I LOVE Des Moines

Yooo, what is good everyone!?!?!? I hope everyone is doing good and is looking good in March madness!! I already know y'all are wondering so I will tell you, my bracket is looking terrible. I have Houston winning so pray they pull thru, we have a bet going with a bunch of the elders and winner gets $20 and a redbull. Anyways, I received transfer news last night and me and Sister Waite will both be leaving! But we are both being transferred to the same zone and I am going stl and will be Sister Waites stl! I am headed to Pekin, Illinois with Sister Otto!!!! Back with my 2nd trainer let's goo!!!!! She also goes home next transfer so I will be "killing her"! Kinda crazy!! I'm super sad to be leaving West Des Moines. I have learned SO MUCH here and all I'm saying is imma be asking Pres to let me end my mission here haha. This place and these people have my whole heart. No joke. I'm so beyond lucky and grateful to have served here. Truthfully, it changed the rest of my mission! BUT I know I am going where the Lord needs me and I'm ready to get to work!!! Also, the week was wild so imma just say it right now, get ready to read a book hahaha so sorry!

 

 

Started off the week being sick which is unfortunate but it's okay because the grind doesn't stop!!!

 

We had a really good zone conference which was fun seeing all my mission besties like Sis Blackburn!!!! But the zone conference was sooo good and honestly completely changed the way I've been doing missionary work! It has been SO FUN because me and Sis Waite have changed a lot of things and we have seen SO MANY MIRACLES!!! It definitely fueled the fire which is very good and much needed for our mission! 

 

So to begin sadly, we have dropped Michael and Roxann. Honestly one of the most heartbreaking things I've experienced on my mission. The goodbyes on my mission have felt identical to a breakup. literally heart breaking. I wish I could explain all of the reasons haha but it would be a whole book! No joke, I have not put so much thought and time into two souls ever before. They have so much going on in their life that we've decided they need to work on themselves to meet their physical needs before we can move forward! Please please please pray for them!!! I am serious when I say, they need all the prayers they can get! 

 

 

Thursday: You already know we pulled up to march madness!!! One of the dudes standing on the corner asked me if I was selling tickets and I told him I was looking for some as well (jk). But the zl's told us that they went to the practice on Wednesday, and I was low key pissed that they didn't tell us.

 

But anyways, we are teaching this lady named Linda who I don't think I've mentioned but idk I can't remember haha. She was a referral that we couldn't get into contact with for a couple weeks but felt like we should keep stopping by. One day she finally let us in and invited us back. We came back and she didn't answer. We tried one more time and she let us in and thanked us for not giving up on her. We've been teaching her consistently ever since. Linda is a heavy heavy smoker. Last Sunday we taught her word of wisdom and then ended with telling her we had a workshop for her that would help her to quit smoking in 7 days. Her response was one I'll never forget. She said, "Tell me right now! I'm ready right now!!! I want to know how I can stop!!" 

Beauty is change. She had 2 packs of cigarettes left and told us she wanted to finish them since they cost money. We told her to finish them by the time we got here on Thursday for the lesson. We showed up Thursday, and she opened her purse and held up one of the packs. She had only smoked one pack!!!!! This was huge, especially for her! We taught her the workshop and she is currently 4 days clean!!!!! 

Once again, the beauty is change! 

 

 

Friday: Started teaching this guy who's also named Michael. Went over on Thursday for a set lesson! When we knocked, his fiancé answered and said he wasn't home. I felt like we should knock on a different door, so we did. They weren't interested, BUT right as we got to the parking lot, Michael was there. He told us to come back up! We asked how his day was, and he said, "he was making bad decisions which is between him and God". He then opened up to us about his life. He is from LA and lived in Compton. He sold cocaine and many other drugs. He joined a gang when he was 17 to feel a part of something. Luckily my knowledge of the tv show "All American" is insane because I now know about gangs haha and I'm able to understand the slang. He told us he was a crip and that he had been shot 3 times. He ended up in federal prison, then decided to move out of there to change his life around. He is searching. We taught him the plan of salvation and the spirit was completely there. He felt it, I felt it. His face lit up when we shared the 3 kingdoms of glory, and he was at peace knowing he can be saved because he was concerned that he was going to hell because of the bad things he had done. 

