Thursday, April 21, 2016

week 21: #Findingthebalance




 


Oh my goodness this week was amazing! Monday we got to go to the
Sacramento Temple as a whole mission!! It was so wonderful!! It was
amazing to be in the House of Lord with His servants, His
missionaries. President and Sister Marston were able to be in every
session and the Spirit changed when they came in. I just wanted to
stay there forever. I love the Temple, I love the Spirit there. I was
to invite each of you to prepare to go to the Temple. Go often, there
is strength and power in regular Temple Attendance. I hadn't gone in 4
1/2 months and I felt it, I needed the Temple.

I also got to see Nicole on Monday! We went to Chick-fil-A with her
mom and Bryan and it was sooo much fun!! Then we did the drive back
and dropped off the sisters and headed to our lesson with the A family.
I was sooooo exhausted after driving for 6 hours that day, plus
spiritually exhausted from the Temple, but it was still a great
lesson.

Tuesday was sooo good!! We had Zone meeting and President and Sister
Marston were there, which was a little nerve racking but amazing. I
love when he teaches us he is so wise and so in tune with the Spirit.
We had interviews after the meeting and oh my gosh he is so amazing. I
am so grateful for his council to me. I have a tendency to be hard on
myself, I compare myself to other people and that isn't good. He
advised me to be more compassionate with myself. So that's what I am
working on.

Thursday was amazing! We went to visit a potential named G., but
she wasn't available because she was doing inventory on her food
storage! (Like what!?!! How is she not Mormon already?!) So we talked
with N. for a while and kind of talked about everything. We showed
him the Hallelujah video and talked to him about how because  of
Christ  we can all find new life, each day is a clean slate, we can
choose to follow Him. We talked about agency for a while and he even
geared up a bit. He's super open to us coming back and sharing more!
So we are super excited!

We also found a less active named C. while tracting! We introduced
ourselves and he says oh yeah I'm half Mormon! (It was funny because
one arm was filled with tattoos and the other arm wasn't so we joked
that he really was half more on the right side) He lived in Utah for a
bit and has Mormon family. He unfortunately doesn't live at that
house, but said he has home teachers where he does live so we invited
him to meet with them! He was just a super cool guy!

Friday was so much fun! Our dinner took us to the 4th Ward Boy Scout
fundraiser Luau and oh my goodness the food was sooooo good!! Let me
give you some background. Like 2 years ago, 5th ward split and is now
4th Ward, but there all still really good friends, so when you go to
either wards activities, there will most likely be people from the
other Ward. So a good group of 5th ward was there so it was nice to
know people.
Afterwards we called some potentials and talked to this girl named
C. It was super hilarious. We asked if she wanted to meet with us
and she just kept saying "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."
We asked her if she wanted to pray about it and again "I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know. Oh my gosh I'm super awkward I'm so sorry!
I'm so awkward." Sister Taylor kept talking to her because I could not
stop laughing. Maybe you just had to be there.

This week Sister Taylor has been talking a lot about finding the
balance between obedience and having fun. Especially in Redding it can
be tough because we are so far away from everyone. But this week we
have seen the blessings of being diligent and obedient. "Selective
obedience brings selective blessings." And we don't want that.
Obedience brings about miracles.
 Oh and Sunday we gave talks in the YSA about families and how they
fit into Gods plan. It was kind of hard because it made me a little trunky
 but don't worry I've bounced back haha.
I know this church is true, I know God loves us even if we don't feel
like it, He is always there. I've loved going back and reading this
past General Conference talks. My favorite right now is A Pattern for
Peace by Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, I would highly recommend it.
He talked about how we can have peace in this life despite our trials!
I love being a missionary! Excited to see what the Lord has in store
this next transfer!
Sister Gore🙌🏻

Week 20: #notreadyforthis



So Sister Watson is gone and Sister Taylor is here! I love her!! She
is so cool and such a good missionary! We get along so well and we're
already good friends! 

Sister Taylor and Sister Gore


This week was crazy!
 Tuesday Sister Sumsion took Sister Watson and I down to Gridley,
 Dropped her off and picked up Sister Carlisle. Then we drove to the
mission office and picked up Sister Taylor!! It was crazy but amazing
 because I got to see some missionaries that served with me in Redding
so that made me soooo happy!! Then we drove the 3 hours back to Redding,
 dropped off her stuff at the apartment and went to dinner/ lesson with the
Acacios (aka Godoys). Then we went home because we were just so tried.
I am so grateful for members who are willing to help us especially
with traveling.

