Ydmykhet‏

November 16, 2015

Hey family!

I hope you've all had a fantastic week! I feel like no matter how long I've been on my mission there is always something I have to learn.  This week it was humility.  Now before you get ready for some crazy embarrassing moment leading to humility, you should probably know that Sister Firth was writing a talk with that topic this week, so it was basically the hot topic of conversation in the apartment. :) But I've learned a lot.  I think it's hard sometimes to balance between being confident and being humble.  It is possible to be both.   The key is to be confident IN THE LORD.  If we believe we can do this alone, we can't.  If we believe we can't do this alone, and turn to the Lord, we can. 

Yup! Humility. but I'll hop down off the soapbox and tell ya what actually happened this week :) *side note* I am SO thankful I don't have to preach on a soapbox.... That would be the worst...

So our zone did a competition this week to see who could get the most gospel conversations, i.e. conversations with people on the street that end with a commitment.  So, that was super motivating and made contacting a lot more fun :) Søster Firth and I usually contact on separate sides of the street.  One day this week, an older man saw me get rejected pretty bad and asked me if I was a Jehovahs Witness.  I said, "no, I'm a Mormon".  He told me how he was so fascinated by religion and was trying to really find out what they each believed.  He hadn't learned about Mormons yet, so I gave him a Mormons Bok, and asked if we could meet up again.  Unfortunately, he was leaving the next day to Nepal to study Hinduism and doesn't know when he'll be back.  But still! SUPER cool guy!

Last week, Sister Firth got a text from this guy named Trym. We had no idea who it was, but basically, the text was like, "Hi, I gave it more thought, and I have some questions about baptism."  WHATT??? We didn't even have his number.  So we met with him this week and I'm not even kidding, the guys brings out his copy of the Book of Mormon COVERED in notes.  Then he pulls out a full piece of paper covered back and front with questions.  Everything from "Why weren't the gold plates in the hands of the Native Americans?", to "Do I need to agree to everything if I want to be baptized?".  He was so sincere with everything and really wants to understand.  What a cool cat!

Other random notes:

-It snowed today!! YES!!! 

-I'm never going to get over Norwegian sunrises! BEAUT!

-A guy stopped me on the street.... then asked me out... I felt kinda like...uhmm.. "Don't you see this woman is a NUN!?!?!?!" -Nacho Libre 

-Sister Hill made us Navajo tacos yesterday! mmmmmmmmhhhmmmm!

-Grakums side of the family is officially connected to us on FamilySearch :)

-Eline came to church with me :)
-https://www.lds.org/liahona/1997/04/god-be-with-you?lang=engThis is a story about a member that lives here.  It was in the Ensign!! Read it and be inspired!  Music is AMAZING!

How about an awesome story from James E Talmage to close eh? Bee Thou Humble! ;)

The Parable of the Unwise Bee

Sometimes I find myself under obligations of work requiring quiet and seclusion such as neither my comfortable office nor the cozy study at home insures. My favorite retreat is an upper room in the tower of a large building, well removed from the noise and confusion of the city streets. The room is somewhat difficult of access and relatively secure against human intrusion. Therein I have spent many peaceful and busy hours with books and pen. I am not always without visitors, however, especially in summertime; for when I sit with windows open, flying insects occasionally find entrance and share the place with me. These self-invited guests are not unwelcome. Many a time I have laid down the pen and, forgetful of my theme, have watched with interest the activities of these winged visitants, with an afterthought that the time so spent had not been wasted, for is it not true that even a butterfly, a beetle, or a bee may be a bearer of lessons to the receptive student?

A wild bee from the neighboring hills once flew into the room, and at intervals during an hour or more I caught the pleasing hum of its flight. The little creature realized that it was a prisoner, yet all its efforts to find the exit through the partly opened casement failed. When ready to close up the room and leave, I threw the window wide and tried at first to guide and then to drive the bee to liberty and safety, knowing well that if left in the room it would die as other insects there entrapped had perished in the dry atmosphere of the enclosure. The more I tried to drive it out, the more determinedly did it oppose and resist my efforts. Its erstwhile peaceful hum developed into an angry roar; its darting flight became hostile and threatening.Then it caught me off my guard and stung my hand—the hand that would have guided it to freedom. At last it alighted on a pendant attached to the ceiling, beyond my reach of help or injury. The sharp pain of its unkind sting aroused in me rather pity than anger. I knew the inevitable penalty of its mistaken opposition and defiance, and I had to leave the creature to its fate. Three days later I returned to the room and found the dried, lifeless body of the bee on the writing table. It had paid for its stubbornness with its life.To the bee’s shortsightedness and selfish misunderstanding I was a foe, a persistent persecutor, a mortal enemy bent on its destruction; while in truth I was its friend, offering it ransom of the life it had put in forfeit through its own error, striving to redeem it, in spite of itself, from the prison house of death and restore it to the outer air of liberty.Are we so much wiser than the bee that no analogy lies between its unwise course and our lives? We are prone to contend, sometimes with vehemence and anger, against the adversity which after all may be the manifestation of superior wisdom and loving care, directed against our temporary comfort for our permanent blessing. In the tribulations and sufferings of mortality there is a divine ministry which only the godless soul can wholly fail to discern. To many the loss of wealth has been a boon, a providential means of leading or driving them from the confines of selfish indulgence to the sunshine and the open, where boundless opportunity waits on effort. Disappointment, sorrow, and affliction may be the expression of an all-wise Father’s kindness.Consider the lesson of the unwise bee!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:5–6). 

I love you family!!! Have an amazing week!!! The church is TRUE! 

Love Søster Heywood

p.s. christmas packages can be sent to the mission home :)