April 16, 2018 -- The Most Stressful Meal
Howdy Friends!
Imagine that you have had a bit of a difficult week and you are going to lunch at a member's home on a Sunday afternoon. You and your companion both have headaches and your stress levels are already a little bit higher than they usually are because of that. Now, imagine that you arrive to find out that the member with whom you are going to have lunch is about to be set apart as an Elders Quorum President, which means that the Stake President will be joining you for lunch. Then, the Bishop of your ward walks in. So we now have the Elders Quorum President, the Bishop, and the Stake President all at the lunch appointment. And you are going to give a spiritual thought. That is the situation in which my companion and I found ourselves on Sunday! With some minor internal freaking out, it ended up being really wonderful. The Bishop ended up not staying for the whole appointment, and I found out that Stake President Curtis is a motorcycle enthusiast, so it was fun to talk to him about that. He gave me a lot of tips for buying my first bike and what kind of safety courses to take. We also found out that apparently, the police chief who arrested Ted Bundy is a member of our ward here in Pace. Sister Burnham and I are making plans to have a meal appointment at that member's home, because we want to hear his stories. The spiritual thought went very well too, but that was mostly because we were praying the whole time! President Curtis said that he was glad we are serving in his stake. So, stressful situation aside, we LIVED and made some really intimidating friends that I never would have had the guts to talk to in any other situation.
So, like I said, this week has been a little difficult. All part of the journey though! If life was always easy, it wouldn't be worth doing. The same goes for mission life. Recently I have been struggling feeling like I am accomplishing what God needs me to. My days are filled with service to the Lord, but sometimes I struggle knowing if what I did or what I gave was acceptable to Him. I have been praying about it and thinking over it for some time, and my answer came in a very inspired phone call. Every week, we get a call from our district leader to go over how the work is progressing and if there is anything that we need. Over the course of the conversation, I asked our district leader, Elder Durfee, if he has met anyone on his mission that he feels like he knew in the Pre-Earth life. (If you aren't sure what that is, ask a Mormon Missionary 😉). He told us a story about an Elder who met and baptized a lady while serving his mission, who then received her patriarchal blessing. (If you aren't sure what that is, ask a Mormon Missionary 😉). In her blessing, she was told that the reason it took her so long to accept the invitation to be baptized was because this particular Elder had made promises to her in their Pre-Earth life. He promised her that he would find her, and that he would bring her the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Durfee told us that from that story, he firmly believes that some of the people we meet on our missions are people that we made promises to find. People that we loved, and friends that we knew. I had always thought that this might be a possibility, but in that moment the Spirit confirmed to me that it was true. I came to the Florida Tallahassee Mission because I had friends that I promised I would find, and those people live here. I came, not to share the Gospel with strangers, but to bring the truth to my friends. Because that is what all of these people are. I thought back to my experiences, and I thought about Sister Hulstine, Brother David Stanford, Brother James Adderley, Sister Adams, Hayden and Janea Burton, Sister Anna Gates-Pedicord, Brother Kenny Pedicord, Sister Kitchen, and Sister Autumn Herndon. They are all my friends. And I am sure that they have always been my friends. They will always be my friends. I came here for them. I am fulfilling my promises, and as long as I do that, I am doing what God needs me to. AND I get another 7 months to keep finding my friends as a full-time missionary, and the rest of my life to find even more friends after that!
I also I went back to the Fox Run building three times this week! On Thursday I went for Bishop's Storehouse, on Friday we had interviews with our mission president, and on Saturday we helped out at a Stake Primary Event! That was really fun. I got to see a lot of the sisters from the Fox Run ward! I missed them all so much and I am so grateful that God didn't move me very far away from them. We also got to teach the little kids about family history and pedigree charts, and it was really fun to watch them get excited about their genealogy.
This email was a little bit of a novel, worry about that friends! I guess it just means that I love you, I miss you, and I wish I could talk to each of you in person. Not to worry! Only 7 months left and then I will hug you in person. Until then, I hope each of you feels my love for you and God's love for you as well. You were meant to be in my life for a reason, and you all mean the world to me. Stand tall, until next time! (And hey- read the Book of Mormon, okay?)
