New companion--new area

Scripture I really like:  2Nephi 1:15 "But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." It is inspired from the song "Savior, redeemer of my soul" but I just love the wording of it.  I can just picture it so clear, the love that my savior has for me. I realized this week how grateful I am for my testimony.  That also reminds me of what my companion and I have been studying lately.  We have decided to study one christlike attribute per week out of chapter 6 preach my gospel (PMG) and study it every single day and pray to better inherit it.  If you have a preach my gospel (which I hope you do), you should try it.  It's nice to just focus on one attribute and really try to make it become part of my character.  This week we chose virtue, and I'll just share a passage right out of PMG .  Concerning virtue, it explained: 

"Your mind is like a stage in a theater; in the theater of your mind, however, only one actor can be on stage at a time. If the stage is left bare, thoughts of darkness and sin often enter the stage to tempt. But these thoughts have no power if the stage of your mind is occupied by wholesome thoughts, such as a memorized hymn or verse of scripture that you can call upon in a moment of temptation. By controlling the stage of your mind, you can successfully resist persistent urges to yield to temptation and indulge in sin. You can become pure and virtuous."

It made me realize how important it is that I continually have a scripture or hymn in my mind so that my mind is never left bare.You asked for an update about the area /companion.  I don't really know what your looking for but her name is Sister Danalyn Hatch and she actually goes by Dani.  Cool huh?  She's from Ogden, UT and been out for nine months.  She's a hairstylist, she's really sweet and been a really strong and faithful member her entire life.  She's knows the gospel SO well and has taught me a lot.  I really am so lucky to have her.  

I don't know if I ever told you that I was called to be a sister training leader meaning that Sister Hatch and I work with the sisters in our zone, going on exchanges, giving trainings at meetings, and just making sure that the sisters are doing well.  We have a fairly small zone which is nice because we get to work pretty closely with them and really focus on their needs.  There is 8 sisters in our zone and it's such a blast! I've learned so much from these sisters. 

As far as the area goes, I live in Ooltewah. The area itself is Seventh day adventist-ville because of the university here which is something I've never delt with before on my mission.  I'm used to the good old baptists so this is kind of new to me!  They're so strong in their faith, it's incredible. It feels like a whole different mission working with them because they're just so, different.  We have a big ward-- the biggest I've served in thus far.  We have about 180-200 active members and a lot of young families!  It's been so much fun and we're really spoiled here.  We have an amazing bishop who is 110% missionary minded which makes the members really excited and involved as well.  We don't go a day without getting fed and we have members come out with us daily.  

We've been teaching this guy named Ty, who is very knowledgeable and strong in his Methodist church.  This week was our third time meeting with him and we've really been involving President Brodniak (who is a member of our ward and also works with President Irion) to help us teach.  Sister Hatch and I were really unsure what to teach him because he got caught up on the littlest things such as the nature of God, and how we can't know of truth by the spirit or a feeling, but of the evidences and sadly, we weren't all that excited for our appointments with him just because we really didn't know how to help him. Much of our lesson turned into him and President Brodniak flipping through the bible going on a scripture chase and I noticed how inadequate I was feeling as I realized that I couldn't even comprehend most of what they were saying.  Throughout the entire lesson, doubts began to enter my mind about how my knowledge was so limited and how badly I felt like I should know more as a missionary and at the end of the lesson, I found myself bearing my testimony about how I know that the things we teach are true not because of how much I know, but because the Spirit has testified to me that they are and if my testimony was based on the knowledge I had of the gospel and the evidences it contained, that I obviously wouldn't on a mission right now.  I'm not even really sure if what I said effected him whasoever but I recognized that the spirit really taught me something that night.  I realized that I may not know the scriptures as well as I'd like and my knowledge of the gospel may be limited but I do know that this is the restored gospel without a doubt and that is enough.  I can still have confidence and say just as President Brodniak can that these things are true even with the little knowledge that I do have because I have received a spiritual witness that it is.

I've had many more learning experiences this week, and I'm so grateful that I get to work with so many incredible people. I hope that you too can sit back and realize how much the Lord blesses us, even with the simplest things, such as a testimony.

Love you!