September already!

Can y'all believe that's it's September?  I sure can't!  It's crazy how fast time goes!  

 

I got the package, and the treats made it here ok!

 

This past week has been pretty good.  We decided to take our bikes to the park at the edge of our area for p-day, and rode around a little bit.  It was kinda cool, and there were some neat bugs, and lots of butterflies, but nothing too eventful.

 

We had zone meeting this week, which was lots of fun.  We basically reviewed what we learned in zone conference the week before, but it was good practice that we all needed.  We were also reminded of setting goals the Lord's way.  Seeking for his advice, and the goals He wants us to set, which means we do a lot more praying, and a lot less trusting in our plans.  

 

We were actually able to get into TWO less active homes this week!  Wahoo!!!  We were also able to get in touch with a few more.  So it has been a pretty good week.

 

A family from the ward invited the three sets of missionaries in the ward to their labor day BBQ, which was basically them, us, and one or two more family members, but it was a lot of fun, and some really good food.  We also had zone activity yesterday, which made for a very busy p-day.  We played chair soccer, which means that they more or less divided us up into districts, (although the four sisters managed to claim our own chair and be our own team.)  gave us a chair to guard (kinda like a goal)  and if your chair got hit by one of the two balls, then your team was out.  We managed to win a few games, and did fairly well for ourselves. it was a lot of fun.  Those six weeks of soccer at the MTC really came in handy.  Then we did some more less active hunting last night.  We found some really good leads, and we even taught a lesson.

 

We haven't had really been impacted by the hurricane, it sounds like it stayed mostly in Louisiana.  Although a less active has some family from New Orleans, so they came up to stay with her.  We've had some really great lessons with them.  

 

As far as scripture study goes...

Studies are one thing that Pres. Ashton really wants us to focus on.  So he gave us all sorts of ideas. And in our very first zone conference with him, we had a big zone study session.  I've learned that it is simply more that just reading.  It's asking ourselves questions.  Do I understand this phrase, what does this word really mean, and then looking for more scriptures to answer it.  And really letting the spirit enlighten our minds.  It's also making our own footnotes and cross references to other scriptures that we already know about that talk about the same subject, and using the footnotes.  (And of course writing it all down somewhere.)

 

I had a really good study of Helaman 5 a couple weeks ago.  It actually took me a few weeks to get through the whole chapter, (and I was using most, if not all, of my hour of study on it.)  And right now I've been working through King Benjamin's address, and Ether 12.  These are just a few starting points.  

 

Love you lots!