Imagine that you have had a bit of a difficult week and you are going to lunch at a member's home on a Sunday afternoon. You and your companion both have headaches and your stress levels are already a little bit higher than they usually are because of that. Now, imagine that you arrive to find out that the member with whom you are going to have lunch is about to be set apart as an Elders Quorum President, which means that the Stake President will be joining you for lunch. Then, the Bishop of your ward walks in. So we now have the Elders Quorum President, the Bishop, and the Stake President all at the lunch appointment. And you are going to give a spiritual thought. That is the situation in which my companion and I found ourselves on Sunday! With some minor internal freaking out, it ended up being really wonderful. The Bishop ended up not staying for the whole appointment, and I found out that Stake President Curtis is a motorcycle enthusiast, so it was fun to talk to him about that. He gave me a lot of tips for buying my first bike and what kind of safety courses to take. We also found out that apparently, the police chief who arrested Ted Bundy is a member of our ward here in Pace. Sister Burnham and I are making plans to have a meal appointment at that member's home, because we want to hear his stories. The spiritual thought went very well too, but that was mostly because we were praying the whole time! President Curtis said that he was glad we are serving in his stake. So, stressful situation aside, we LIVED and made some really intimidating friends that I never would have had the guts to talk to in any other situation.
So, like I said, this week has been a little difficult. All part of the journey though! If life was always easy, it wouldn't be worth doing. The same goes for mission life. Recently I have been struggling feeling like I am accomplishing what God needs me to. My days are filled with service to the Lord, but sometimes I struggle knowing if what I did or what I gave was acceptable to Him. I have been praying about it and thinking over it for some time, and my answer came in a very inspired phone call. Every week, we get a call from our district leader to go over how the work is progressing and if there is anything that we need. Over the course of the conversation, I asked our district leader, Elder Durfee, if he has met anyone on his mission that he feels like he knew in the Pre-Earth life. (If you aren't sure what that is, ask a Mormon Missionary 😉). He told us a story about an Elder who met and baptized a lady while serving his mission, who then received her patriarchal blessing. (If you aren't sure what that is, ask a Mormon Missionary 😉). In her blessing, she was told that the reason it took her so long to accept the invitation to be baptized was because this particular Elder had made promises to her in their Pre-Earth life. He promised her that he would find her, and that he would bring her the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Durfee told us that from that story, he firmly believes that some of the people we meet on our missions are people that we made promises to find. People that we loved, and friends that we knew. I had always thought that this might be a possibility, but in that moment the Spirit confirmed to me that it was true. I came to the Florida Tallahassee Mission because I had friends that I promised I would find, and those people live here. I came, not to share the Gospel with strangers, but to bring the truth to my friends. Because that is what all of these people are. I thought back to my experiences, and I thought about Sister Hulstine, Brother David Stanford, Brother James Adderley, Sister Adams, Hayden and Janea Burton, Sister Anna Gates-Pedicord, Brother Kenny Pedicord, Sister Kitchen, and Sister Autumn Herndon. They are all my friends. And I am sure that they have always been my friends. They will always be my friends. I came here for them. I am fulfilling my promises, and as long as I do that, I am doing what God needs me to. AND I get another 7 months to keep finding my friends as a full-time missionary, and the rest of my life to find even more friends after that!
I also I went back to the Fox Run building three times this week! On Thursday I went for Bishop's Storehouse, on Friday we had interviews with our mission president, and on Saturday we helped out at a Stake Primary Event! That was really fun. I got to see a lot of the sisters from the Fox Run ward! I missed them all so much and I am so grateful that God didn't move me very far away from them. We also got to teach the little kids about family history and pedigree charts, and it was really fun to watch them get excited about their genealogy.
This email was a little bit of a novel, worry about that friends! I guess it just means that I love you, I miss you, and I wish I could talk to each of you in person. Not to worry! Only 7 months left and then I will hug you in person. Until then, I hope each of you feels my love for you and God's love for you as well. You were meant to be in my life for a reason, and you all mean the world to me. Stand tall, until next time! (And hey- read the Book of Mormon, okay?)
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