Gallatin, TN...May-June 2011
"I'm not exactly sure what is going on in my life right now. Sister Koford and I are both new to this area, and as of right now we are homeless. We have been trying to find a permanent place to live, but until then we are staying with members of the Gallatin ward. Bishop and Sister Wade have been kind enough to let us stay with them until we have an apartment of our own! Their home is beautiful and they remind me so much of Mom and Dad. Today we had our weekly planning session out on the patio by their pool...so beautiful!
"What a great day. We are teaching a lady named Angelyn who owns a horse barn out towards Bethpage, and for our service hours this week we asked if we could come help her around the farm. It was so much fun! We spent a few hours watering and feeding, cleaning stables, and brushing the beautiful horses. It feels good to wear jeans for a short period of time and get to do physical work. Its actually less exhausting than teaching the gospel! Its fun seeing Angelyn each week because she teaches us about horses, and then in turn we teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing is better than seeing her eyes tear up as we teach her the principles of the restoration. She feels the spirit so strongly when we teach her, and so do we!
"Tonight we were teaching a lady who told me I have "Jesus in my face." She said she can tell because I am always smiling. The elders can't take me seriously when I teach because they say I smirk and it makes them want to laugh. Haha. I guess the smiling comes off in different ways to different people.
"Saturday was the best part of last week. We had a zone conference where President and Sister Hutchings talked about receiving revelation. A lot of times God wants to reveal things to us through the spirit, but we hold ourselves back from blessings because we neglect to ask. Had Joseph Smith not asked, he never would have seen the first vision. Had he never asked, the gospel of Jesus Christ would not have been restored through him. Each of us are entitled to personal revelation, and God wants to give it to us. After zone conference we were able to go to Madison where the Nashville Tribute Band was playing. Jason Deere is the singer/songwriter and he joins with other Mormon musicians to play about the restoration. It is so spiritual and uplifting; I love it!
"Speaking of music, tonight the wonderful Gallatin ward had a memorial day celebration picnic with a live band of talented members of the church! It was great. I really do love these people, and am thankful we were able to make it to the picnic. It was so hot though! Not only was it hot, but there was a loud background noise of screaming cicadas.. these nasty little bugs that only come out of the ground every thirteen years to reproduce. Well, this year they are out and reproducing by the millions! They are everywhere and cling to everything. It is pretty disgusting but interesting at the same time.
"Tender mercies.. so many tender mercies. It seems like almost every day we see unexpected blessings. Not just for us, but for the wonderful people we teach. Sister Koford and I have focused a lot lately on "The Things that Matter Most".. a talk by Elder Uchtdorf. I know the things that matter most in this life are my relationship with God, my relationship with my family, my relationship with everyone else around me, and my relationship with myself. The more I focus on my relationship with God, the more everything else falls into place."
"I'm not exactly sure what is going on in my life right now. Sister Koford and I are both new to this area, and as of right now we are homeless. We have been trying to find a permanent place to live, but until then we are staying with members of the Gallatin ward. Bishop and Sister Wade have been kind enough to let us stay with them until we have an apartment of our own! Their home is beautiful and they remind me so much of Mom and Dad. Today we had our weekly planning session out on the patio by their pool...so beautiful! 
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