Week 58: Sucks to Suck. I'm Still on a Mission
Dear Loved Ones,
Four years ago today, Bishop Plant of my Provo YSA ward told me I would not go on a mission, and when I burst out crying, his only response was to say, "Are you going to hurt yourself?"
One year ago, I was in Idaho, wondering if I'd be able to continue on a mission or if I'd be kicked to the side again.
Sucks to suck, I just got transferred to the last area of my for-real mission in Missouri, baby!
I'm not entirely happy about transferred because my last area, Raytown, is now closed. So we spent that last day crazy packing and running around town telling everyone we would never be coming back.
Fortunately, we double covered with elders, so they will be able to pick up most of our teaching pool. Most of them. The person I worry about the most is my nine year old recent convert, Saydi. Elders can't go into a house without an adult male present and Saydi's mom is a single mother. Ugggghhhhh pray for Saydi. She is small and precious and needs love.
A month and a half ago, another area, Grain Valley, closed because nothing was getting done there. But now my companion and I are tasked with reopening it. It's worse than whitewashing because we're starting from absolute scratch.
I don't know why we're here yet. Clearly I wasn't taken out of Raytown because some other sister needed to be there. This had darn well better be inspired. I miss the visitors' center, doing tours and studying the history, and being around all the millions of sisters in Independence. And the ghetto-tastic tracting.
Grain Valley is bourgeoise Hicksville. There are cows, but somehow all the houses are nice because everyone commutes out of Hicksville to go to work. When we go to the rural parts, people have ponds in their front yards and I see cardinals and blue jays.
We spent the past few days running around trying to meet people. While leaving one house, we saw a woman walking down the street and went up to talk to her. We introduced ourselves, learned that her name is Li and that she'd met with missionaries in the past, and within thirty seconds she invited us into her house!
Li's had a hard life. She moved from China to get married but now she's divorced and a lot of people here are racist to her. I told her I have a Chinese sister-in-law and she asked me, "Does your family think your brother is a shame because she is colored?"
I was taken aback and sure I'd misheard that last word. In this the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty, I've never heard Asian people described as colored. I told her that no, my family does not think my Harvard-educated, earnest, sweet, willing to marry my doofus brother sister-in-law is a "shame," that the church teaches that all are alike unto God. And then I told Li that when I was little, I was frustrated that my dad's chromosomes kept producing boys and told my mom to adopt me a little sister from China. And then I finally got my Chinese sister fifteen years later.
That segued into the plan of salvation. I actually use China as an example all the time when I'm teaching about the spirit world. A perfect God who loves all of his children isn't going to damn billions of them for living in a place or time where learning about Jesus Christ was not an option. That's what the spirit world is for-a time of learning where people who didn't get that opportunity in life can be exposed to it afterwards.
Speaking of China, last transfer we got three Hong Kong visa waiters. I felt bad for them and prayed they'd be able to go to Hong Kong soon-until coronavirus happened. Their entire mission got evacuated, all 113 of them, so our visa waiters are stuck in Missouri and Kansas until further notice. The visa complications spared them two trans-pacific plane rides and whatever health inspections people have to go through. God made it work out for them, and I trust that somehow, me being deported from Raytown in Grain Valley will work out for me, too.
There's work to do here somewhere and I'm going to find it.
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
Four years ago today, Bishop Plant of my Provo YSA ward told me I would not go on a mission, and when I burst out crying, his only response was to say, "Are you going to hurt yourself?"
One year ago, I was in Idaho, wondering if I'd be able to continue on a mission or if I'd be kicked to the side again.
Sucks to suck, I just got transferred to the last area of my for-real mission in Missouri, baby!
I'm not entirely happy about transferred because my last area, Raytown, is now closed. So we spent that last day crazy packing and running around town telling everyone we would never be coming back.
Fortunately, we double covered with elders, so they will be able to pick up most of our teaching pool. Most of them. The person I worry about the most is my nine year old recent convert, Saydi. Elders can't go into a house without an adult male present and Saydi's mom is a single mother. Ugggghhhhh pray for Saydi. She is small and precious and needs love.
A month and a half ago, another area, Grain Valley, closed because nothing was getting done there. But now my companion and I are tasked with reopening it. It's worse than whitewashing because we're starting from absolute scratch.
I don't know why we're here yet. Clearly I wasn't taken out of Raytown because some other sister needed to be there. This had darn well better be inspired. I miss the visitors' center, doing tours and studying the history, and being around all the millions of sisters in Independence. And the ghetto-tastic tracting.
Grain Valley is bourgeoise Hicksville. There are cows, but somehow all the houses are nice because everyone commutes out of Hicksville to go to work. When we go to the rural parts, people have ponds in their front yards and I see cardinals and blue jays.
We spent the past few days running around trying to meet people. While leaving one house, we saw a woman walking down the street and went up to talk to her. We introduced ourselves, learned that her name is Li and that she'd met with missionaries in the past, and within thirty seconds she invited us into her house!
Li's had a hard life. She moved from China to get married but now she's divorced and a lot of people here are racist to her. I told her I have a Chinese sister-in-law and she asked me, "Does your family think your brother is a shame because she is colored?"
I was taken aback and sure I'd misheard that last word. In this the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty, I've never heard Asian people described as colored. I told her that no, my family does not think my Harvard-educated, earnest, sweet, willing to marry my doofus brother sister-in-law is a "shame," that the church teaches that all are alike unto God. And then I told Li that when I was little, I was frustrated that my dad's chromosomes kept producing boys and told my mom to adopt me a little sister from China. And then I finally got my Chinese sister fifteen years later.
That segued into the plan of salvation. I actually use China as an example all the time when I'm teaching about the spirit world. A perfect God who loves all of his children isn't going to damn billions of them for living in a place or time where learning about Jesus Christ was not an option. That's what the spirit world is for-a time of learning where people who didn't get that opportunity in life can be exposed to it afterwards.
Speaking of China, last transfer we got three Hong Kong visa waiters. I felt bad for them and prayed they'd be able to go to Hong Kong soon-until coronavirus happened. Their entire mission got evacuated, all 113 of them, so our visa waiters are stuck in Missouri and Kansas until further notice. The visa complications spared them two trans-pacific plane rides and whatever health inspections people have to go through. God made it work out for them, and I trust that somehow, me being deported from Raytown in Grain Valley will work out for me, too.
There's work to do here somewhere and I'm going to find it.
Sincerely,
Sister Smith
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