Week 3: God is our Loving Heavenly Father and He lives on a planet near a star called Kolob

This is how Sister Strauss told us that we should NOT begin our lessons. She said we need to SIMPLIFY when we teach the Plan of Salvation and that it's important not to teach people everything you know, so I jokingly asked her if you could teach people about Kolob and she said that no, NEVER, you should NEVER bring up Kolob. I asked if we could have people start by reading Abraham 3 and she said absolutely not. I asked if we could just casually introduce it in the first lesson. She was very exasperated. She said no. But THEN I asked her what we should do if we bring people to church and the opening hymn is If You Could Hie to Kolob. And she told us that in that very specific scenario, we can tell the people we're teaching that Kolob is the name of a place in heaven. Good enough for me.

A nice class time nap

There were French toast sticks in the cafeteria this morning and I have wanted French toast sticks all week, so this counts as convincing evidence that God answers prayers.

This week, Sister Stolrow and I taught Chloe and Emma for the last time. We taught them both about the Plan of Salvation and I think it really clicked for them. They said they weren't confused and felt like we understood their needs and felt peace and comfort and touched and "positive new thoughts" so that's pretty good! It's going to be weird to get in the field and talk to real investigators. I'm so grateful my trainer will know what she's doing. 

It was Sister Leavitt's parents' birthdays!
They sent us lots of treats.

On Tuesday night after devotional, the piano was playing Hark All Ye Nations and all the missionaries sang the words very quietly. It was very cool. 

I was reading 1 Nephi 11 this week and I was reminded of how much I love it. Nephi wants to know the interpretation of his father's dream and the angels shows him a vision of the birth of Christ, and then the angel asks him if he understands the meaning of the tree of life, and it is then that Nephi realizes that the tree represents the love of God. It just reminded me that the greatest testament of God's love is that He sent His Son to us. I love the Book of Mormon!

This week, I learned that it's what in your heart that matters. I think that's very true.

Love to you all,
Sister Willis

 District kickball