No, I'm not counting down.... well, sort of. But not because I want it to be done. I just feel ready for a new challenge other than desperately trying to find people to teach and how to get these life-long investigators to progress.... No, I'm not trunky - but I will be very ready to continue being a missionary in the comfort of my own bed with my giant 4 foot long stuffed dog and my Nixon watch and the luxury of being able to go to sleep at 9 pm. But I'm not trunky. That's just planning ahead for the future. That's important, right? Didn't an apostle say, "look ahead and believe?" Well I'm looking ahead and believing I will be very happy.
Don't get the wrong impression ... I am still working dang hard. So hard that I don't even know how I'm doing it because I'm so out of ideas and so exhausted... But I have this different attitude than I did when I was in Bountiful, which was really similar to here. Now instead of being desperate and trying to think of ideas to find new people and fill time, I'm thinking, "okay, I don't know what to do. Let's pray and do whatever I can think of after that. And it probably won't work... but the Lord will see that I'm trying and making an effort to work and somehow he'll provide a way for things to keep going." I don't know if that's faith and relying on the Lord or me being lazy and not wanting to get emotionally drained .... oh well, haha.
All is well here in Fruit Heights/Kaysville. Sister Costa is so cute. Her English is still not the best and she's self conscious about it but she's so precious ... I feel bad sometimes because members don't understand her. But she has more faith than I've ever seen. She's so cute- when we plan lessons she goes, "we can share our testimony with them." I can't describe the way she says it - it's just so cute and sweet and pure ... I want her to know how grateful I am for her and her hard work and being so in tune with the spirit. I think sometimes she feels that I am superior to her because I've been out longer and understand American slang and sarcasm really well ... but lets be real here. She's 26 - she has a masters in biology and taught college and high school and knows the scriptures 50 times better than I do. She's definitely well qualified- more than me! I am trying to find a way for her to realize that. And for me to show her that.
We lost 2 investigators this week for various reasons. So now we are teaching a crap ton of recent converts (wonder if those phrases have ever been used in the same sentence before), a few less-actives and 3 investigators. Nick - he's stubborn and goes to sacrament meeting every week; his wife and son are members. Jessica- CUTE and young- living with her member boyfriend and his active parents. They have a cute baby together and really want to be sealed as a family. They got to church sometimes and read and pray every night. but she needs to realize that for them to be sealed, she needs the lessons (we can never schedule with her), and... she needs to marry her boyfriend. They are so cute though.... they WILL get married and he will baptize her before I leave. Okay, maybe not.... but I'll come back for it! And the 3rd is a guy named Chris - his family is all active. He goes to church every single week, but he just won't get baptized. He believes in science and wants proof for everything. If you can tell... it's kind of frustrating coming from YSA where we had a baptism every other week and were always finding new people to teach who are completely prepared... But good things will happen with these people!
One cool thing this week .... we are teaching this less-active couple - Beth and Lance. They have been taught by missionaries for 8 months, 2 times a week. Beth comes to church sometimes, Lance never does. When I got to the area Sister Costa said they just read the Book of Mormon with them every lesson. We did that a couple times then I got impatient and decided we needed to try something else, so we taught them about the importance of the sacrament. We really broke it down and asked a bunch of thinking questions to them, like, "why is it important that we take the sacrament every week? What do get receive in return for taking the sacrament worthily and how could that help you?" Then we committed them to read a conference talk about the sacrament. The next lesson, they had actually read it! And had good comments about it. They were really different than from before and it was an awesome lesson. Then they committed to come to church! Yay!
That was my week ... basically. And on Monday I got to ombre/melt one of the sister's hair and it was BEAUTIFUL. I was hyperventilating, basically.
Have a good week!
Sister Shields
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