Okay, book it.
May 14, 2014 at 2:10 PM
So, family, twas good to talk with y'all this
weekend.
Y'all look good, though. Which is always good.
I received letter 98, one from grams, and I'm not sure if I ever
said, but I recently received one from Kayla Nelson O'Dwyer; if she happens to
see this, I also sent her a letter that I wrote about 3 months ago, but in the
transfer, I forgot to send it and didn't find it until a couple weeks ago.
I hope it got there.
What to tell you.
Okay, the Lord is seriously the best. My new companion is
Elder Graham as I have told you, and he is seriously the best. We get
along SOOOO well and we are completely on the same page in our desires to serve
the Lord and be exactly obedient. We help each other reach higher instead
of one of us having to drag the other one along. We laugh all the time
and have so much fun, but we also work so hard, and we are excited to see
really good things happen here. He is such a loving person; I don't think
there can be a single missionary that doesn't like him. It's such a
tender mercy of the Lord to finish my final 6 weeks with a companion like him.
I can't thank the Lord enough. We work in great unity together, and
we both can be completely open with each other. We learn and grow and
become better. It's incredible.
Last night, we had 2 wonderful opportunities to teach lessons on
the spot to people we met in this apartment complex. One lady was on her
porch, sweeping. She is from Newark, NJ. She has 5 sons, and it was
incredible talking with her. She is Catholic and she is very devout, but
we were able to share with her some scriptures from the Book of Mormon and then
we were able to give her a copy. She said she definitely would read it
and we are welcome to come back and talk with her more. We plan on going
by later this week. Another man we met, we talked with for a very long
time. He has had a powerful conversion experience where he has come to
learn His Savior and he strives to "witness" to others and help them
feel how he did. He would seriously be a great member. Sometimes, I
wish that our membership as a whole viewed their relationship with Christ with
the same love and gratitude, so much so that sharing it with others becomes a
part of who they are. We had an incredible conversation with him and
taught him about the restoration. It didn't end up as great as we would
have hoped, but and nevertheless, we still have hope. He doesn't really
see the need for more "bible," and the whole concept that the bible
is missing things and/or has been corrupted in part over time is heresy in his
eyes as the bible is the "infallible word of God." But we tried
to encourage him with all our soul and energies that he would just give it a
chance and keep his heart open. I hope he really does. I really do.
We'll see...
Elder Graham and I have been talking a lot about hope recently
because sometimes it's hard to view every situation as an isolated event and
not allow past and recent experiences to taint our expectations for the results
of the next individual's response. We experience a lot of straight up
rejection in the Falls Lake area. The demographics here are very
comfortable. Very few people immediately see 2 20 year old
"kids" and think, man, I wonder if they could teach me something
about Jesus. We have to be able to meet people in a setting where their
hearts are softened and prepared to hear the word. There are some people
out there that when we speak with them on the street or at their door, they
will be ready (and we're doing everything we can to find them too), but we are
really trying to work with our members and help them see the irreplaceable role
they play in this work. It's a combination of always staying optimistic
and hopeful with the members, enthusiastic and excited, without sugarcoating
everything so much that they think they are unneeded. Sometimes it
doesn't hurt to say that we are struggling to find investigators. :)
Yesterday, we had the opportunity to pick up a Visa-Waiter
missionary who has been serving in our mission for 9 months and take him to the
airport to fly to Sao Paulo for 2 weeks of intensive language immersion before
he heads off to Cuiaba Brazil to complete the remainder of his mission.
It was a fun experience, but it's sad to see people go. He is a
missionary that I served around when I was in Fayetteville, and if we gave
awards out as missionaries, he would receive the most improved award. It
is incredible to see how much he grew over the course of a few months. You
could tell he didn't really want to be here just by briefly interacting with
him. Then, a few months later, I went on exchange with him, and I was
astounded. He had changed so much!!! He said that he finally had
accepted the Lord's will, and though he still wanted to go to Brazil, he served
his heart out while the Lord gave him time here in North Carolina. He
grew up so much and is such a changed man; I know the Lord knew what He was
doing. His time here will dictate the direction of the rest of his life,
and we (Elder Graham and I) know that he is going to be able to do even greater
things for that mission as well.
I don't know exactly why I told you that story, but maybe it will
help someone out there that reads this :)
I think that is all. Mother, I did regain possession of my
retainer, so you may once more rest at ease :) Thanks for being such a
ridiculously good mother...seriously though! Y'all are the best parents
ever. Enjoy life. As always.
Love,
Elder Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment