Black Friday at the Atlanta Temple
We made a gingerbread house
The District
Hellooo Family!
This week was pretty good. Highlight was definitely the temple.
On Tuesday we had exchanges. Sister Kang came to Norcross with me, and
Sister Van Leuven went to the English Ward with Sister Kuterer (we did
make the connection ;) ).
Sister Kang is from Taiwan. (She has on a teal sweater and striped
dress in the selfie at the temple) She's amazing. Fun fact: so temple
square was low on mandarine speaking missionaries so she and sister pi
(like
), who is also from Taiwan, were sent to temple square for the
summer. They came back in October. Sister Stenquist actually drove
Sister Kang to the mission office, the day that she was also coming to
the mission office to pick me up! Just thought that was cool. And then
Sister Pi is one of my most favorite people ever. In her testimony at
zone conference, she expressed her frustration with rejection: "I come
here, from far away, learned this stupid language (she actually said
that), to give you salvation! You should be grateful I knocked on your
door!" I felt like I related way too much in a first world problem
kind of way.
Having Sister Kang with me for a day was interesting. Thankfully we
wound up teaching a lot of teens that day so she could contribute,
because she doesn't speak Spanish. We did have one lesson though where
we were teaching the kids, then their mom came in and one of them
started translating for their mom, so I started teaching in Spanish
because I can do that, but then we were translating it back into
English for Sister Kang, who was over there writing out mandarine
lettering to explain repentance (which I'll explain in a bit. It's
really cool.) yea, I had no idea what language was really going on at
that point.
That night we had a family home evening with Fanny and Vannessa. I was
trying to think of a game, and "don't eat Shawna" is what came to
mind. So we stopped at a Kroger (big mistake 2 days before
thanksgiving) to go to the bathroom and buy some m&ms. I had $1 left
on my card and the Book of Mormon gives us a 20% discount, which would
reduce the m&m price to $.68, so I figured I had enough. Well, when my
card didn't work, I resorted to change. I was able to find $.31 in
pennies (no wonder I've been so lucky!), and then by a miracle I found
a quarter and a dime! It was seriously a Thanksgiving miracle.
On Wednesday, it was very populated. There were cars, everywhere. I
don't even know where all the people came from! Because on Thursday,
it was as empty as a Sunday morning. There was no traffic. At all. The
whole day.
I woke up feeling really sick on Thursday with a bad head cold. I was
miserable. I have been plain exhausted for the past few weeks, and
waking up sick on top of it made me just want to curl up and cry
myself to sleep. So during language study, I went into the bathroom
and had a heart to heart with the Lord about it, which involved about
30 minutes of crying, and then deciding that I actually have to get
out and work. I called the mission nurse, but she didn't answer. So I
left a detailed message, and we just went out and visited people. We
showed the video, "Thanksgiving Daily"
(https://www.lds.org/media-
and then we talked about this great quote from "Is it Still Wonderful
to You?" In the April 2015 General Conference:
"I have often wondered what it would have been like to live at the
time of our Savior. Can you imagine sitting at His feet? feeling His
embrace? witnessing as He ministered to others? And yet so many who
met Him failed to recognize--to “see”--that the very Son of God was
living among them.
We too are privileged to live in an exceptional time. The prophets
of old saw the work of the Restoration as “a marvelous work … , yea, a
marvelous work and a wonder.” In no previous dispensation have so many
missionaries been called, so many nations been opened for the gospel
message, and so many temples been built throughout the world.
For us, as Latter-day Saints, wonders also occur in our individual
lives. They include our own personal conversion, the answers we
receive to our prayers, and the tender blessings God showers upon us
daily.
To marvel at the wonders of the gospel is a sign of faith. It is to
recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and in everything around
us. Our amazement also produces spiritual strength. It gives us the
energy to remain anchored in our faith and to engage ourselves in the
work of salvation."
How great is it to be alive at a time when we have a living Prophet! A
time of Revelation! A time when we can be a part of the same church
Christ established! This is His church!