Wednesday was crazy too. We had district meeting which is always fun,
but it was super quiet because nobody knew each other yet. We went
grocery shopping for Sister Taylor then did the usual of trying to see
people and no one was home. But we did go to the Yates and got to show
Sister Taylor the Alpacas and goats!!
Thursday was super fun! I got to go on exchanges with Sister Cowden
who is Sister Polings greenie so she's straight out of the MTC, and when
I say straight I mean it. She got to Redding Late Wednesday night and
we went on exchanges on Thursday because Sister Poling had to go to
MLC. It was super fun!! She is such a good missionary and is so
enthusiastic about the work, I can tell she's gunna do great things.

Friday was our typical weekly planning and Sister Taylor is such a
good planner I am learning so much from her! It makes the week go by
so much more smoothly because we have a good plan of who we will see
and what we will share with them.

This week was so weird and just getting organized and settled so sorry
it's not that interesting.

Taking over the area was a bit of a challenge but I'm glad I mostly
know my way around. I know that the Lord has been with me during this
adjustment, I couldn't have been doing it without him.

Love you
Sister Gore

Sunday, April 10, 2016

week 19: #yayforconference




Well another week has a come and gone and it was fantastic!  But
before I get into it, it's transfer week! And sadly it is time for
Sister Watson to go :( I am definitely going to miss her, we've become
best friends so that's hard, but I'm super excited for my new
companion Sister Taylor! Oh plus, I'm designated driver!! So I am
stoked about that! So I will probably be in the car for like 6 hours
Tuesday, but I get to leave Redding and see people so I'm so
excited!

Oh so we passed Tony over to first Ward. We always had to bring a woman with us and it was hard to schedule, so we gave him to the first ward Elders. We had to move the G families baptism because we don't have time to teach all the lessons. But they are still super excited and just have so much faith! We had a lesson with them this week and we invited them to keep the commandments which includes keeping the Sabbath day and not using the Lords name. Hector expressed his testimony of already seeing blessings in their lives and said that if they need to do it they will.
This week has been filled with many emotions leading up to transfer
emails and conference. Lots of heart to hearts and pow wows! We met
with our new investigator M. this week. She had a lot of questions
about the role of families in the church. So it was a lot of questions
and answers but I loved being able to share some experiences I had
growing up, with how our family was run. I am grateful to know that my
family will be together forever. I am grateful for the respect my
parents have for each other and that they taught us to respect and
love each other.

I don't know if I even want to talk about conference! I'm afraid if I
start I will never be able to stop! It was so incredibly good! I loved
every single message! In every talk, it really stood out to me that we
are all children of God, that's the most important thing we can
understand.  Loved what Utchdorf said, "The sheep is worthy of Divine
rescue simply because he is loved by the good Sheppard." There is no
person not worthy of our Saviors love. He loves us endlessly and
perfectly. I am so grateful for that knowledge, I have felt that in my
own life and I'm so grateful to be able to share that message with the
people of Redding. I have 30 pages of notes, so I definitely learned a
lot and I'm so excited to go through my notes and re-read the talks!
YAY CONFERENCE!
Sorry this is short, there's a lot going on! I am so excited for this
next transfer! Excited for Sister Taylor and for the G’s to be
baptized and just everything!

Love y'all so much! Have an amazing week!

Sister Gore
🙌🏻

week 18:#IamadaughterofGod





This week was just wow!!

On Monday we had a less the G’s! We taught the plan of
Salvation and the spirit was so incredibly strong! I downloaded the
Because of Him in Spanish and we showed that to them and they
absolutely loved it. They love that families can be together forever.
We invited their son H. Jr who is 8, to be baptized and he said
yes! So the whole family is getting baptized!! He even said, Heavenly
Father loves us so much he gave us Jesus Christ to save us! Even at
his young age, he knows this simple but incredible truth. That we have
a Savior who loves us so He gave His life for us.
I was able to share my experience when Grandma Gore died, and how that was such a challenge for me. But I had that hope and that knowledge and a firm testimony that I will see her again. That although I will not see her in this life, I will be with her again. Words cannot
describe my gratitude.

We had a lesson with Gr., our recent convert and she's really been
struggling with fitting in with people her age. These past transfer
I've really been trying to figure out who I am.sometimes I just want
to be Emily, but I can't because I'm Sister Gore. I don't know how
much sense this makes, but it's what it feels like. Anyways so we
basically had a lesson with her that she is a Daughter of God and
talked about divine nature. Well apparently I needed that lesson to,
because the spirit was so strong and I was testifying to her of how
much God loves her, I was really telling myself. We read Moses 1:3-4
when God tells Moses that He is His son and that He created him. I
realized that for myself as well. He is almighty, he created the
heavens and the earth, he created the mountains and the seas, the sun,
moon and stars. Powerful and strong. But he also created me. I am
small. I am not strong. But he made me. He loves me. He gave me a life
and I have greater potential than I will ever understand and out of
all these creations, big and small, I am one of His most precious.
Many people don't know this, that we have a Father in Heaven who loves
us. So that's why I'm here in Redding California, to find His children
and share this message with him. I am grateful to know I am a daughter
of my Heavenly Father. It is who I am.
So something I realized on my mission is that I have found it
difficult to explain the Atonement, I really can't put it in to words.
I have definitely experienced it for myself but I just can't seem to
put words to it. As we were visiting a less active whose really been
struggling with depression, I was praying for charity and help
explaining my feelings. So when it felt right, all I said was, I know
your Savior loves you Tina. Because that's what I know, I know he died
for us because he loves each one of us. It's small and simple, but all
I can do is testify of truth that I know, that is something I know
with all my heart to be true. I know that for each one of His
children.


