Week 44 – Consecration

Hello Most wonderful and greatest Family members and Friends!

What a week! I am loving every minute of missionary work! I cannot believe that I am being so blessed. I am grateful everyday for the blessings he has been giving me. I cannot count the blessings!

One great miracle is that my ankle has miraculous healed and recovered! I have no clue how but I know because it is all of you! So, I don’t have a sprained ankle anymore but of course I am not going to go crazy with it. My knee is healing as well. So ALL is well and happy over here. ^^

We have seen so many other miracles, some of which I can’t talk about and others that I can. We have been seeing more and more people be curious about who we are and what our message is. We have been able to testify to many people about our church. One woman we met was in the middle of searching for a religion and had many questions. Her story made me think of Joseph Smith and we gave her a Restoration Pamphlet. Unfortunately even though we have been seeing so many miracles these people are not giving us their numbers, but I know that we are planting seeds in their hearts and Heavenly Father is seeing our efforts. It is the effort that matters the most. I know the gospel is soooooo true!

This week is transfer call week. On Thursday night we will know what will happen for the next transfer. I realized today that I only have 13 more weeks left in the mission! I have no clue how! Time keeps slipping under my fingers, but that is not making me work any less.

This week we had stake conference. It was amazing! We had Elder Whiting from the 70 come and speak to us. He was soooo powerful! He talked about how to receive revelation and also about tithing. Ohhh. It was sooooo good! I left my notes at home sadly but He talked about the blessings of tithing. He said that he doesn’t care what situation we are in, or what circumstances may arise, we HAVE to pay tithing. It is a law of God and as we pay we are blessed way beyond what we can imagine. It was very good. The power of tithing is real and I have seen it in my own life as well. ALWAYS PAY TITHING NO MATTER WHAT! He also talked about receiving revelation and how we can do it. The first thing is we have to be reverent and worthy to receive it. Worthiness depends on our preparedness. Do we sit, pray and wait for God to answer us? Or are we creating our space to be a quiet spiritual place, reading our scriptures, praying, pondering, etc? What are we doing that doesn’t prepare us spiritually to receive it? How can we prepare ourselves that we can listen to the quiet whisperings of the Spirit? You cannot receive revelation clearly if you are distracted and don’t have the spirit with you. He said sometimes people receive it unworthily, like Alma the Younger but he was someone that needed to be changed and the only way for him to change was for an Angel to appear. He was the exception. When we go to meetings are we sitting reverently or are we running around, talking to people, playing on our phone, sleeping, etc? If you are doing the lesser activities, how do you expect to get spiritual promptings during those meetings? He really called us out because all the way from when people arrived to a minute after the meeting was supposed to start to people were running around and talking. He made the stake president go up and say “When you are ready we will start”. So we waited until people stopped talking. I felt embarrassed because it was super distracting and not reverent at all. I loved it, though. I feel like people just need to be plain honest, I don’t like it when people are not straight to the point. I will deal with it everyday. It was a very powerful realization of what a difference it makes when you sit quietly and reverently versus being distracted. He said that he had no clue what he was going to talk to us about and brought no notes with him. That is when he said that he will start with tithing and revelation. He was AWESOME!

One time during personal study for some reason I had all of these questions pop into my head about being obedient. First off, I am 110% obedient. I was thinking about 100% obedience after the mission. What makes missionaries so obedient? Yes, we have a stricter lifestyle but how can we continue that obedience after the mission? I have learned so much about being 100% obedient as a missionary but what about a 100% percent member? What would stop me from being a 100% obedient member?

I thought about this and pondered but couldn’t really come to any conclusion because I had other questions. Why would I learn so much strict obedience to just throw it out the window? Why is it important that we be strictly obedient to the Lord’s laws? I decided I was going to think about these later and I opened my Liahona (The November General Conference Addition) to read one of the talks. I didn’t know what I wanted to read and I fell upon Elder Jog Klebinglot’s talk. I hadn’t finished writing notes about it so I decided to finish reading it. Well, guess what was the next thing I needed to read in his talk? Point #3 about being consecrated and obedience. Yep, I read that part. Wow, so amazing. I loved it! I recommend you all read it. I love that he says that selective obedience to God’s law brings selective blessing. If we choosing something that is not as bad but not worse, it is still choosing wrong. Heavenly Father wants to give us ALL the blessings in the whole world but he can’t unless we are obedient. Please read it. here is the section: 3. Embrace voluntary, wholehearted obedience as part of your life. Acknowledge that you cannot love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior’s standard is clear and simple: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Selective obedience brings selective blessings, and choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong. You can’t watch a bad movie and expect to feel virtuous because you did not watch a very bad one. Faithful observance of some commandments doesn’t justify neglecting others. Abraham Lincoln rightly said, “When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad” (in William H. Herndon and Jesse William Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, 3 vols. [1889], 3:439).