We ate dinner with a bunch of families from the branch, because they
are kind of all related to eachother... No tamales, but I had sole
(Hispanic soup) which was a miracle because I felt so sick.
On Friday we got to go to the temple! And we had interviews. I love
President Bennion. He's great. Due to the MTC time change, I am now
presented with the option of either going home in October or on
November 29. The only thing about going home November 29 is that I
miss another Thanksgiving. But I think I'll just chose that date
because I don't know of anything better I could be doing than serving
the Lord.
And the temple was wonderful. I wish we could have just spent all day there.
Our 16 year olds want to repent! On Tuesday I took sister Kang over
there, and we were talking about repentance. She said that in Chinese,
the characters for repentance are "Heart" + "daily" so it's "a daily
change of heart". Which was really cool. It was very evident though
that they didn't understand the atonement and what Christ did for us.
So we've started to show them the Bible videos that make up the
atonement, starting with the Last supper, for each lesson. When we
showed Christ suffered in Getsemane (https://www.lds.org/bible-
This week was pretty good. Highlight was definitely the temple.
On Tuesday we had exchanges. Sister Kang came to Norcross with me, and
Sister Van Leuven went to the English Ward with Sister Kuterer (we did
make the connection ;) ).
Sister Kang is from Taiwan. (She has on a teal sweater and striped
dress in the selfie at the temple) She's amazing. Fun fact: so temple
square was low on mandarine speaking missionaries so she and sister pi
(like
summer. They came back in October. Sister Stenquist actually drove
Sister Kang to the mission office, the day that she was also coming to
the mission office to pick me up! Just thought that was cool. And then
Sister Pi is one of my most favorite people ever. In her testimony at
zone conference, she expressed her frustration with rejection: "I come
here, from far away, learned this stupid language (she actually said
that), to give you salvation! You should be grateful I knocked on your
door!" I felt like I related way too much in a first world problem
kind of way.
Having Sister Kang with me for a day was interesting. Thankfully we
wound up teaching a lot of teens that day so she could contribute,
because she doesn't speak Spanish. We did have one lesson though where
we were teaching the kids, then their mom came in and one of them
started translating for their mom, so I started teaching in Spanish
because I can do that, but then we were translating it back into
English for Sister Kang, who was over there writing out mandarine
lettering to explain repentance (which I'll explain in a bit. It's
really cool.) yea, I had no idea what language was really going on at
that point.
That night we had a family home evening with Fanny and Vannessa. I was
trying to think of a game, and "don't eat Shawna" is what came to
mind. So we stopped at a Kroger (big mistake 2 days before
thanksgiving) to go to the bathroom and buy some m&ms. I had $1 left
on my card and the Book of Mormon gives us a 20% discount, which would
reduce the m&m price to $.68, so I figured I had enough. Well, when my
card didn't work, I resorted to change. I was able to find $.31 in
pennies (no wonder I've been so lucky!), and then by a miracle I found
a quarter and a dime! It was seriously a Thanksgiving miracle.
On Wednesday, it was very populated. There were cars, everywhere. I
don't even know where all the people came from! Because on Thursday,
it was as empty as a Sunday morning. There was no traffic. At all. The
whole day.
I woke up feeling really sick on Thursday with a bad head cold. I was
miserable. I have been plain exhausted for the past few weeks, and
waking up sick on top of it made me just want to curl up and cry
myself to sleep. So during language study, I went into the bathroom
and had a heart to heart with the Lord about it, which involved about
30 minutes of crying, and then deciding that I actually have to get
out and work. I called the mission nurse, but she didn't answer. So I
left a detailed message, and we just went out and visited people. We
showed the video, "Thanksgiving Daily"
(https://www.lds.org/media-
and then we talked about this great quote from "Is it Still Wonderful
to You?" In the April 2015 General Conference:
"I have often wondered what it would have been like to live at the
time of our Savior. Can you imagine sitting at His feet? feeling His
embrace? witnessing as He ministered to others? And yet so many who
met Him failed to recognize--to “see”--that the very Son of God was
living among them.
