Sister Marli MacLay: "I was asked to give a talk at Zone Conference".

I will never get over how dang flat Texas is.

This week we had zone conference! It was so so awesome! We woke up real early to make the 2 hour drive to Amarillo. I was asked to give a talk at zone conference too! It was on the Book of Mormon challenge we are doing. I sorta knew that I was going to be asked to speak because I am the only one that has finished it. I made it a goal to finish it a few weeks ago. Everyone else will be finishing July 1st! But anyways, for those who don't remember, the challenge was to read the entire Book of Mormon and mark every time it references Christ or Christ speaks etc. Everyone should do this! It was such an awesome experience! It shows how much the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Jesus Christ, which is its main purpose!

Our mission is also now using Facebook! Some of y'all have probably already noticed me on there. No, I'm not being disobediant lol. It's super cool that we are able to use it as another tool in furthering His work! I will be unfollowing all of you so I won't see your posts or anything, just so ya know and don't get all butt hurt when I don't like your selfies.

Hector is also doing really good quitting smoking! He even gave us one of his pack of cigarettes! We were so stoked! He used to smoke at least 20 a day, and now he's down to 0-4. He started to get super frustrated and down on himself. When we were visiting him one day, he was trying to pump himself up. He kept saying "get out of here Satan! Go home!" and my favorite "I am gonna stop kissing Satan's a**. (meaning smoking cigarettes) Satan can kiss my a**." haha. We are super proud of him! He's literally my favorite person ever. See pics below.

We also had a referell for a lady who requested a Bible online. Her name was Mattie. We went and saw her and she is a cute little old black lady with one leg. She was so so sweet. We left her with a restoration pamphlet, Bible, and Book of Mormon. We made a return appointment to come back and teach her the Restoration. We came back a few days later and she was just as sweet as ever. She's a talker (everyone in Texas is though). When we finally started the lesson she all of a sudden got really rude haha. She kept interrupting us and arguing with everything we were saying. She kept going on tangents and asking questions that had no answer. She was confusing herself, and definitely confusing us. I started to get really frustrated with her and was praying to have charity for this woman. She got worse, and kept telling us our beliefs were wrong. We tried showing her a restoration video. People can't talk and interrupt in those, so they just have to sit there and feel the spirit. Not Mattie though. She wouldn't look at the screen. As soon as heavenly father and Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith, she yells "stop that! That's not true!" soooo yeah. Then she kept trying to argue with us. Then she kinda kicked us out, but then as we were leaving she got sweet again and told us we were welcome back anytime. We were soooo confused. We had to do a breathing exercise after that because we were both so irritated and frustrated. Haha.

We are going to start teaching an awesome girl named Savannah! She is 21 and has a 2 year old daughter. She seems super interested and even invited us back to teach her before we got the chance to ask her! That was a first. Usually it's like pulling teeth with these people. We will teach her and her roommate tomorrow morning so pray for us!

Here's something cool I learned today! I have been studying Joseph Smith's teachings. There's this part where it talks about how nothing can stop this Gospel and work from progressing.

It talks about the parable of the mustard seed. I always think of how that's related to faith, but this related it to the kingdom of God!

Matthew 13:

31 ¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

The Book of Mormon was taken and hidden in the ground by Moroni! It was secured by his faith to spring up in the last days. And now, it is "towering with lofty branches and God-like majesty until it, like the mustard seed, becomes the greatest of all herbs."

This is Christ's Church and His glorious gospel! Nothing can stop this work from going forward! "Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

There is so much work to be done by each of us before Christ can say the work is done! All of us should be able to realize the importance of the work, and act as if success depended on each of our individual exertion alone!

Love you all!

Sister MacLay