I made it 8 months this week!!! Can you believe it!? I can hardly
contain it!! 8 months of heart aching work, 34 weeks of sleepless
nights for my investigators, 238 days spent searching for the elite,
5,712 hours spent talking and teaching boldly and 20,563,200 seconds
spent coming closer to my savior. (All this math was thanks to my
companion, because I don't do math....) I am so grateful to be out on
my mission, it has brought me so much joy! "The greater our sorrow is,
the greater the capacity is to find and feel joy" I have been through
much sorrow from others agency and my own mistakes, but I truly can
testify that the spirit allows us to feel that joy because we have
been on or seen the opposite side. Even though I see so much pain,
darkness, hurt, sadness, laziness, suffering, guilt, anguish, poverty,
and so on I have had the spirit testify to me that what I have and
what I am doing will change those words into peace, love, comfort,
companion, mercy, charity, light, ect.
Okay update on my iPad. The elders gave it to the tech elder in
Vancouver when they had a meeting there last week. They said my iPad
alarm going off in their car and they couldn't get it to shut off
because the screen didn't work....sorry elders....that's just what you
get when you have to remind yourself to take medicine and vitamins
daily(: the iPad was a success! A miracle really. I got it back all in
one piece at the fireside Friday night. I am just so grateful it all
worked out, heaven was watching out for me. I have all my pictures and
notes from my 8 months back and I just cried. At the fireside I got to
see all my companions!!! Sister staker saved me a seat so I got to sit
by her and catch up. Jonny Miller was a good fireside and we got a
less active family to come see it with us, but I was so distracted by
wanting to see all my companions that my notes were small. He had an
amazing story though about how we and the spirit can be so close. He
literally got help in his golf tournaments from it, it was crazy! His
wife is a convert and her story was so cute. You could totally see she
was prepared and then prepared after baptism to help her less active
husband re-light his fire! I loved seeing sister batey, sister
Okerlund, sister Peterson and sister Tauala. It was a large blessing
to see all of them because these past three weeks I have felt like I
have been on an island. It is so different being so close to the
mission office to now being 2 hours and 45 minutes away. I am getting
use to it though and am so grateful that I have awesome missionaries
serving around me. Hermana jones is in my area, she is the one from
bountiful that knows the woods and is cousins to the fullmer's!!! She
unfortunately is going him this transfer......bummer.....but I'm so
glad I get to serve with her before she leaves!
We met with about 10 less active families this week. We had a lot of
success in getting to know them and setting up a good
foundation/teaching relationship. We met with a young family named the
Gilbert's. They just had a baby, she is a convert, he isn't, they have
Sunday's off and don't come to church. Very very frustrating. They
said that no ones stopped by from the ward in over two years, which is
hard to understand because they live right next to so many ward
members. We also met with a family named the warns, who live in the
middle of no where. They were so excited to have us back over,
everyone came and welcomed us as we pulled up their looooooong
driveway (all their dogs). We had a good lesson with them! Sister warn
went through the temple and wants so badly to be sealed, but brother
warn dosent really understand the importance of the temple and thinks
he is already going to be saved with his family. He got pushed too
hard from the church members and dosent want to come to church because
he feels too pressured and out of place. We have a long road ahead of
us because they both work Sunday's, but the faith is there that we can
help them out. We met with the brown family and actually got to meet
the dad. He was very involved in our FHE we had planned, which was the
Holy Ghost one you sent me mom. He loved being the distraction for his
kids as they tried to listen to sister brown direct them to the prize.
Then we had a great discussion afterwards about the Holy Ghost. They
said that they had been reading their scriptures and praying and I
just about fell over! We are so happy and excited for them.
We met with terry and read from the Book of Mormon with him and with
the Nickerson's. He is opening up more and asking more questions. We
read Jacob 5.....haha poor guy he was really struggling to understand
it. Who wouldn't though on their first time!? We had a great second
lesson with him at sister dahl's home later on in the week. He opened
up even more and asked us about the word of wisdom and about tithing.
We had a wonderful conversation on that and he is so ready for
baptism. He just needs to now altogether quite coffee. We are going
through the baptismal questions with him this week so we are pumped to
see where he is at and where we can go from there! We called a bunch
of investigators from the past and actually got three lessons set up
this week from that! We had one man named Bryan totally text us out of
the blue and said he wanted to meet with us because he liked what our
message was and wants to learn more. We are not sure if we met him or
the previous missionaries did, but we are excited that someone reached
out on their end because that is never the case! We also met a couple
potentials tracting and we have been passing out flyers to our Church
bowling night in a week! Hopefully we can get a good turn out of
investigators and less actives!!
I also had an interview this week with president Taylor. It was my
last interview with him before he leaves the mission. It was actually
really hard to hold back the emotions during our talk because I was
reflecting back on everything he has done for me and I know God put
him here because he knew this was exactly what I needed at this time.
I will forever be grateful to have president Taylor as my mission
president. It was fun to talk to his wife for the last time as well.
Someone told me before I left my mission to watch my mission president
and his wife, because that is what I will want to be and have in a
relationship of my own. I have seen this come true because I hope to
become like president Taylor in so many ways and I hope to have a
relationship just like they do someday. President Taylor and I had a
great talk about what we will do once I get back from the mission.
Haha hopefully we can both make the sun valley ski trip possible! How
awesome would that be to be able to say you skied with your mission
president!!! We also talked about the past 8 months of my mission and
why I was given so many trials and what the lord has in-store for me
for the rest of my mission. We also talked about the new mission
president and how he is trusting me to support and love them the very
second they set foot in the mission. It will be SO hard to watch the
Taylor's leave, but I know that it's not about me, it's about what is
going to help this mission and the lords work here; and the mackatiers
(or however you spell it) is exactly what we need. They have been
called from the lord so they are fully qualified to fulfill what they
have been called here to do and they will fill the shoes president
Taylor will be leaving them with.
We have had such a fun week, working really hard, meeting so many
people and actually starting to feel like we are getting the hang of
the area! I loved being able to see my family yesterday for Mother's
Day. What a special special day. I am so sad I won't be able to see
them again for another 7 months (lame how they don't do Father's Day
too) but I am so grateful for all their support!! I truly know this is
where I am suppose to be. I am so grateful for this beautiful gospel.
I know this church is true. I know that as we do the little things and
take the time to put God first, we will be blessed and he will make us
stronger. The spirit will be more fully in your lives, just like it
has been for me, guiding me and directing me to becoming a better
person. I love the scriptures so much and I know they are the word of
God. There was so many times this week that what I read was exactly
what I needed or what I needed to tell my investigators. I am so
grateful for a father in heaven who knows me perfectly and is in the
details of my life. I know he will forever watch our of us and never
ever give up on us. Have a wonderful week! Find joy in your journey
and don't forget your purpose here on this earth!!
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