Man, just sorting through my email pile this week I'm struck again with how blessed I've been in my life with wonderful people to love and who love me. It's incredible that making the sacrifice to come on a mission seems only to strengthen that love and those bonds, though I'm sure plenty of people would say it's too difficult a sacrifice to make. Incredible how the Lord compensates for all the sacrifices you make for him. I feel super super grateful.
But! To get outside of the mushy: the business!
An Update:
We're doing really well. Ah! Super blessed. Let me just remind y'all: I was terrified when I came into this area. Neither I nor my companion knew anything about the place or the people, I was in a family ward for the first time, on bike for the first time...it was terrifying. But as we've tried to work hard and use our time well, we've been super blessed. We actually made almost all of our goals this week, and surpassed some of them, which, in missionary world, is kind of unheard of. And some of those goals I was pretty resigned to not making. But! We were miraculously blessed with a new investigator and a member-present lesson yesterday (missionary lingo, sorry) that we weren't expecting, and were hit with a media referral today (like on mormon.org, someone going on and referring themselves to be taught by the missionaries. Missionary gold.)--the first one of my mission. I just hope that we work hard enough and are capable enough to live up to these blessings. All and all though, the work has been a lot of fun this week (if still a challenge, as it often goes).
An Experience:
Ah...where to start. Conner, the sweet boy we taught this week is on date to be baptized! It's incredible the joy I felt when I saw them and their Mom coming into church, all dressed up and looking fine. It's so cool; you don't plan on this work bringing you joy and you don't always expect it, but it does. As to a particular experience...man, there are so many. How to choose one. Met a wonderful woman Judy this week who is a retired chemist and lives alone with her sweet dog Joe. We talked for a good long time about God, how the universe (both macro and micro) testifies of how he does exist...and a little bit about the fruits of living a believing life (fruits of being honest, treating others well, working hard, focusing on education, all of that). We have another meeting set up with her for next Saturday, and are going to be sharing the Restoration with her. We hope she'll be open to learning more.
A Thought:
I read 2 Nephi 28 this morning, and it's a great read. I recommend it. Verse that stuck out to me was vs 29:
"Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough!"
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that so far on my mission. "Oh, thank you, we have a church, we have the Bible (or 'I'm an Atheist') we have enough." And it's true; there are many reasons why people don't accept the missionaries (the least of which maybe being that we ride around in skirts and white helmets. Weird.). But I wish they would. I wish that all who believed they had enough would be open to receiving more, and evaluate for themselves what we have to share with them.
Also, I watched this video this week, and was really touched by it. Almost a tear. :P If I was on facebook at home I would definitely share it...but for now I'll just share it with you.
If we're serious about protecting diversity, that means religious diversity as well. And what a light and strength religion is to people of all faiths.
Love you all! Have a great week. :)
Sister Hale
PS. Super long email. Sorry about that.
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