We too are privileged to live in an exceptional time. The prophets
of old saw the work of the Restoration as “a marvelous work … , yea, a
marvelous work and a wonder.” In no previous dispensation have so many
missionaries been called, so many nations been opened for the gospel
message, and so many temples been built throughout the world.
For us, as Latter-day Saints, wonders also occur in our individual
lives. They include our own personal conversion, the answers we
receive to our prayers, and the tender blessings God showers upon us
daily.
To marvel at the wonders of the gospel is a sign of faith. It is to
recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and in everything around
us. Our amazement also produces spiritual strength. It gives us the
energy to remain anchored in our faith and to engage ourselves in the
work of salvation."
How great is it to be alive at a time when we have a living Prophet! A
time of Revelation! A time when we can be a part of the same church
Christ established! This is His church!
We ate dinner with a bunch of families from the branch, because they
are kind of all related to eachother... No tamales, but I had sole
(Hispanic soup) which was a miracle because I felt so sick.
On Friday we got to go to the temple! And we had interviews. I love
President Bennion. He's great. Due to the MTC time change, I am now
presented with the option of either going home in October or on
November 29. The only thing about going home November 29 is that I
miss another Thanksgiving. But I think I'll just chose that date
because I don't know of anything better I could be doing than serving
the Lord.
And the temple was wonderful. I wish we could have just spent all day there.
Our 16 year olds want to repent! On Tuesday I took sister Kang over
there, and we were talking about repentance. She said that in Chinese,
the characters for repentance are "Heart" + "daily" so it's "a daily
change of heart". Which was really cool. It was very evident though
that they didn't understand the atonement and what Christ did for us.
So we've started to show them the Bible videos that make up the
atonement, starting with the Last supper, for each lesson. When we
showed Christ suffered in Getsemane (https://www.lds.org/bible-
investigator just looked at us and said, "Did this really happen?" When
we told her yes, she told us that she wanted to be baptized. So she's on
date for December 26! We read D&C 19:15-19 with the less active:
"15 Therefore I command you to repent--repent, lest I smite you by the
rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings
be sore--how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how
hard to bear you know not.
16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they
might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to
tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer
both body and spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup,
and shrink--
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my
preparations unto the children of men."
we told her yes, she told us that she wanted to be baptized. So she's on
date for December 26! We read D&C 19:15-19 with the less active:
"15 Therefore I command you to repent--repent, lest I smite you by the
rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings
be sore--how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how
hard to bear you know not.
16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they
might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to
tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer
both body and spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup,
and shrink--
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my
preparations unto the children of men."
And it changed everything. He told us about how he needs to repent.
The investigator came to church on her own! She found a ride and
everything! And then the lessons were on the law of chastity, and
fasting. It was perfect. She even went and talked with the Branch
President on her own too! Miracles are real.
I just kept on thinking about the promise from the Handbook:
"As we come to understand and believe these truths and gain a firm
testimony of Jesus Christ, we strive to obey His commandments and want
to share our blessings with our family and others (see 1 Nephi
8:9–37). With this secure foundation of testimony, other elements of
Church activity follow naturally.'
I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that he walked this earth and
lived a "matchless life"; He went about only doing good. I know that
He suffered everything for us. He is our Savior. I am so excited for this Christmas season, a time when everyone can unite in celebrating His Birth, because He is the Savior of the world. (http://christmas.mormon.org)
I know that this is His restored church. That the Book of Mormon is another
testament of Him. That we do have a living Prophet that testifies of
Him and His atonement and that the Lord's authority is back on the
earth. We can have complete and total access to the atonement of Jesus
Christ because of the restoration.
Him and His atonement and that the Lord's authority is back on the
earth. We can have complete and total access to the atonement of Jesus
Christ because of the restoration.
I love this work so much!
I love and miss you!
Love,
Hermana Wallis
I love and miss you!
Love,
Hermana Wallis
