able to do this" than he cried out to Lazerus to come forth. The blessings we receive in this life will be multiplied as we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the Beautiful things he has given us. I remember a few weeks ago being especially sad. I had been trackting and trackting and every door had been slammed in my face. I remember kneeling down and the only thing that would come out of my bed was thanks to my Heavenly Father for the wonderful things he had blessed me with. I cried for a long time in gratitude for the many things he had blessed me with. Well....we got a lot of people to start listening. We bore our testimonies more boldly, we shared from our hearts and we saw many miracles. Not every door was slammed, not every potential dropped us. How grateful I was to receive those tender mercies from the Lord. I know it was him because I had done nothing different but give thanks.

 You asked about how to make a lesson more catchy...something I try to do is think about the person I am teaching. I think about there individual needs and try to apply the lesson particularly to them. I think about feelings I have had when I heard the message I am sharing and I try to be ready to help them understand those feelings. Visuals usually always help. Simplifying the lesson does as well. You asked why it was so important to be worthy to enter the temple and to prepare to serve a mission, well....Number one God will hold you accountable for the people who you might have been able to teach if you had been living the life you were supposed to be as a missionary. In the temple, you are making more covenants that are binding. As a missionary, those covenants keep you protected. I often hear the spirit whisper covenants I have made in the temple. Those promptings influence decisions I make. Each day, you are making two choices to draw closer to God or to Go away from him. By being obedient you are drawing closer to him, by being disobedient you are going away from him. If I want to be able to be worthy to be instrument in the Lord's hands, I have to do my part. I have to be living in a way that he can trust me with impressions and promptings in order to bless other people's lives. The Lord will hide people from you if you are not worthy to teach them, but he will also hold you responsible for not teaching them because you weren't worthy. Ultimately, the reason I try to be always worthy to enter the temple and to be a good missionary comes from Jacob 3:2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm forever....D&C 121:45 let thy bowels also be full of Charity towards all men, and to the household of Faith, and let virtue garnish the thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God....." There is no better feeling than being able to feast upon the Lord's love and be confident in doing his work. Honestly, I have to go through daily repentance in order to put my life more in line with my Heavenly Fathers. I know though as I do that that I am worthy to do his work, I can feel of his love, and I can speak the words which he puts into my mouth. I often feel very alone out here, but as I try to be more worthy of the spirit I am able to feel his very very loving arms encircle me about (2 nephi 1:15). I see the person I am becoming as I make my life more worthy to serve him, and Alma 5:14 and 19 definitely apply. Truthfully being worthy to be in God's presence is the most important thing that anyone can do.

 I hope that helps. Sorry, I really am a terrible writer. I wish I could just call and tell you it, but that won't be for a while. Well, I love you Family. I really do. I hope you all know that. I hope that you know that I pray for you daily. I hope that the best things are happening to you. I pray that the strength of the Lord is being felt in your life. I know it is being felt daily in mine. I know that this is his work. I am grateful to be his servant. 
Love, Sister Braten.