Sister Elizabeth Winters: Talking and talking and talking to everyone

Liebe Mutter und Vater,

GOODNESS. I can't believe it's P-day......again. The time is starting to speed up.

This week was really fun!

So, we had Zone Training on Tuesday. We talked a ton about "teach when you find, find when you teach." (It's from PMG.) I had an interesting time with it, because one of the hardest things for me is talking with everyone. It's a principle in Preach My Gospel, it's one of our mission vision things, but I still have a hard time. I think that most of the time, I'm worried about rejection---but not just rejection, pain. There have been a couple times that people have been pretty rude, and it hurts! But not every time is like that, only rarely. I think Heavenly Father maybe sent me here to appreciate the times when we do find people--because they are treasures, and if we found people all the time, I would lose appreciation for it. Maybe. Just a theory. But, Zone Training was about that. And it was really, really good. :) Then the Christlike attribute was humility, and the Spirit was just so strong. It was really wonderful.

Wednesday, we had Zone Conference!, which was also fun. :) Sister Miles' topic was "Be Thou An Example." There's a line in PMG that I love. It's in the first chapter, page 4, I think? It is, "Honor Christ's name with your actions." I love that. I want to be constantly mindful of my actions, so that I do honor Christ's name by the way I act. I am here to be His representative, so it must follow that I act as He would. President Miles talked about the Book of Mormon. President Höferl (from Austria, first counselor in the mission presidency) talked about a number of things. But the most important thing that I got out of those was the Spirit's guidance on faith. I need to have more faith. But the Conference was beautiful.

Sister Jencks and I sang a duet for the musical number. "Näher, mein Gott, zu dir"---"Nearer, My God, to Thee." IT WAS SO SCARY. I can sing in a choir, I can play piano in front of a crowd, but singing a duet? Terrifying. Every time Sister Jencks asked me if I was excited, it just brought up the butterflies. I was terrified. :P I thought I would die. But then it was fine. :) I prayed really hard beforehand, and Heavenly Father helped me so much. Not perfect---both of our voices were a little shaky, but good---very, very good. Then, President asked a number of the missionaries to get up, share what they'd learned, and bear their testimonies---and he invited me as one of the seven or eight of them to come up. So, in my fifth transfer, I was asked to give my testimony for the first time at a Zone Conference. :)

Thursday, we had an appointment with D, which was good. (She'd read through 1 Nephi by then.) We answered her questions from the Book of Mormon.

Friday, we talked to a LOT of people.

Saturday, we had a lesson with Schwester H!! It was....funny. Like last time. I think we met with her once in August or so. Since then, we've been calling her every two weeks or so to see how she's doing and see if we can meet with her. She LOVES to talk, but she's super sweet. And we met with her! It was so great. She talked for the good majority of two hours and asked a couple questions, which we answered. We did get to sing "Eine Sonne Mir im Herzen Lacht" with her (There is Sunshine in my Soul Today), which was fun. Oh, man. I love her. She's wonderful.

Oh! I told you how it's hard for me to contact people a lot of the time. Sister Jencks and I thought it would be fun to set a goal of "contacts" this week---anyone with whom we try to talk about the gospel. And even if they turn away, don't have any interest, nothing, we tried---that counts. So, we set a goal for 100 contacts. And there were some days that were more difficult than others, but we made it. I was SO HAPPY. Oh my goodness. Thrilled that we made it. We only found one potential this week, but we talked to 100 people. That felt SO GOOD, because I can say that I really did try to talk with everyone that came in our path.

Another quote that I love: "Ministering is not just something we do; it defines who we are." David L. Beck.

I love you so much! This week should be fun. We have a goal of 150 people. Working on it. :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to the BEST family in the world.

Love, love, love,

Sister Beth Winters

Matching dirndls