10-20-2014

Hey y'all!

Man, so...a year ago, I was in Clearview. WHEW! The time, the time...

And now I am officially in my last transfer! AND EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED ONCE AGAIN! So, here we go.

UPDATE:

So...! I have a new companion. HER NAME IS SISTER KATELYN STRINGFELLOW! Annndd...I'm training again. Yep! Definitely unexpected, definitely kinda freaked me out at first...but I'm doing better now! So, some cool things about Sister Stringfellow: She is from Olympia Washington, and is actually here on a mini-mission to see if her physical limitations will allow her to serve a full time mission. She has (get ready for me to butcher the spelling) Spineabifita (Yep. Killed it.) which means that her spine is too long for her body, and ultimately means that her legs are really weak. She walks around with these cool little crutches (which she has lovingly termed Doctrine and Covenants), and wears big plastic braces on her legs when we go outside...but though her body may be weak, spiritually, mentally and emotionally she is one of the most prepared and motivated missionaries I have ever worked with. She super wants to be here, and she super wants to finish a full-time mission (as opposed to the 3 months her mini-mission allows {I'm her follow-up trainer, she's been out already a month and a half}), which is great for me at the end of my mish. I feel super blessed to be her second companion and for her to be my last, and am looking forward to seeing the good things we are able to do together this transfer. :)

Also, update on the work, pretty good week this week! It has been a bit of a tricky transition for me to go from working with a well-seasoned missionary who'd been in this area longer than I had and set the pace and things like that (SVL :P) to being the one who knows everything and sets the pace and calls the shots...but I'm trying to do that without 1) chortling with power, and 2) pushing ourselves to obscene limits. Don't run faster than you are able, right? So working on finding the productive balance. Had a great lesson with Brandon this week though, brought him to the church for a church tour and had a super productive discussion. He also came to institute this week, which he loved, and which was an awesome miracle (Quote after institute from Brandon: "There is this crazy energy here. Like...that (pointing to Michael Throolin) is the happiest guy I've ever seen in my life, and there are like five of them here. There's something about this church..." **SWEET!**) So working on that. Christine unfortunately has dropped off again, so won't be making her baptism date for this Saturday. So close...we'll keep working with her and praying that she'll text us back. *sigh*

PROFILE:

Name: Hansel

Age: 21

Accessory or choice: Table full of free religious literature

How we met him: Going contacting in the afternoon at Edmonds Community College, we heard a loud voice reading the Bible wafting from across the courtyard. We went up and introduced ourselves.

Why we met him: I felt it would be pretty dumb (Elephant in the room type scenario) if we tried to contact people in the courtyard and didn't deal with the guy loudly reading the Bible for all to hear.

Why we soon regretted meeting him: He wouldn't shake our hands (didn't want to be 'unequally yoked,' he said), and promptly began to grill us on how we thought our works would save us and how we hadn't been truly converted to Christ. We had a couple investigators and members that we had texted beforehand come over to see us, and he promptly began grilling them on whether or not they were living the commandments, and told them that if they weren't they were going to Hell.

A few quotes from our conversation: At my insistence (after a long time and persistent attacks) that we didn't want to bash, he said "Why won't you bash?!" Uhh...because contention is of the devil? *sigh*

His arguments: 

1)We were doomed to hell because we were trusting in our baptism rather than in Jesus to save us.

2) What if we were wrong? What if we'd devoted 18 months of our lives to the wrong cause, and were condemning all the people we taught to hell? (sowing the seeds of dooouuubt...)

...and there were others.

Why we were frustrated: He obviously hadn't read Preach My Gospel. Had a memorized rig-ma-role intended to make the recipient feel guilty (and I guess in his mind, thus in need of Christ), and if it didn't work he would cajole us until we would give the 'right answer' (didn't know what to do when I told him that no, the commandments weren't burdensome for me to live). He was a terrible listener, didn't validate anything we were saying (it was all bad and wrong), and certainly didn't adapt teaching to meet needs. AND the spirit definitely wasn't with him, that too.

What I learned: How NOT to be. My goodness. Having had that experience (and some experience with the Jdubs in the area), I'm not surprised that some people are sometimes rude to us or expect us to be awful and condemning. I'm so grateful that that's not what I do as a missionary all day, that my purpose is not to 'invite people to come unto Christ by condemning them to increase their faith...yada yada'. I'm grateful that our focus is to invite, add, encourage, lift and bless. I definitely couldn't (and wouldn't want to) do this otherwise.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

I'm blazing through the Book of Mormon in the attempt to finish it before I get home, and here was one of my favorite scriptures that I came across again.

Alma 38:12

"Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness."

So much good stuff jam-packed into one little verse! Each of those little maxims are extremely profound, and true (I can say, having put them to the test). I encourage you to pick one of the 3 and work on it! I know it'll bless ya. :)

PICTURE:

My new compy loves to make tasty food with me. :) SCORE!

Love you all! Don't be strangers! I'm super grateful to be here and for all your support and love.

XOXO!

Sister Hale