What a week! On
Thursday, we got to go to Pocatello and meet our new Mission President,
President Hancock. He and his wife are from Arizona, and he says
"y'all", so I think we will get along swimmingly. :)
On
Friday, we got to help out one of our investigators, Richard, who works
as an EMT in the Inkom Fire Department. The Fire Dept. was cleaning
their fire trucks to prepare for the 4th of July parade, so we got to go
help them clean it. Afterwards, Richard showed us around inside the
truck at all the cool gadgets and things on the truck. We even got to
spray water from the truck's hose!
On Saturday,
the 4th, we woke up early and went to the community breakfast where we
got to serve eggs and sausage and hash browns to everyone in Inkom!
Well, everyone who came at least. It was a good opportunity to see a lot
of investigators that we haven't seen in a while and also to meet some
new people that we've never met! Also a good opportunity for Sister
Stephens to meet everyone in Inkom. After that, we hitched a ride up to
the church building where the parade was lining up. We held a banner
for the "family floats" and walked in the parade all the way down to the
park. The cars and floats were all throwing candy out to the kids on
the sides. It didn't seem near as loud as Plano's parade, but that's
probably because just putting the parade on takes half the population of
Inkom, so the only people watching the parade were those who were not
in the parade. Haha. But there were lots of family from out of town, so
that made for a good crowd (including some members from my last area in
Blackfoot and Brother Armstrong from Meet the Mormons, who is related to the Armstrongs here in Inkom!)
After
the parade was over, they had fun things going on in the park,
including food ventures and music and bounce houses and some games for
the kids. We were supposed to help out with tickets, but they didn't
end up needing us. So we stayed there for a little bit, then drove to
Pocatello where we met up with other missionaries, played games,
ping pong, and watched movies for the rest of the night.
Something
interesting that Sister Stephens and I talked about later was the end
of that 4th of July night. Driving home, I had an awful feeling in the
pit of my stomach. Like a feeling I'd forgotten something. I looked
around, checked my planner to see if we'd forgotten to do anything that
day, but everything seemed to be fine. But something was just missing.
Something was wrong. It was the strangest feeling. I just felt empty.
As I expressed this to Sister Stephens, we realized that we hadn't read
our scriptures at all that day. We had only prayed once, and we hadn't
talked to anyone about the gospel. It just felt weird--so empty. What
was supposed to be a great all-day P-day of relaxation was fun, no
doubt, but at the end of the day it left us with no fulfillment. Being
so immersed in the gospel all the time and then having a day where you
hardly focus on it at all left me feeling terrible. It made me
appreciate what I am doing here. This is my time to spend every minute I
have to soak of every drop of spiritual knowledge possible. But I
can't just let that go after I'm home and go back to playing. Or else
there will be no true happiness--only empty 'fun' and entertainment.
The gospel is what leaves us feeling fulfilled. I am grateful to my God
for that.
Love you all!
Sister Moreland
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