Sister Allie Slater: Accountability.

So… I am currently writing this email on my alpha smart in the dark. Haha the power went out in our whole apartment complex so that is fun! J Thank goodness my mom sent me a flash light! J It is saving our life! We don’t know how long it will be out for.. haha mission adventures.

Can I just explain how cold it was this week? It was FREEZING! Literally. We had many days in the negatives yet, we still went out and worked! Funny thing is people still talked to us on campus. haha! I just love it here! We could only stay outside for periods of 20-30 min though or else our faces would start to get frost bite. Gotta love OhioJ But really, I love it here. The weather said this exactly “we won’t see another day above freezing until March!” haha Yay…

We had zone conference this week.. and oh boy was it amazing! The theme was urgency, and accountability. President had us set goals as a companionship and we had 36 hours to complete the goals then come back and report. We told our goals in front of everyone so we were accountable for them. Scary! So we made goals for member presents, new investigators, and other things. Even though the next day was one of the coldest days of the week we still went out and worked because we knew we would have to report back to President, and report back in front of all the other missionaries. That was a sense of urgency I felt. To reach those goals we set. And we knew we would be accountable if we did or didn't reach those goals. Luckily, Sister Love and I did reach our goals! We were happy to report back to President that we did well. But the Spirit spoke to me super strong. Why was I so urgent to reach these goals for this 36 hour period when I set goals every week and I am not very urgent about it. Every night I should be reporting back to Heavenly Father and feeling accountable for the work I put in that day. Man the Spirit totally slapped me in the face! I came to realize that if I am not that urgent for my goals here on the mission then will I even be that urgent with my goals in my life? Seriously, a mission is changing me. It is preparing me for life! I just love it.

We taught the cutest girls this week named Tara and Erika. They were so sincere with their questions and they were super interested. I wish all were like that.. we stopped this atheist kid on the street and started talking with him.. that was fun. You know it is funny, as a missionary you kind of gain a heart of stone. You have to! When people reject you it's like whatever haha! But, when people start bagging on the church and saying all these crazy things about Joseph Smith, it hurts. It hurts so bad. I always want to fight back but we just sit there and take it, cause fighting back will do nothing. But, every time I am hurt by something someone says about the church it just strengthens my testimony to know it is true. If I didn’t know it were true, it wouldn’t hurt so bad.

I scratched my eye ball this week. haha! So I had to sit there with my eye shut with this ointment stuff in it for an hour or so. haha! It was so funny everyone was coming up and talking to me and I would open my eye and Sister Love would yell at me to shut it! Man, I love our companionship.

On Saturday it snowed ALL DAY! It is the most snow Columbus has gotten at a single time in like 137 years or something like that. Of course it happens the winter I am here. haha! It was like Utah snow though. Oh it was perfect. But people in Columbus are babies and are afraid to go anywhere when it is snowing. haha! School has been cancelled like 3 times this week. But, anyway we watched this frat party across the street from the institute. It was super fun to watch. haha! Our whole district was just chillin and watching these really stupid college kids! J

Sunday was sooo good!:) We did 6 hours of church once again.. and Gibson and Amy came to church! Gibson said they funniest comment, I just love him!J They were asking him how he came in contact with us missionaries and he said “on the street, and now they have me hooked.” Haha! You got that right Gibson!J Amy came to all 3 hours today! Usually she only comes to one hour. J I just love her! She came to the missionary fireside Sunday night too. It was about the Life of Christ.J It was amazing. I cannot tell you how blessed I am for my Savior. The life he lived was incredible, and even more incredible was the sacrifice He made. Our mission is doing BOM challenge where we have to highlight every time it says a name for Christ, every time he speaks, etc etc. It is so incredible. I can feel myself growing closer to Him. I have been writing down all the names He is called in my BOM and my favorite one is my Maker. He is our Maker, he is our Savior. I hope you all take the time to remember Him in our daily lives.J I LOVE YOU!!