Hello,
dear people. Tis your favorite missionary, once again reporting from the
Employment Resource Center. It’s a nice day outside, except for the fact that
the entire world has decided to skip winter. I’d like to call a totally not
fair on that one.
It’s
been a week – let’s just say that. There were some good things, and there were
some really dumb things. It’s really hard when you feel like you finally know
how to do this missionary thing and nothing is working out for you. I just do
all I can to remember that it’s not my agenda that’s important. Humility. Not
my best quality (I’m pretty darn awesome, you know).
There’s
not too much investigator work being done in this neck of the woods, and it’s
not from lack of trying, let me tell you that. We've been out finding, looking
through all of our former investigators and potential investigators, and
nothing seems to be working out for us.
We
haven’t heard from Jessica all week, which pains me terribly. We've been
calling and texting and we’ve stopped by a few times and haven’t heard
anything. We just keep praying for her and remember that even if we have no
idea what’s going on, the Lord does. He’s a good Friend to have.
The
Mirandas – ah. So, Sister Miranda got her temple recommend to do baptisms on
Wednesday. The whole family came to the interview, and Sister Hudgens got to
talk to her husband for quite a while. He’s not quite ready to take the
discussions, but he is such a great guy and is so supportive of his wife.
Sounds like we’re on the right track, right? We thought so too.
They
didn't show up to church yesterday, so we went to their place during 2nd
hour to find them. They were all awake and getting ready to go to a
relative’s house for a dinner something or other. Sister Miranda’s husband had
apparently woken her up to get ready for church, but she went back to bed
because all of her church clothes were dirty. We were also going to take them
to a tour of the temple grounds that the mission president was putting on and
that they were totally excited for, but they were leaving, so apparently not.
It
was a really upsetting appointment. It was hard to see her so complacent and
nonchalant, especially because she’s been so passionate about the gospel the
entire time we’ve been teaching her. It was one of those moments where I wanted
more than anything to grab her shoulders and say, “What are you doing? Do you
realize that this is breaking down everything you’ve been working so hard for?”
But I didn’t. If she just hadn’t come, I would be upset, but the attitude just
broke my heart.
One
of the things I’ve learned on my mission is the real nature of boldness. Being
bold doesn’t mean that I’ve been endowed with an extra measure of bravery –
being bold means that I’ve been given an extra measure of love for people and
an understanding of the gospel. Being bold means that you are genuinely
concerned for someone who isn’t reaching their full potential and needs to be
warned. Maybe I should have been super bold with her, but the words weren’t
coming and generally that means that I’m not supposed to say anything, so we’ll
see how things go. She probably needs some warning.
We’ve
been having some good times with the recent converts in the ward. Jeremiah
reached his 1 year mark from being baptized yesterday, so we made him a Happy
Re-Birthday cake. Also, Jeremiah is hilarious. He seems to think that I’m
gangster, and tells me that on a regular basis. He asked us where we were yesterday
while we were at the Mirandas, and I sent him a text back. The only issue was
that he was sitting in priesthood opening exercises and his phone was on loud,
so in the middle of everything all of priesthood heard, “MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM
SISTER GANGSTER.” I think it’s hilarious.
In
other news, President Mortensen wants us to go church tracting, which means
that we go around to the churches in our area and offer to help them with any
service projects they are involved in. We tried to do that Saturday morning,
and it was honestly one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my missionary
life. The handbook says to not proselyte at or near the houses of worship of
other faiths, so we give them a wide berth. WIDE berth. We tried a really big
Lutheran church, and we were so nervous, it was pathetic. It was so big and
there was a band playing and it was so loud and we were so lost. We ended up
finding the offices, which were closed, and ran away before anyone could cast
stones at us. We’re going to try again this week, and hopefully it won’t be
nearly as frightening.
I
think that’s all. We’re just running along here, doing all we can before we
reach an ignominious death in the near future. If anyone could find a way to
pull the batteries and stop the clock to give us a little more time, that would
be fabulous. Until someone figures that out, prayers would be nice. Lots and
lots of prayers.
I
sure love y’all. Have an excellent week and do some good work. Smile, share the
gospel, and hug your mom. I bet she’s great. I think mine is.
Lovest.
Sister
Little Kiss
(Courtesy
of Sister Bates)
Elder Misa's first time at Chick-Fil-A. He really liked
it.
Elder Field is very coordinated.
DeMarion and I - he may be flashing gang signs. I have no
idea. He's three.
I love the sky in Texas - I'm going to miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment