Another full day in the Maryland Baltimore Mission. Today was Sunday and we therefore, got a chance to meet more members of our ward. They are all so friendly and positive. I love how the black people come to church so colorfully dressed, men and women. It is so fun to see. The women wrap these scarves around their heads. They come in all colors and they match their outfits and make their hair look great! I asked Sister Pritchard how she got her scarf to wind so perfectly and she said it is an art. Once you have it on your head, it doesn’t move. I’ll try to remember to take a picture so you can see what I mean. I wonder what I would look like in one of those. My friend Linda, who is recovering from cancer, lost her hair and she wore the prettiest scarves and hats on her head. Some people know how to work with that stuff.
Our lesson in Sunday School was on Repentance. The message was, in a nutshell, “you can’t do what you don’t know or haven’t been taught. It’s not what you did, it’s how you take care of it”. I used to teach our children that. We are all going to mess up, when you do, fix it. Take care of it. And, it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, we all must follow the same path to repentance. A rich man cannot pay his way to the Celestial Kingdom. Rich or poor, we all have an equal opportunity to Glory.
Remember not to judge others. Read in Matthew 7:3-5. For the past few days I have been having some not good thoughts about a person that I work with in the Mission Office and it was plaguing me because I don’t want those feelings to start. I am on a mission and I don’t want anything to detract from that. So, I was feeling all self-righteous, like it was all her doing and I was just standing by getting put upon. Well, today when I read Matthew 7:3-5, I re-thought was I was feeling. I need to look at what I am doing and realize we all have faults – yes, yes, I know it is hard to realize that I have faults, but it’s true
In Relief Society there was another good message. We need to realize that we cannot afford to wait for the final judgment. We cannot fast forward the Lord’s will. There is a plan for each of us and we must learn to endure and live righteously through ALL of our trials and joys. We will all have different lives and experiences, but our reward is the same as Christ’s – if we are worthy, we can be exalted as He is. Remember, the Lord loves us and wants us to succeed. We have friends we knew in the Pre-=existence, who we don’t remember, but they are rooting for us down here. We don’t want to let them down. I never thought of that! Good point.
After attending all three hours of our ward, we went to the Fort Smallwood Branch to hear Sister McKibben give her farewell talk. When we got to her branch President Belliston told us that he was just in a meeting with a member of the Bishopric in another ward who used to live in our Stake at home. He remembers our family well. President could not remember his name, but he will find out and I’ll put it in the blog. It’s a small world. Sister McKibben will be leaving the mission to go home on Tuesday. We will miss her greatly. She has been such a wonderful trainer for me. She is so organized and has everything set up so well that President Belliston is going to think that I am brilliant. What a let down it will be when he figures out what he’s stuck with . . .
Tons of food and lots of people. My kind of get together!