Y'all are probably wondering how we find all these criminals? Yeah we're wondering that too hahahah. 

 

This week in our zone conference our area specialist came and spoke to us. He talked about how we should be asking for referrals way more and inviting people in houses to have their family members join us. Well right after our lesson with Michael, we asked and it turns out his sister and her family live next door and they are interested! Also Michaels fiancé is as well and while we were walking down the stairs we found another person who knew Micheal and he wants us to teach him and his kids!!! LETS GOOO

 

 

Saturday: 

We were doing some stop bys. We stopped by a less active member who is from Liberia. She let us inside and all the sudden Sister Waite starts looking very frantic. I look up and I see mice dart across the floor. Bruh. Then she looked at us and was like "yeah I have mice" so casually. We went over to look at them and yanno I was tryna catch them but it didn't really work, rip. She told us that they appear on her bed and she tries to catch them but in her words "are too fast". I guess our bee infestation this summer laurz was absolutely NOTHING compared to this! I was humbled. 

 

 

We then stopped by a referral! Usually referrals are people who didn't actually send in a request to meet with us. Just somehow, we have their name, number, email, and address, but they are so certain they didn't fill anything out. BRUH. Not a lot of things make me mad but I can honestly say this has me raged. You're telling me you don't remember filling out your address? Bruhhhhh. BUT this referral actually remembers filling it out so Sister Waite and I kinda stumbled at what to do next because we're so used to people just clowning us hahaha. It's okay though, we set up a time to come back!! Let's goo

 

 

Spiritual thought: 

I have been studying "grace" lately to have a better understanding of what grace actually is. 

I read a talk this week in my personal study that changed my whole perspective! 

 

I'm just gonna quote parts of the talk because president Uchtdorf says it best!! 

 

"Brothers and sisters, we obey the commandments of God—out of love for Him! Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all our heart and mind gives us all the more reasons to love and obey our Heavenly Father with meekness and gratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship, it refines us, it improves us, it helps us to become more like Him, and it leads us back to His presence. “The Spirit of the Lord [our God]” brings about such “a mighty change in us, … that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” Therefore, our obedience to God’s commandments comes as a natural outgrowth of our endless love and gratitude for the goodness of God. This form of genuine love and gratitude will miraculously merge our works with God’s grace."

 

"We seek to obey our Heavenly Father because our spirits will become more attuned to spiritual things. Vistas are opened that we never knew existed. Enlightenment and understanding come to us when we do the will of the Father. Grace is a gift of God, and our desire to be obedient to each of God’s commandments is the reaching out of our mortal hand to receive this sacred gift from our Heavenly Father."

 

"If grace is a gift of God, why then is obedience to God’s commandments so important? Why bother with God’s commandments—or repentance, for that matter? Why not just admit we’re sinful and let God save us?" 

 

I've never thought of it this way. So think about that!

 

I'm so grateful for the gift of grace that allows us to change. I now understand why his grace is so sufficient! Because Jesus Christ loves us enough to have us change and become better. 

 

And like this talk says, his grace refines us! What a gift that we have been blessed with!!!! 

 

The talk is called "the gift of grace" by president Uchtdorf from April 2015!! Read or listen to it if you have a chance! I promise you will not regret it!

 

I love you all!!! <33 Pray for my people here please. They just added another set of swahili missionaries that will be replacing us. They've had to close down a couple areas because we don't have enough missionaries to cover and ours is one. We don't really know what is gonna happen with our people and there are so many people in this area with so much potential so please pray for them. I can honestly say this is one of the hardest things, leaving people that I don't know what's gonna happen. but I know Heavenly Father will help them! 

 

Good luck to everyone's brackets this week! All I'm saying is at least I didn't pick Arizona, Purdue, or Kansas winning.

 

Love, Sister Liljenquist

 

1-2. Me and Sis Waite 

3-5. March madness mhmm 

6. Last district pic! 

7. My bracket