Also, do the right things for the right reasons. The Lord, who “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:34) and who “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (D&C 33:1), knows why you go to church—whether you are present in body only or truly worshipping. You can’t sing on Sunday, “O Babylon, O Babylon, [I] bid thee farewell” and then seek or tolerate its company again moments later (“Ye Elders of Israel,”Hymns, no. 319). Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the Church and the restored gospel your whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life. Choosing this day whom you will serve is lip service only—until you actually live accordingly (see Joshua 24:15). Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! I am learning more and more everyday and I LOVE IT!

Love, Sister Orme

P.s. I will tell you next week what happens with transfers!

4 days till Blast off!

Hello Everyone! I can’t believe it but I have only 4 more days until I leave for Korea. WAHH????!!! I can’t believe it at all! it is crazy to be. I have had an amazing time at the MTC and will always remember and cherish the memories and what I have learned here. It could not have been better. I am ready for Korea and I am excited to go!

me and my new companions! BTW SISTER STASTY IS AWESOME!

One last pic with THE FIRST AWESOME COMPANION, SISTER HOFFMAN! with our korea shirts.

Mine and Creed’s last picture together. Love him!

Here are my flight plans: Leave Feb 24 for the SLC airport at 11:06 AM for Seattle, WA (!!!!!), arrive in Seattle at 12:20 PM and leave at1:10 pm (this is where I can talk to family…so let’s set up a conference call..i would love to hear dad/mom and all the sibs if possible), then we arrive in Tokyo at 4:55 PM on the 25th of Feb, then fly from Tokyo at 6:25 to Busan and we arrive at 8:55.

Woooooohh! It’a going to be a super loooooong trip!

I just want to thank everyone for the love and support you all give me. I have felt the prayers and know I am ready to serve in Korea.

Well, I don’t have much time but I will share my thoughts of the last few days from my journal. It has been such a spectacular week…You will know why….

Here is my Journal Entry:

Butterfield, Watson, and I had a really good lesson with Choi Chamanim. We talked about the law of chastity and tithing. She didn’t have trouble with the law of chastity but she did with tithing. During that lesson it was about 10 minutes of chastity and 50 minutes tithing. Even most of the lesson on tithing was silence. We waited for the spirit to teach. The spirit was so strong in that room. Choi Chamanim even cried and gave a super sincere prayer during the lesson. She didn’t want to at first but then Watson Chagnonim persisted. We felt really good about that lesson. Afterwards, we asked Sister Sagers if she heard about the lesson. She said she did and that Sister Lee told her we were ready for the field and are prepared to teach with real power. Wow, I really appreciated that because I felt a little inadequate to go to Korea.

Me and a native

The cute korean elders

Of course the classic riding missionaries.

Another lesson we had yesterday was a practice lesson using all of the fundamentals. Hence, all 5 of us: Elder Shields, Elder Leftwich, Elder Butterfield, Elder Watson, and I Had to teach one person. Sister Sagers was an investigator by the name of Sister Oh. Our first lesson didn’t go well because we were all crazy so we started over. The second lesson was powerful! The spirit was really strong as well. Afterwards, Sister Sagers told us that was amazing and that she is so happy because she now knows for herself that we are ready. We got to know the investigator and we asked inspired questions. We asked questions that really pertained to her which made it powerful. I really needed those lessons because it really confirmed to me that no matter how inadequate I feel, the Lord knows me and trusts in me. I know that if i try my hardest, the Lord will guide me, strengthen me, and will fill in any gaps that I lack. I know the Lord is with me no matter where i go. I know he loves me. I know he is preparing me to teach certain people. Sister Lee told me the other day to treat everyone as if you were friends in the pre-mortal life and you promised to find them. You promised that you would help them find the gospel and come back to him. I am excited for that. I know it is true. I also promised to the Lord that I will give my full self to him to be the best tool i can be. We are all here for a reason and I know that i am supposed to be here, right now, being prepared to leave for Korea. we have 4 more days and I will give it my all. I am very grateful for this MTC experience because i have learned so much more than I could of anywhere else. I know I have changed, for the better, since being here. I know there is still more to change and I am excited for that.

End.

I am seriously so excited and feel so ready to teach in Korea. I know that if I have the spirit with me, I will be able to bless the lives of others. I can’t wait!!!!

I love you all so much!!!!! I love this gospel and know that is true with all my heart and soul. Be missionaries yourselves! Share what you love! You will be blessed for it. Trust me. With the Lord, NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE. He makes YOU POSSIBLE.

Love, Sister Orme

p.s. my next email will be from KOREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^^    <—Korean happy face