Week 43

Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 10:23 AM

hey y'all :)

Howdy family,

So, this past week has been a pretty good week overall.  We had our activity zone conference on Tuesday, which was way delicious.  Not only did we get ridiculously inspired counsel and guidance from my fantastic mission president, but were able to play some sports and stuff with all the missionaries for a couple of hours and it was a beautiful day.  Overall, it was a blast!  There are so many missionaries that I look up to here in NCRM.... the two current Assistants to the President are absolutely fantastic.  I love them both.  It's definitely sad to see all these missionaries I look up to go home though.

Transfers is next week.  I'm really hoping I stay another transfer here.  We are working very hard and should see the fruits of our labors in the next month or so, but Elder Mickelsen and I get along too well for us to stay together for 3 transfers, so most likely I will be going...but you never know :)  Either way, wherever I go is exactly where the Lord needs me to be, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else :)

Okay, so in an effort to burst the bubble that I created last week, the miracle story...yeah...that blew up...we decided we hate Satan.  Agency...it's a love hate relationship...but besides that we saw many other good things happen.  We set up an appointment with this less active who we thought had moved, and it was powerful.  He hasn't been to church since he was 15 when his parents split and he went with his dad, who didn't go to church..so it's been about 35 years and we went by and it was a super powerful experience.  He is way humble and way ready to return to church.  When I witness these experiences, I'm reminded of the fact of "that's why we're serving missions...to help the people who want to be helped."  Sometimes, all that someone needs is an invitation...as Preach My Gospel says, People will not likely change unless invited to do so.  In other words, for member missionary work, we can't wait for the people to come to us, we need to reach out to them and simply invite, for the success is completely found within the invitation.

I got letters from Nelson, mom 42, two from grandma, and Kayla Nelson.  Also got a package from the fam.  Gracias amigos.  :) :)  

So, we had a sad experience that other day.  We were biking along when I saw this individual in a car with the door open, so I biked over and started talking to him.  He and his buddy were just about to leave, but he seemed nice and semi interested-ish; he had talked to missionaries in the past and he said they had shared the message with him.  I asked if they had ever talked about the Book of Mormon.  He said no.  (red flag of lies, I would say, but as missionaries we play dumb... a lot...)  So, I explained it briefly and asked if we could give him one.  He took it, and then they left.  We went on our merry way and about 15 minutes later, as we were biking up to the intersection, I saw some things on the ground that we were kind of fluttering in the wind. As we got closer, I was like "is that a copy of the Book of Mormon?!?!" yes it was...and I'm not gonna lie, it kind of broke my heart...apparently, and we're assuming it was this individual mentioned above since he was the only person we had given a Book of Mormon to that day so far, he has zero respect and no guts, if he really didn't want it, he could have just said no, but instead he takes it, rips it into 5 or so pieces and chucks it out the window...it hurt me inside to see that precious book treated and disrespected in such a disgusting way.  We gathered the pieces together and put it in Elder Mickelsen's backpack...I plan on trying to tape it back together...

but...

on a happier note, I really feel that I'm starting to become the missionary my Father needs me to be.  My mission, after some realizations, is starting to sink deeper into my heart and leave my head...it's becoming heart knowledge more than head knowledge, and that's what needs to happen if this work is to be done in the Lord's way.

Thanks for everything you all do. I love y'all so much. Thanks for being the best

Love,

Elder Patty