Talk About Busy!

Time is short today, 'cause we gots to take Sister Goldrup to the airport. I will be moving in with the Sister Trainer Leaders (Sister Allen and Sister Clark) and we will be covering my area (Clear Creek) and theirs (IU Campus), which'll be a party 'cause we both have a lot of people to teach, and they go on exchanges all the time...so sometimes we'll probably be teaching like 3 lessons at the same time O_o 

My mailing address will be the same 'cause their apartment is in the same complex as ours, so we'll just check both mail boxes...and I'll probably be moving back into the other apartment in 4 weeks or so...

So, we're not sure exactly what covering two areas will look like...potentially 30+ lessons a week. Potentially 6 hours of church on Sundays, plus ward council, branch council, and 2 coordination meetings.

Yesterday we were invited to PEC for the first time (where, in this case, the ward discussed welfare matters.) I'm not quite sure why were invited, but it was very...educational. 

We discussed mostly one individual, but an individual whose situation is not unique. This person lives in a house that won't be suitable for winter, calls on the church regularly to help pay for gas, works a job, but not enough to cancel her disability income, and has a couple pets that she's not willing to let go of. Aaand they are living out a 1/2 dozen miles away from town where they need to go very regularly. 

They talked about how they've been trying to help this person for years. And how the purpose of church welfare is to help people be able to help themselves. But you can't seem to fix the way people think. So how long do you help people for? And part of it is just simple logic. And part of it is faith and logic--tithing, for example. If you pay tithing, you will be taken care of. I like how 3 Nephi 13 addresses that. Consider the fowls of the air--the Lord takes care of these, and doesn't he love us more?

Heavenly Father gives us blessings when we keep his commandments. If we want blessings, we just need to keep the commandments that pertain to the blessings we wish to receive. If we wish to be financially stable, we pay our tithing. If we want to receive guidance, we go to church and study the scriptures. If we wish to be as happy as possible, we do everything Heavenly Father asks us to. Faith and logic. Experiment.

That's all for today.

Much love,

Sister Bowen