June 25, 2012

When Mondays come around its so difficult to remember everything that has happened throughout the week. I love being a missionary. I love to be able to walk up to random strangers and begin a conversation with them. Before my mission, i would never had had the confidence to do that. The longer i serve, the more the lord blesses me to see and understand my role as his daughter. I know that as we serve others, forgetting ourselves and our needs and desires the lord blesses us with a greater capacity to love and to see his hand in our lives. This week sister Randall and i went on exchanges to Dardenne Creek, ILL. to visit the sisters serving there. Its such a great area, so much potential. My previous Companion sister Northcutt is now serving there, and it was awesome to see the growth she has experienced since we've served together. We were companions the second day of exchanges. And after DM that morning we planned on doing service at a members home and then going out finding. After completing service, we quickly changed back into our proselyting clothes and headed out. As we were collecting materials (pamphlets, BOM's, pass along cards), i noticed sister Northcutt didn't replace her name badge after service. We ended up needing to drive back to the members home to retrieve her badge and because of all the driving were limited on our finding efforts. We drove only a couple houses down and started there. We didn't find any new investigators, but we did find a family that was LDS, who had moved from Utah and through the course of the move had fallen into inactivity. After that experience i turned to sister Northcutt and we talked about how we needed to find that family, and that i know that God had lead us to find them. God leads us in mysterious ways, in this case it was to go back and retrieve a name badge. I know that everything happens for a reason. That God wants to lead us and direct us through the trials of life. And that as we walk through this probationary, time God will place people in our paths whom we can help. Or maybe he'll lead us to people who have fallen by the wayside. No matter who they are, and their circumstances, they are also children of God. And i know that when we prepare and look for those missionary opportunities the Lord will bless us. We ended our exchanges with a quick goal setting session and then made smores on the stove top. Sister Toala, sister Toals'a companion is from Somoa and has only had smores once, i thought it would be fun to let her experience them again. You'd think that because there is no open flame you wouldn't be able to catch your mallow on fire. FALSE. It can happen, my companions' mallow caught flame. We had a neat finding experience Saturday. I had thumbed through the list of potential investigators left by previous missionaries and had written down a few that i felt we should follow up on. And that's how we found Kathrine. She was home, and welcomed us in. She was very friendly and we had an awesome discussion with her. She shared her testimony of how she knew that she was a daughter of God and the she knew He loved her. It was awesome! We have a tentative lesson schedule with her for next week. Yesterday was a huge testimony builder for me when i saw Angel, one of our investigators at church. She said she was coming and so we had faith that she would be there. And the fact that she beat us to church, and was already sitting down waiting for the service to start was so cool. Especially because both her parents weren't there. We sat next to her and did our best to help her keep her 20month daughter Fiona quiet, but that's better said than done. Especially because as missionaries we aren't allowed to hold children or really have and type of contact with them. Thankfully some of the surrounding members helped out by providing toys and other forms of entertainment for Fiona. Thankfully, the rest of the block went much smoother. Sunday evening was a neat experience for me and especially for my companion. We had two dinner's scheduled. One with a member right after church at 4pm, and then with an Investigator at 6Pm. Originally the appointment at six was just going to be a teaching appointment, but our investigator really wanted to cook for us. I planned ahead, and ate slowly, politely refusing seconds each time they were offered. But my poor companion. She couldn't say no and had seconds for both the first course and for dessert. We went to our second dinner and i again ate slowly and only had first helpings. I felt fine but my companion got sick during the lesson. She hid it pretty well, so i don't think kelly, our investigator knew. Actually i didn't know at first either until we exited the house and the door had closed. Instantly my companion turned to me and said that she felt like she was gong to puke. We jumped in the car and quickly headed home, stopping once on the side of the road to allow her to empty her stomach. She has been a little sick earlier in the week. I think she experienced a little heat stroke, she's not use to the heat and humidity yet coming from Utah. Actually we had a really awesome experience with our land lord Friday night. Sister Randall had gotten sick earlier in the day and had asked for a blessing of healing. As she slept i was in the room thinking about where to have to blessing. Our land lord's were home and i was trying to figure out which room to hold the blessing. As i was reading and pondering this a thought came to mind to ask Edie if she would like a blessing as well. She had been sick for the last two weeks and hadn't shown any improvement. I know we're not suppose to silicate giving blessings but i felt comfortable knowing that this was something i should ask her. I was really nervous about ask her. But she accepted, and that night she along with sister Randall received priesthood blessings. Edie's blessing was very neat to witness. The elder giving it knew nothing about her or the thing's she going through. I know that the blessing she received was from her Heavenly Father. But other than that, the work is going forth. There are people to see, and messages to share. The work is so much greater than i originally thought. I feel so blessed to be apart of it. I love my mission. i know that this gospel is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I love you Mom and DAd. Hugs and kisses.