Simple Missionary Moments

In case I didn't let y'all know, my family has moved across the country! Exciting, right? So I couldn't work for my dad anymore, because he had to get a new job :). Thus, I got a job here at a Health Care Manufacturing Facility.
It's pretty boring, but it brings in the bucks. (random tidbit, did you know that a dollar became known as a "buck" because a male deer's hide would be bought for $1 back in the day?)

So now that we're not in Utah, and I'm working with a bunch of people that aren't LDS, I get a lot more missionary opportunities than I used to. Here are a few of them:

I was working at a machine with another person (say his name was Aaron), and he needed to remember something later. So Aaron turned to me and said, "Hey, if I forget this later, will you call me a *******." I said, "I won't say that word, but I can remind you."
"Oh," he replied, "Then you can just call me a *****." (word that was basically the swear word)
I smiled at him and said, "But then I'd think of the word that I wasn't saying."
He looked a little confused, and asked me, "Then you've never come close to swearing?"
I thought about it for a moment, and then realized I could say, "Nope, never."
"Hm." Then we both went back to work.
It was nice to not only share my language standards, but to be able to realize that I'd never broken them. There are a lot of four-letter words floating around at my work and I sometimes think them, but as I try to block out the thoughts the words never seem to come to my mouth.
My brothers are nice, and have stopped "fake cussing" around me as well.

At my work, when people finish with jobs at their station, they'll come over to my station and help out. One of these people was making small talk with me, and relationships were brought up.
"Do you have any kids?" he asked me.
"No, I'm not married."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Nope, I haven't found the right guy yet."
"Oh, so you have standards?"
That threw me. I thought that everyone had things that they wanted in their partner.
So I responded, "Yeah." Then I thought, what the heck! I'll share a brief testimony! "That's what my parents did, and they're happy together, so I guess it works."
"Oh." Then we both went back to work.
It's been really eyeopening to see how people outside of Utah view relationships and marriage. A lot of people say things like. "You're married? That's too bad. Then you'll need a divorce when you want out." I'm so happy I wasn't raised with those ideals. I hope that through sharing my testimony with that one person they'll realize that there's something more they can get. (
(side note: Pres. Packer's talk and the movie "The War Room" go very well together and talk a lot about the heavenly part of marriage.)

Finally, a couple weeks ago our ward (or local congregation) had a fast for less active members to feel the spirit again, for strong families to move in, and for missionary experiences. The next Monday, at work, the second thing anyone said to me was "So what exactly is a Mormon?"
It was AWESOME!
I basically said that Mormon's are Christians, but here are some things that make us different... . Then I outlined the Apostasy, Restoration, and Book of Mormon. It was short and I don't think they understood what I was saying (I need to work on that :S) but it was cool!

So if you want to share your belief of Christ or your standards, just think, "Tova can do it, so I can definitely do it!" :D. It's been such an amazing feeling to be able to be an instrument in God's hands. I get the feeling described in the blog description-- "This is the joy of truly penitent seeker of happiness."