I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to help people help themselves. That's really all we do.

Hallllloooooo!

Oktoberfest started out as a festival for a wedding and then became a tradition. It's basically like a carnival with loads of rides, food, and ginormous 'beer tents', which are actually massive buildings built juust for these two weeks. Am I excited to go? YES!

What a week! Seriously. I didn't even have time to blink. We were running to and fro doing some great missionary work this week. We were able to meet with several less actives, teach our great investigators, ward council, Zone Training, meet all the goldens, say goodbye to our dear friends that are now home, and just do work!

It was really strange listening to the missionaries going home give their last testimony at Zone Training. (We have this tradition that at the last Zone Training before missionaries head home, they have the opportunity at the end of the meeting to share their final words before they 'die' aka go home.) It was super normal listening to the sadness, but excitement coming from the missionaries headed out until I realized, that at the next Zone Training - I'd be giving my last testimony.  My eulogy (haha). I looked at Sister Smith, became sad for a second and then became utterly and completely grateful! That I've been able to come here, do some work and that I still have 6 blessed weeks in full time service! There is so much work to be done and this is only the beginning :D

Speaking of great beginnings, we taught Sebastian again this week. What a miracle child! As we taught him more about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, you could just see the wheels turning in his head.  He has such a great heart and is really trying his best to figure out how his will and the will of our Father in Heaven come together. It's really helped me reflect this week and what I do to align my will with God's, what do I do to find out what God's will is!  

Sister McCormack referenced this talk in relation to this topic and I really enjoyed it! (I don't know if you remember it.. but, I quoted it a couple of months ago in an email haha)

Elder Richard G. Scott, October 1989 General Conference.

Across from me a woman sat sobbing. With tear-filled eyes, she told me, “I don’t know what I believe anymore.” She spoke of having struggled and prayed many days to know how to make a vitally important decision in her life, without success. She anguished, “I don’t know what to do. If you’ll tell me what to do, I’ll do it.” With her hand on the scriptures, she said, “God told us He would help us. He answers everybody else’s prayers. Why won’t He answer mine?”

When one is caught in a whirlpool of emotion, it is difficult to find a way out alone. My prayer is to help you who have similar feelings.

When answers to urgent prayer don’t seem to come, it can be that we don’t understand some truths about prayer, or because we don’t recognize answers when they come.

Our Heavenly Father did not put us on earth to fail but to succeed gloriously. It may seem paradoxical, but that is why recognizing answers to prayer can sometimes be very difficult. Some face life with only their own experience and capacity to help them. Others seek, through prayer, divine inspiration to know what to do. When required, they qualify for power beyond their own capacity to do it."

When we really want to come to understand our Heavenly Father's will, we have to seek him in prayer.  But, what's the point in seekeing him - if we don't seek just as hard for a solution, an answer, a salvation?  I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to help people help themselves.  That's really all we do.  We give people the tools, inspire them to believe in themselves, and more importantly trust that there is someone up there that knows, cares, and is incredibly aware of our joys, pains and struggles.

Thanks for all y'all do for me!  I'm so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! :D

Love, 

Sister Harman