week 31: the foolish man built his house upon the bank of the rivers in ohio..

April 07, 2025

howdy everyone! I hope you've had a blessed week! I know I have! let's get right into it!

spiritual thought: I know what you're thinking.. we just had general conference and I'm gonna talk about something from that... while it was really good, i've had something else on my mind lately.

a member said this to me and it really stuck with me the past few days.

all of us who grew up in the church of course have to grow our own testimonies and come to know for ourselves if the gospel is true. but we all expect it to be a huge Joseph Smith experience and some of us are disappointed if it's not. sometimes even to the point where we doubt our faith.

Sister Brooks said

when you grow up in the sunshine you're not gonna have a huge darkness to light experience. the beams might be brighter or hit you in a different way but it's always been there!

I guess that hit me because I've wondered why I haven't had profound experiences but I've lived with the spirit my entire life and don't know anything different. yes, i feel the spirit stronger sometimes but like she said it's not gonna be a night and day difference if the suns been there all along. or in this case the Son :)

He's aware of you. and loves you so much. and so do I :)

now on to the week

MONDAY

we had a zone activity! visited Charles but ended up talking to crystal whos taking care of her grandma with dementia. she's a sweetheart. also visited Abbie and taught her about the restoration of Christ's church.

TUESDAY

met with our friend who told us he isn't willing to give up certain things for Christ yet. got me thinking... are you willing to give up your favorite sins for someone who gave His life for you?

met with our friend Amy. I adore her.

it was an ice cream kind of day so we checked out Whit's frozen custard. we also met a new friend named Walker after his dog OPENED THE DOOR AND RAN TOWARDS ME?!

WEDNESDAY

taught Jasmine of God's perfect plan for us! had dinner with the Halls. turns out Brother Hall went to dentist school with Brother Shepherd from the Chardon branch! small world!

YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I SAW! ⛰️⛰️⛰️⛰️

that's right. MOUNTAINS. IN OHIO!

they were kinda small and wimpy mountains but they were mountains nonetheless. made my entire week.

it was up to 79 degrees. freezing the next day. Ohio is bipolar bruh

THURSDAY

I woke up at 1:30am to my phone buzzing and you guessed it... tornado sirens 😃 but oh well cause it only lasted 30 minutes then i went back to bed. we had zone conference which was weird cause now I'm in a south area so my zone conference wasn't held in Kirtland like it has been every other time. we had dinner with the Arslanian's then President Arslanian was able to come to a lesson with us! he answered some questions that our friend Vern had which was awesome! Vern let me play his guitar 🎸😁

FRIDAY

food pantry Friday! visited sister Vore who had 6 lil baby chicks 🐥 she let us hold them! awwww! for our finding block we decided to go OYM in a parking lot. (Open Your Mouth) which is my biggest fear.. I'm not gonna lie I complained almost the entire time. but we met Melissa and Davina! they were the sweetest Christian ladies! we had a really good conversation about faith, repentance, baptism... we definitely planted a seed even if they weren't interested in coming to church with us. Melissa has a Christ-centered dance studio in town! I told her I used to be a dance teacher at home and she told me to reach out if I'm ever looking for a job 😂

right after that we were driving to a stop by and I saw three teenage boys walking on the street and I had a feeling to stop and talk to them. but I quickly pushed it out of my brain cause I had somewhere else to be. that's when the strongest feeling told me to turn around. I was like HECK NO. I won't be doing that. it's not that deep. but that's when I missed my turn cause guess what I was distracted by the thought of talking to those three boys. I had to search but I eventually found them again and invited them to church! I expect to see Cole, Chase and Ben next Sunday.

SATURDAY

General conference! we tried to watch with some of our friends but plans fell through and we ended up watching every session with the Waltz's. they're so awesome and I'm so grateful for them

now for my email title... theres been flood warnings lately and we drove by this spot we always drive by, near the river... the river is a lake now... all the fields are lakes too.. I hope peoples houses aren't flooding...

SUNDAY

we watched the morning conference session with the Waltz's and the afternoon session with the Thompson's. we stopped by a friend in between sessions who told us he watched conference but that nobody looked like they were enjoying themselves and none of them had beards and they didn't have enough passion. he said if he talked in conference he'd "put on a show" that's when we talked about reverence with him. and the very first talk that next session was all about reverence. pov the church is true. God is real.

at the Thompsons their dog Toby was running around barking and nipping at us.. by the end I was holding him and he was very calm lol

we had our friend Vern text us during conference and say hes watched most of it and he couldn't wait for us to come over to answer his questions! so we went over with sister brooks and answered his questions and he told us he'll be at church on Sunday! YAY!

General conference was so good! tell me your thoughts! i miss you and love you all! have a good week

<3/Sister Hare

quotes:

"the Lord protects missionaries that aren't stupid" -President Brockbank

pictures hehe