Whelp! It's the last week of the transfer so we're really gunna try to
work hard before Sister Watson probably leaves! We find out Saturday!

Love you!!

Sister Gore
🙌

Pictures from a hike they took that morning:




week 17: #hallelujah



 
Hiking 

This week was pretty tough for me. I just wasn't very happy and I
didn't like that so then I became more unhappy because I didn't like
not being happy. But as the week went on it got better so all is well
now.

First off, Sister Watson rolled her angle last pday playing
basketball. It swelled up pretty bad and since it was her right foot,
it hurt too much to drive, so guess who got to drive for half the
week? That's right, this sister! So that actually made me super happy
because I love driving and I miss doing it! But because it was so
swollen we had to ice it like 7 times. She had to stick her foot in a
bucket of ice water for 20 mins at a time and for anyone who knows
Watson she HATES the cold! I felt pretty bad because she was
miserable, but her foot is pretty much all healed so it was worth it!
Not much happened this week, the weather has been super nice, so no
one has been home which is frustrating. We had a lesson with the
G’s  (H, C and H Jr their son) we taught the plan of salvation but it didn't go as planned but that's okay because we have a lesson with them tonight in the Ga.’s home and Sister Ga. is super sweet and really good friends with them so we're pretty excited!!
Oh our washer has been broken for the past two weeks so we've been
washing our clothes in the bathtub. The repair man came to fix it, but
he ended up being there for almost 2 hours and didn't actually fix it.
Then he came back two days later and still couldn't fix it, so we'll
have to figure something out until we can get a new one, because I do
not have time to wash my clothes in the bath tub. We'll probably end
up using a members, our wards pretty cool so it shouldn't be a
problem.
Friday we had an emergency half mission conference in Chico. Pretty
much, President isn't happy with the lack of diligence and the
increase of disobedience. It was a bit of a thrown down, and the
"guilty take the truth to be hard," so it wasn't bad for me
because I strive to be diligent and obedient. I am very grateful for
his council and love for us. He believes in the Atonement and just
wants us to be happy. Here's what I got from it:
-Satans little minions are after us. How do we put on the armor of
God? Get up on time! Why? Proof of obedience, miracles can happen in
our work. Don't lose that battle, start your day by winning that
first war. If one falls, pick them up. If you’re not getting up at 6:30
in the morning, are you doing all you can do? It's a pattern of
righteousness.
Where is your heart? What is the desire of your heart? If you’re not
getting up on time are you putting on your full armor? (Getting up on
time was a struggle before, I have repented and have been waking up on
time ever since)

-Serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength, even if it
hurts every single day.
-We cannot be casual. We did not come into the mission with the
expectation to be casual and disobedient, but the fiery darts slowly
bring us down. By small means, great things come to pass, good or bad.
It starts somewhere.

-In all that we do, we should be doing the right thing. We need to be
careful in our considerations. Would I do that if the Savior were with
me? If not, I probably shouldn't do it.

-Sometimes those minions are ourselves. We are our worst critics, but
it's so easy to justify, but we cannot.

-Those minions are going to try to find the chinks in your armor and
try to poke at you. If you are obedient as you can be, you will be
blessed in your companionship and blessed in a pattern of righteous
living that will carry throughout the rest of your life, in your
friendships, relationships, family life.

-You chose it. As you faithfully serve, you will be happier than you
ever will be in your entire life.  When you get into bumps, those
patterns help you get back on track.

-The Atonement is real, we can be clean and pure and worthy again, if
we are truly repentant.
So yeah, we are definitely striving to be more obedient and diligent
because it brings miracles not only into our lives, but into the lives
of our investigators as well.

T. Where do I even start. We haven't been able to see him in a
while. He hasn't been coming to church and we had to drop his
baptismal date, but he still wants to meet and progress towards
baptism so we are excited for him!!

I am so excited for this week!! We have some lessons with the G’s
and T. this week, the women's conference is on Saturday and then
Easter!! I can't believe it's almost here! I am so grateful to be a
missionary during this beautiful time to share the message of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful so him and his sacrifice.
Because of Him, we all can find new life.
 Love y'all

Sister Gore
🙌🏻