Week 18: What I'm Here For
Dear Loved Ones,
I'll start this off with a couple shoutouts.
1: Abby Zlotnick, congratulations on your wedding!
2. Happy birthday to Camille Perkins!
3. Saige, congratulations on your pregnancy and I will road trip down to Cedar City to see your baby after my mission. My mission doesn't seem so long until I think about how your baby will be six or seven months old by then.
4. Speaking of babies, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) had their baby this morning! I have been waiting for him to be born since late February and I ask my mom every week whether she'd given birth yet.
Today was a rough week, and I don't have the energy to write a long email, so there will be no weekly tip. I had some bright spots.
While tracting, I met a woman who answered the door with a dead expression that reminded me of the way I used to look during my dark patches while I was waiting to serve. She said she'd had a hard day. I thought she'd just had an argument or a bad day at work or something, but then she told me, "I lost my job."
Me: (Wow, that's so hard) "I'm so sorry."
Her: "And then I came home and my husband had left."
Me: (Oh no. This is the worst day of her life) "That's terrible!"
Her: "And my ex gets out of prison tomorrow."
Me: (All right, this is the person I was sent to this area to find).
I heard once that when you're called or assigned somewhere, you should figure out why you're in that specific place, and I really think it's for her. She said she was thinking about going to church and bought two bibles, but her husband would never let her. And then he left. And we came. She said she doesn't think the timing is a coincidence and that she wouldn't have let us talk to her on any other day.
These are the type of people I'm here to help, the lonely and dejected. Happy people can be happy in any church, and we have this merciful theology where people who don't accept the gospel in this life can accept it later in the Spirit World, so I never feel like the pressure's on for 90% of the people I teach. But for her, she is someone I want to help.
I also got the opportunity to go into Independence (Yes! An actual evening in Missouri instead of being awkwardly in Kansas when my mission title is Missouri!) for a devotional. Recent converts were speaking and we took a man we are teaching. He seemed to enjoy it. I love church history and went on a church history study abroad the summer of my sophomore year. That summer was when I got my confirmation (in Palmyra, I might add) that I would get a chance to build up the kingdom. That summer I learned about how members all throughout history have done bad things, not just "imperfect" things, as it is so frequently and sickeningly euphamized, so I am not the first to weather inside persecution in the church. That summer, I visited so many visitors' centers and got the idea that it might be great to serve in one of them someday. In the fall, young sisters will no longer be allowed to serve there unless they specifically have a visitors' center call, which I don't, so I'm trying to drop subtle hints to my mission president that I want to be there before it goes away.
Love you, miss you,
I'll start this off with a couple shoutouts.
1: Abby Zlotnick, congratulations on your wedding!
2. Happy birthday to Camille Perkins!
3. Saige, congratulations on your pregnancy and I will road trip down to Cedar City to see your baby after my mission. My mission doesn't seem so long until I think about how your baby will be six or seven months old by then.
4. Speaking of babies, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) had their baby this morning! I have been waiting for him to be born since late February and I ask my mom every week whether she'd given birth yet.
Today was a rough week, and I don't have the energy to write a long email, so there will be no weekly tip. I had some bright spots.
While tracting, I met a woman who answered the door with a dead expression that reminded me of the way I used to look during my dark patches while I was waiting to serve. She said she'd had a hard day. I thought she'd just had an argument or a bad day at work or something, but then she told me, "I lost my job."
Me: (Wow, that's so hard) "I'm so sorry."
Her: "And then I came home and my husband had left."
Me: (Oh no. This is the worst day of her life) "That's terrible!"
Her: "And my ex gets out of prison tomorrow."
Me: (All right, this is the person I was sent to this area to find).
I heard once that when you're called or assigned somewhere, you should figure out why you're in that specific place, and I really think it's for her. She said she was thinking about going to church and bought two bibles, but her husband would never let her. And then he left. And we came. She said she doesn't think the timing is a coincidence and that she wouldn't have let us talk to her on any other day.
These are the type of people I'm here to help, the lonely and dejected. Happy people can be happy in any church, and we have this merciful theology where people who don't accept the gospel in this life can accept it later in the Spirit World, so I never feel like the pressure's on for 90% of the people I teach. But for her, she is someone I want to help.
I also got the opportunity to go into Independence (Yes! An actual evening in Missouri instead of being awkwardly in Kansas when my mission title is Missouri!) for a devotional. Recent converts were speaking and we took a man we are teaching. He seemed to enjoy it. I love church history and went on a church history study abroad the summer of my sophomore year. That summer was when I got my confirmation (in Palmyra, I might add) that I would get a chance to build up the kingdom. That summer I learned about how members all throughout history have done bad things, not just "imperfect" things, as it is so frequently and sickeningly euphamized, so I am not the first to weather inside persecution in the church. That summer, I visited so many visitors' centers and got the idea that it might be great to serve in one of them someday. In the fall, young sisters will no longer be allowed to serve there unless they specifically have a visitors' center call, which I don't, so I'm trying to drop subtle hints to my mission president that I want to be there before it goes away.
Love you, miss you,
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