Free to Struggle

Wowie. These weeks are getting shorter and shorter. I can hardly believe it is the end of July. And the weather has been GORGEOUS. Thank goodness. We could use a good change from the ugly humidity!!

This week was a little more difficult than we would have liked but it's week '4' of the transfer (actually week 5 but we have 7 weeks this transfer instead of 6) so we can't expect too much haha!

Tuesday we went to the work out class and the Elders came. They kept teasing us about "jazzercising". But the joke was definitely on them. haha! They couldn't walk for days. An old lady work out class my eye! haha! We had to take time to clean our area book because it looks ATROCIOUS so we spent time updating records and putting everything in the right place. Then we saw Menolly, our 10 year old investigator with Sister Tolliver. We committed her to be baptized on Sept 28 so it will give her parents tons of time to come to church...hopefully. Then we went to the Machowiaks for dinner with Tim and Tonja. We had a lesson afterwards with TJ.....ugh. Who knew an 11 year old could be SO frustrating. He asks THE most random questions. Like "Did God have parents?" "If we all accept Jesus Christ in the Spirit World why does it matter if we join here?" Oookay. Not random, but definitely NOT pertinent to what we are talking about. Sister Machowiak tried to help as much as she could but TJ is one stubborn kid. I don't know if he'll make his baptismal date mostly because he doesn't want to.

Wednesday was pretty frustrating. Week 4 is just humility week. And it doesn't matter whether or not it is a different number of weeks in the transfer; Humility week KNOW when week 4 is haha! We had district meeting...yup. Then we went to Finleyville and Venetia and no one was home. Of course. Why would people be home?! And the one guy who was, lied to us that the Moore's had moved a while back...he WAS Brother Moore. *sigh* gotta love agency. We had BOM class and since the Elders never gave us the book, we totally winged it. It wasn't horrible, but I KNOW how important it is to prepare now. Man.

Thursday was better that is for sure. We went to the senior center to volunteer and it was a mad house. They had JUST dropped the food off right before we showed up and so nothing was ready. The old ladies were running around like chickens with their heads cut off haha! So we tried to step in and help as much as we could. But of course, we didn't know how to cut the cantaloupe right...riiiggghht. So we excused them and did it how we wanted hahaha! We met Sister Stinnett at the church so we could go work in Charleroi and that went pretty well. We saw Jackie then saw Kiana. Kiana now wants to get baptized on August 16th /: Bummer!!! But whenever she is ready is when she is ready. We talked about music and the influence of it. Kiana said "Well, if you take out the swear words the song is only a minute long!!" Do YOU see anything wrong with that haha! Oh man. So we are going to try and help her get some good music that will help her stay focused. Joining the church is a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice. A lot of people have to give up many things that they have been doing for a long time. And often, they already know it's wrong. Sister Hreha (ray-hi) was really sweet and picked us up for dinner and then we went and saw Aja after dinner. Her daughter, Adrianna is SO smart and wanted to play with us and was pretty upset when we had to leave.

Friday, Sue saved the day after weekly planning. We needed a ride to Donora and she came in and took us there. We saw Eve....more baby advice haha! I seriously don't know what to do with her hahaha! She is crazy! d: Then we saw the Humberts who are a whole other brand of crazy...Then we went on exchanges and had to book it to the Elders apartment and they took us to the Mossers. Everyone was running around like crazy haha! After dinner, we saw Lovely and it was super awesome. I love her! Her kids were super cuddly this week and just wanted to hug us. It was super sweet.

Saturday, we saw Tanner at Tonja's. We meant it to be really for Kiana and TJ but they went to Pittsburgh so we didn't get to teach them that much. Tanner's lesson went alright. Then on to Vi's. Then we had to exchange back and Sister Jones and I went to the Crooks for dinner. They are leaving this week so that is pretty sad. But it was a good dinner.

Sunday Adrianna wanted to sit by me....so I missed ANOTHER sacrament meeting. Oh well. If Aja got something out of it, it is totally worth it. We studied at the church after wards and another huge rainstorm rolled in. I love the rain SO much. It's amazing. We had dinner at the Aders and they are pretty goofy haha! After our dinner, we tried to see Brittany but that didn't work because Sister Ader beat us to it! So we saw Tim and Tonja. They need a lot of prayers, so if you wouldn't mind praying for them, I would really appreciate it!!!! I know they would too! So that was our week. Not super exciting but pretty tiring.

One cool thing I have been pondering this week is from a song and the line is "We are free to struggle, we're not struggling to be free." Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ I am allowed to struggle through things without being penalized because I don't understand right away! I am allowed to make mistakes (so long as I repent afterwards) because it is apart of the learning process. Ideally I would grow line upon line and precept upon precept without making the mistakes along the way, but sometimes I trip up. I am not struggling to prove myself to God, I am struggling to prove God to myself. My Spirit already knows that God is there, but my carnal, fallen man mind has to catch up. I am so glad I am allowed to struggle and that I don't have to earn my way to heaven. It's already been paid, it's just up to me to decide how far I want that payment to get me.

I hope you have a great week!! I love you a ton!! Thanks for your support!!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett