"Our Joy has Little to do with Our Circumstance and Everything to do with Our Focus."

Subject comes from Elder Nelson. One of my favorite quotes from General Conference. Also one of my sisters faves; it's like we're family or something. 

WASN'T GENERAL CONFERENCE FLIPPING AMAZING!!! I remember counting down for GenConf in April and it's already gone now. I wanted to cry when it ended. No more general conferences as a missionary :( If you wanna know everything I liked about conference just watch the entire thing again and I think that'll cover you. Sound good? 

But really, though. Here are some fave takeaways:

- We've all chosen to follow Christ once before, and we risked our entire souls for to follow Him. That just goes to show our initial faith and trust in Him. Let's not let that faith in the Perfect Being dwindle with doubt. That's how Satan got that 1/3 of the hosts of heaven.

-"Every knee shall bow and tongue confess..." Let that day be today! In show gratitude for this amazing gospel by SHARING IT and LIVING IT!

- We cannot pray away another's agency.

- God is only a prayer away :)

- God believes in you even when you don't believe in yourself.

- Our only help and HOPE come from Jesus Christ. But He asks that you try. REALLY try. 

- Missionary work is group work! Seriously, coming from a full-time missionary, God's work would hasten SO MUCH MORE if we had the help from every single member.

- Some things can only be learned by FAITH

- "Be ambitious for Christ!"

- Sharing the gospel is not a burden but a joy! And this is why missionary work is so joyful. Because our focus is on our Savior. It's where it needs to be. But the truth is, our focus can always be on Him. Whether we're a full-time missionary or not and that's how we find true joy ALWAYS!

- Russell M. Nelson's talk was one of my favorites! I won't share too much from him, but simply put: Joy can be ours as we keep the commandments and keep our Savior as our focus! 

- Jesus knows it was worth it to perform the Atonement. All that pain and suffering was worth it. YOU are worth it. 

- All storms obey Christ; this is His church and He will never leave it. Where else would you go? 

- Our cumulative numbers might not be many, but our cumulative light will be great!

- Generations are affected by the decisions you make today

- REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! And where you gained your testimony in the first place. 

- GOD WILL WIPE AWAY ALL THE TEARS FROM OUR EYES! What an amazing promise...

- All sisters are angels. Couldn't help but throw that one in there :)

- The Atonement bears NO scars. 

- Don't lose sight of eternity for a simple "toy"

There you go ladies and gentlemen. That was basically my week. Pretty fantastic, right?

Quick update on people: LATEAR IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!! She's having her interview this week and she's all set! She's even bearing her testimony with her children at her baptism. It's pretty exciting! Such a great way to end this transfer :) 

Monica is also progressing really well! She came to us this last week with her own date to be baptized! She wants to be baptized on December 10th! We're going to see if she'd be willing to get baptized earlier if she's ready, but we're not going to rush anything. She's doing really well! Accepted to live the word of wisdom already and is already sharing the gospel with friends and family! That's how you know if you're really converted :) 

We threw a little birthday party for our dear friend Sandra on Tuesday! Happy birthday! We even had cake and balloons :) She's also found names to take to the temple!!! We're hoping to go with her before Sis. Hokafonu goes home, but we'll see how that goes. 

We had an amazing Zone training this last week as well. The Zone Leaders and us instructed on the fundamental commitments of missionaries: Church, Pray, Read. Super good :) It was the most interesting zone training I've ever been to, let alone instructed it. We made it like a basketball camp :) Super fun. Lily came through this week with dinner and ice cream! 

We also got to go on exchanges with the Jones Falls sisters! I went with Sister Clawson for her first exchange ever! She's so sweet and already a pro missionary! We had a blast and she even jumped out of the car to pick up some litter in the middle of Baltimore. It was hilarious. Oh, and fun fact about Sis. Clawson: She hunts alligators in Alabama. I will definitely be living there one day lol. 

Sister Hokafonu also got her official travel papers. She's now packing and getting ready to go home. I keep teasing her about it, but then she just says, "this'll be you in 6 weeks!" and laughs.... Ouch. 

We also had INTERVIEWS with President! He's just the greatest! It was my last normal interview :( He's super great, though. Always knows what to say and truly cares about the people. I truly love that man! It's super sad, we were talking about transfers and he goes on to tell us that in November, when I go home, about 1/3 of the mission will be going home as well. The transfer before I came out and my transfer were both SUPER big, and most people from my transfer are going home in November for school. Poor president. He joked about going rouge and not allowing any more missionaries to home from here on out haha. I guess that'd take away any school anxieties! 

That was basically my week :) Lots of lessons. I got to pet a cute bunny :) Took a selfie with President. And October is officially here...

Keep up all the good work! Find joy in the little things :) Love you all! 

Scripture of the Week: Matthew 11:28-30

Quote of the Week: "Our joy has little to do with our circumstance and everything to do with our focus." Elder Nelson

P.s. #YouKnowYou'reAMissionary when you get frustrated reading Alma in the Book of Mormon and hearing all of Korihor's anti-Jesus words. I wanted to scream!

Oh, the pictures: that coke bottle was the one Sis. Clawson ran to pick up (the litter) in the road while we were at a stop light. 2. Sis. Clawson and I partying before bed. 3. Bunny named winter. 4. New shirts at Ken's shop. 

Love, 

Sister Humphrey