The Missing Piece

This week is another transfer week. Time goes by so quickly!

Sister Godfrey and I will be staying together! Since both our wards have church at the same time there had to be a change so we are keeping the Candlelight Park Ward and are losing the Solomon Ward. We will be taking on the Cooper Ward in the Mesa South Stake. We are sad to leave the Solomon Ward because there is so much work to be done there and we love the members and investigators so much but we trust in the Lord and know that miracles are on their way! 

Angelo was just baptized this past Saturday and it was amazing! He was so ready to be baptized. We got to go with sister Reed (Angelo's mom) to the Gilbert temple and I was certainly in awe at the beauty of God's temples. I just did not want to even leave. Angelo and sister Reed are in the Solomon Ward which makes it even more hard to leave just after his baptism... but God has some good plans in mind so we'll follow where He leads.

 I love  my companion sister Godfrey... let me tell you what I love about her

- she is so accepting and very easygoing with everything. Something terrible could happen and she'd just laugh and say "well, okay, that's cool"

- I love how she is so artistic. She is amazing at drawing and design. We both enjoy looking at art, especially of the Savior, and admiring how someone could create something so amazing.

- I love her sense of humor. She loves to laugh and we both make fun of the same things.

- she is very strong spirited so things that might easily get me down don't bother her.

- she has a rock solid testimony of the gospel and knows that what she teaches is true.

- she knows how to care for and love others.

So that is what I love about sister Godfrey. I think I have had the best companions in the whole mission...

Sister Hirschi and her ability to cheer me up and work through adjusting to mission life.

Sister Child's and her obedience and diligence

Sister Wisanbannawit and her willingness to learn and work hard

Sister Duiai and her faithfulness and loyalty

Sister Csolity and her fun loving and sincere heart

Sister Colbert and her hard working attitude, humor, and love and understanding for others.

Wow what a list of marvelous servants of the Lord that I have had the opportunity to serve with. God is good to me! I do my best to always trust Him because His plan is so much better than mine... even if in the moment I can't see the masterpiece He is creating.

Here are some thoughts from this week:

There is a hymn called "Come Let Us Anew" that contains a line that I always thought was funny-- 

"Come, let us anew our journey pursue,

Roll round with the year,

And never stand still till the Master appear.

His adorable will let us gladly fulfill,

And our talents improve

By the patience of hope and the labor of love"

I guess I have never really thought of God's will as being "adorable". Don't get me wrong His will is certainly what I desire to follow but I would never choose to use the word adorable to describe it on any given day...  But as I thought about this more O realized that I truly adore His will. Adorable means "to inspire great affection". Usually we use his word to describe babies or cute little animals but I adore how God never fails to uphold me. I adore His mercy to allow me to be forgiven of my sins. I adore His tender mercies and direct answers to prayers when I most need them.

"Have I Done Any Good In the World Today?"

And also a thought for the new year... here's a little callout from this hymn that I think we should all follow...

"Wake up and do something more than dream of your mansion above.

Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure, a blessing of duty and love."

Do something good this year!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tony's missing puzzle piece

This week we will have to tell Tony that we are being transferred but I can't even begin to tell you how teaching him has changed my life... I have never seen the Atonement and power of the priesthood work so strongly than in Tony's life. He has changed so much and developed such a strong testimony of the gospel. I wish that I could describe this in better words but when we teach him we feel the spirit so strongly that he knows the gospel is true. He'll be baptized on the 21st. This is one of the blessings of serving a mission that can never be replaced... the people you meet and the experiences you have with them can never be replicated. I am so glad that I decided to serve a mission. So back to Tony... he has this puzzle picture hanging on his wall and I look at it every time we go over to teach. It is a puzzle of a painting of a little cottage and a nice spring meadow... but in the upper left hand corner it is just missing one piece. It's so silly but I know that his life was missing a piece as well... and now he has found it. The gospel was the missing piece and we were lucky enough to be able to bring him just what he needed-- the only thing that could have filled the void in his life and allowed him to feel true peace.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Zimmerman