Daylight Savings--Not a Big Deal.

Confession: Hna St. John and I spent Halloween listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas CD Rejoice and Be Merry. Halloween was a mission-wide de-Junk day. We were given a couple of hours to deep clean the apartment and get rid of any kind of junk in our apartment. If there's one thing I've discovered about myself on the mission it's how OCD I am. I can't properly function if things aren't neat, clean, and organized. This explains why I've had to color code and re assemble every area book and ward list where I've served and had to contribute a car area book. It just feels good to be organized, you know?

I learned something this week. I studied in-depth prayer and faith and how the two correlate together. I love the quote from Pres. Hinckley found in Preach My Gospel, "The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries--we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another."

So I came to this conclusion. Prayer is communication with God. It's not an emergency hotline, it's not a rote action, it's not a place or time where you negotiate with God. Prayer is a time to counsel with God, to ask for help with sincere real intent, really intending to do our part to help ourselves and to follow and accept the council we receive, understanding that ultimately God knows best. In my prayers I try to say, "Heavenly Father I am considering this. Is this correct? What should I do?"

I love the scripture found in Alma 37:37, "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy hear be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." <3

We set a baptismal date with Esmeralda this week. We're hoping that Dec 7th works out! Esmeralda is also due in December, so we're hoping that that doesn't complicate things. Esmeralda and her hesband are doing so well with their reading of the Book of Mormon, they are well on their way to 2nd Nephi. We are also currently working with a man who we'll call Jaime. Jaime came to church last week, but our appointment with him on Halloween night fell through. We visited him last night. We were using the Resotration pamphlet to explain the steps of prayer and asked if he had one still. He said, "No, I gave mine away." Hna St. John and I were caught off guard. "You gave yours away?" We were puzzled. "My friend at work, Victor, he was really interested in what it had to say, so I gave it to him." We could contain our laughter. It was just unbelievable. Here we are trying to get members to share the gospel with others, and our investigators are doing it so willingly, without really being asked!

Yesterday was the end of Daylight Savings. For some reason I've been dreading it. I don't know why it seemed like such a bigger deal this time around, it was really putting a damper in the day. It is the worst when you're a missionary to have appointments fall though in the dark, it seems as if no one will answer the door for you. Hna St.John and I were knocking when I saw out of the corner of my eye a little garden rock that had the following scripture on it, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It changed my day. I thought, "Hna Flores! Why are you being so silly! Missionary work is still Missionary work no matter how dark it may be!" I have a goal to commit that scripture to memory. Anytime the dark bugs me, I shall rejoice in the day.

Our Ward Mission Leader's son returned home from his mission this week, and there was a soiree held in his honor on Saturday and he was presented with his missionary plaque (you know with your mission scripture, map of your mission, and your photo). Anyways, I just thought, "How grateful am I to be a missionary! A representitive of our Savior Jesus Christ." I know I've said this before, but my mission really is my favorite.

With Love,

Hna Flores

Hna Lisyanskaya and I on exchanges in LIBERTY. Pumpkin cheesecake courtesy of a less-active who took us out for dinner.

May or May not have had burgers 3 days in a row. Not even worried about it. Burgers are an essential food group.

Just a stray cat we found in the streets. We affectionately named her, Taza.