Farmington Week Four

Hello, friends!! This week has been very long. But I've spent it in the service of my God so I really can't complain!

Here's the highlights:
- we have two couples in our ward that we have been working with to help them get to the temple and they are both all set to go on August 4th!!
- someone gifted us a whole thing of vanilla ice cream
- reorganized and redecorated our study room and it feels SO good
- spent a lot of time at the food bank and sorted more than 4 big palettes of boxes of food
- went to the animal shelter to walk the dogs and guess who was there!! Sister Corpus!! So we got to walk dogs together. Mine's name was Teddy and he was super cute.
- had a really fun lesson with a young family with the story of Lehi's dream and holding to the iron rod (The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi chapter 8)
- celebrated Pioneer Day, which is apparently a HUGE deal in Farmington. There was a big party and lots of good food AND we got to take home 2 big bags of leftover salad, which made me super excited
- met some great people that we are hoping to start teaching this week!! Stay tuned!!

And a highlight of something I've been learning:
I started reading the New Testament from the beginning this week and something that has really impressed me is the obedience of Joseph. I don't think we talk about Joseph enough! In the first 2 chapters of Matthew, Joseph is given instruction by the Lord on 3 separate occasions through His messengers to take Mary to wife, move to Egypt, and move to the land of Israel, eventually ending up in Nazareth. On each of these occasions, Joseph received the direction he needs for him and his little family and immediately follows. It just made me think about how often in our lives we receive guidance, either through the Lord's chosen representatives or through personal revelation, and hesitate or completely neglect to follow through with is. I do it all the time, although usually I don't think I realize completely what I'm doing. This week, I heard it loud and clear though. Story time. On Wednesday we were walking through a trailer park, with specific people in mind that we wanted to try and see. As we were walking, there was a random trailer that stood out to me and the thought came to mind that we should try them instead of the one we were planning on. Guess what I did? I DIDN'T LISTEN. I rationalized that it was just a random thought and we really needed to go try that other family so we couldn't knock on this random trailer tonight. So we went where we had originally planned and found no success there, but then it was late and we had to head home. I don't know what would have happened if we had followed that impression to try that random trailer, but I couldn't shake the thought out of my head that I had just ignored a prompting from the Holy Ghost. And what happens when you ignore the Spirit? He stops speaking to you as much! I was terrified that because I had ignored Him, God wouldn't send me that guidance the next time I needed it. When I said my personal prayer before I went to bed, I asked for forgiveness for not listening and asked that Heavenly Father would please give me another chance, promising Him that I would do better the next time He sent me an impression like that. And guess what? He gave me a second chance. On Saturday we were about to head out after dinner to try to meet some families on our ward list and I had the tiniest little thought that we should try someone who's name I had read in our records, someone missionaries had met a year ago who they were never able to start teaching. So I told Sister Darlington and that's where we went. And guess what? He was home. And guess what else? I wanted to learn more. It was a miracle!! I'm so thankful that God gave my that second chance, and that we were able to meet Johnny. God is so good to us! Moral of the story: when Heavenly Father speaks to you, in whatever way he does, be like Joseph and listen the first time. BUT if you're like me and you slip up, ask for forgiveness and commit to do better next time because He will lead you if you ask Him to!

Lots and lots of love,
Sister Bohman

Nice things to read:
- the August 2018 Ensign, available on lds.org
- Matthew 5