Claire's Mission in Armenia "Hampoorel vs. Hamperel..."
Dear loveliest friends,
Well to start off with, I bore my testimony in church yesterday about the Doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Well the word for to endure is hamperel and the word for to kiss is hampoorel, so I accidentally said that we need to kiss to the end instead of endure to the end. whoops. haha. I guess every missionary has to have some sort of experience like that.
What a great week this has been. First off, we had an amazing District meeting with President Carter who is the kindest, most humble man. I just love him and his wife. They are nothing but loving and supportive and I am so grateful to feel like I am really on the right path to becoming the missionary the Lord wants me to be. Then we had the great opportunity to teach with him, which was amazing, he is so bold and fearless and full of the Spirit. Such a great example.
So excited for Soph to be headed to Denver this week!! AHHH!!! So exciting to get to work.
Well President Lawrence, our Europe East Area President, came and spoke to us last week. He is such a spiritual giant. He spoke on the 5 Keys to missionary success. They are 1. Learn the doctrine, 2. Focus on our purpose as missionaries and on sanctification, 3. learn how the Spirit speaks to you 4. Exercise faith and 5 be unified, as a companionship, as a mission and most importantly with the Lord. Such a great talk and I was priviledged to be able to sing at the beginning of the meeting! I sang "The Olive Tree" and it went quite well, not my best performance, but it went well. Anyways, President Lawrence talked extensively about how when we are in the process of sanctification we are fully consecrated to the Lord. So this fast sunday as a mission we fasted to find out what we could individually sacrifice to the Lord. As soon as I opened my fast I knew that I needed to sacrifice naps. Not that naps are bad, but just that I could be using my time more wisely. So I shall do it and the Lord has promised that I will receive the strength I need, because as you all know, sleep is something I really need, so this will be a big step but I have the promise of D&C 24:12 to help me, so for the rest of my mission I will be running on the strength of the Lord.
Also, about 2 weeks ago I was talking about the Armenian Church in my email and I think I was not quite as respectful as I should have been. It truly has been such a rock for these people who have dealt with so much heart ache and oppression over the centuries. Faith in Christ runs in these peoples' veins, it is really amazing to expereince, it is just hard when tradition gets in the way of living the gospel. Their foundation of faith in Christ is just a stepping stone to accepting the fulness of Christ's gospel which is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that with all of my heart.
Some other funny occurences of this week, well a lady we were talking to on the street the other day could not believe that Sister Arslanian's teeth were real, you see, most people here are missing most of their teeth and some lucky few have dentures, but most just go toothless. Well she was just thunderstruck that hers were real and she asked if she could pull on them just to make sure. haha, so there we were, on the street with a lady pulling on Sister Arslanian's front teeth. not an everyday occurence to be sure.
So I have been reading in the New Testament, I decided to read through it, and I am in Romans and I am just loving it. Paul was just full of so much good insight, incredible really. I especially loved Romans 8:35 and 37, talking about how nothing can separate from the Love of Christ. It put me in mind of the talk by President Eyring in last conference about Pavillions. Truly, nothing can separate us from the Lord expect ourselves. He is always there, waiting and reaching out in Love, we just have to align our wills with His and the blessins truly will flow. How I love that truth.
I love this work and I love you all so much! This is the work of the Lord and as we consecrate to Him, he blesses us with increased capacity to go and do the work He has for us. I love it! Its the hardest thing I have ever done but I know that the Lord blesses us when we do HIs will. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity" as says Elder Holland, and I completely concur.
love love love from your little friend in Armenia
Sister Claire Haynie
Well to start off with, I bore my testimony in church yesterday about the Doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Well the word for to endure is hamperel and the word for to kiss is hampoorel, so I accidentally said that we need to kiss to the end instead of endure to the end. whoops. haha. I guess every missionary has to have some sort of experience like that.
What a great week this has been. First off, we had an amazing District meeting with President Carter who is the kindest, most humble man. I just love him and his wife. They are nothing but loving and supportive and I am so grateful to feel like I am really on the right path to becoming the missionary the Lord wants me to be. Then we had the great opportunity to teach with him, which was amazing, he is so bold and fearless and full of the Spirit. Such a great example.
So excited for Soph to be headed to Denver this week!! AHHH!!! So exciting to get to work.
Well President Lawrence, our Europe East Area President, came and spoke to us last week. He is such a spiritual giant. He spoke on the 5 Keys to missionary success. They are 1. Learn the doctrine, 2. Focus on our purpose as missionaries and on sanctification, 3. learn how the Spirit speaks to you 4. Exercise faith and 5 be unified, as a companionship, as a mission and most importantly with the Lord. Such a great talk and I was priviledged to be able to sing at the beginning of the meeting! I sang "The Olive Tree" and it went quite well, not my best performance, but it went well. Anyways, President Lawrence talked extensively about how when we are in the process of sanctification we are fully consecrated to the Lord. So this fast sunday as a mission we fasted to find out what we could individually sacrifice to the Lord. As soon as I opened my fast I knew that I needed to sacrifice naps. Not that naps are bad, but just that I could be using my time more wisely. So I shall do it and the Lord has promised that I will receive the strength I need, because as you all know, sleep is something I really need, so this will be a big step but I have the promise of D&C 24:12 to help me, so for the rest of my mission I will be running on the strength of the Lord.
Also, about 2 weeks ago I was talking about the Armenian Church in my email and I think I was not quite as respectful as I should have been. It truly has been such a rock for these people who have dealt with so much heart ache and oppression over the centuries. Faith in Christ runs in these peoples' veins, it is really amazing to expereince, it is just hard when tradition gets in the way of living the gospel. Their foundation of faith in Christ is just a stepping stone to accepting the fulness of Christ's gospel which is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that with all of my heart.
Some other funny occurences of this week, well a lady we were talking to on the street the other day could not believe that Sister Arslanian's teeth were real, you see, most people here are missing most of their teeth and some lucky few have dentures, but most just go toothless. Well she was just thunderstruck that hers were real and she asked if she could pull on them just to make sure. haha, so there we were, on the street with a lady pulling on Sister Arslanian's front teeth. not an everyday occurence to be sure.
So I have been reading in the New Testament, I decided to read through it, and I am in Romans and I am just loving it. Paul was just full of so much good insight, incredible really. I especially loved Romans 8:35 and 37, talking about how nothing can separate from the Love of Christ. It put me in mind of the talk by President Eyring in last conference about Pavillions. Truly, nothing can separate us from the Lord expect ourselves. He is always there, waiting and reaching out in Love, we just have to align our wills with His and the blessins truly will flow. How I love that truth.
I love this work and I love you all so much! This is the work of the Lord and as we consecrate to Him, he blesses us with increased capacity to go and do the work He has for us. I love it! Its the hardest thing I have ever done but I know that the Lord blesses us when we do HIs will. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity" as says Elder Holland, and I completely concur.
love love love from your little friend in Armenia
Sister Claire Haynie
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