My lovey doveys!
What a great week! Things have
really turned around, and as we have prayed fervently for hearts to
soften here, many things have been working themselves out. Hearts are
healing, and the work is moving
forward!
My studies have been so wonderful
lately! Its amazing what you learn as you devote that time to The
Lord. I got to give a talk on " What it means to be a disciple of
Christ" this past week. The main points were that disciples of Christ 1)
Learn of Him and do their homework! 2) Try to emulate him in all they
do, and in every situation 3) bear his name.
Also, Sister Remington and I have
both been studying the story of Rebekah in great detail this past
week, and have had many lengthy discussions about her! I love my
namesake, and I hope to be as faithful, wise, obedient, and
loving as Rebekah someday. She truly
was a remarkable woman, and a great
person to be named after :) Thanks Mom and Dad!
This week I was able to meet
someone that I know I was sent here for, Sis L ( I will not be using names in
this area) She had been dropped by missionaries in the past, yet
when I saw her name on an old teaching record, it caught my eye
and I pulled it out and insisted we go there the next day. As soon as I
met her, I felt such an intense love for her. I immediately loved
her, just like I had immediately felt that connection with Faye
Felts from my first area! As we shared a message with her, she opened up
in a way she never had before with missionaries, and the spirit
testified to me that I had been sent here
for her. There is a long way to go
for her still, and it may not be easy, but this hard work is always
worth it. It truly is one of the most pressing human needs -- the
need to feel needed. I feel needed here in so many ways.
Also, we met with Bro. O last night
and we prayerfully set a date for baptism for January 31st! This is
definitely my most complicated situation I have ever had, but Bro.
O has such immense and unwavering
faith. He has been addicted to many
many things, had several run ins with the law, and recently his wife
went to prison. She is currently there, and while she is, he is
trying to overcome many of his challenges. 30 days ago he gave up
his last drug addictions, and this week he will be going completely
off of Cigarettes. He has many health concerns right now, and in
particular he has a huge hernia that we are trying to get removed. We
are trying to work through Obamacare to get the surgery for him before
he has it rupture ( the doctors say it could be any day). Despite
everything with his physicl bdy working
against him, and being oout of work
because of the hernia and the fact that he is living in a single motel
room, I am seeing miracles take place in his life. He has recieved
such spiritual strength from The
Lord already. Just last night we
were discussing when he can be prepared for baptism. He suggested
April 4. Inside me, I panicked. January 31st came to my mind, and I
immediately asked him point blank if he had the faith to quit smoking
completely this week and prepare
for baptism on January 31st. It
came out very quickly that January 31st was a very special day for
him, and that he felt he needed to be ready by then. It was his
grandmothers birthday. He had a very rough childhood, but his grandmother had
always been his rock of faith in his life. She had been the one
person to take him to church and she often read the bible with him when
he was younger. This will be a special day for him, and he agreed
to it when he realized his wife will also be out of prison by that
date and can be there.
This week we will be in full on --
support Bro. O mode! We are planning on getting ward members to
check in on him each day, multiple times of the day so that he does
not get too lonely in his hotel room.
We will also try to get him down to
the Visitors center to watch movies and feel the spirit of the temple grounds this week, to provide him with added strength. I will be
fasting for him on Wednesday.
Although I dont want you to fast
with me, could you all please just keep Brother O in your prayers this
week? He has been attending church for 3 months and has never missed a
meeting. His faith is so strong,
and due to circumstances and bad
choices, he has had a very rough life thus far. But i know that the
atonement of Christ can give him the second chance that we all have the
right to.
Another miraculous person came into
our lives this week! We were introduced to "D" this
week. She is an amazing retired nurse that has come into a woman's life in our
ward when she really needed help caring for her dying husband. Since
D has been in the house, her husband has improved drastically,
and has been taken off hospice. Finally the woman has the hope she
has been needing, and the companionship she has been longing
for. We went by and met D, and immediately she had about 1000
questions! She is amazing and has been
reading the Book of Mormon and
cherishing every word she reads. She came to church yesterday and felt
the spirit so strong there, and said that she felt "she was at
home" there. What a blessing for so many
people. I love her, and I cant wait
to get to teach her starting this next week! It might be hard to get
through our lessons due to all the curiousity, but I could think of a
few things far worse than that :)
We were supposed to have had a
meeting with Elder Holland on Saturday, but unfortunately Elder Holland had
to cancel the day before, and we were informed of this immediately.
Our mission President encouraged
us to continue to approach this
meeting with the same attitute and zeal as before. Instead, we still
met with 2 other missions in the valley (at a place a mile from
where I live!) and Elder Wright of the 70 came and spoke to us. The
meeting was at 7 am, and many
missionaries from the other
missions had to wake up at 4 am. Elder Wright let us know that he was the
most disappointed of anyone else that Elder Holland couldnt come,
and I believe it! What a task it is
to come and speak to disappointed
missionaries who had been expecting Elder Holland in their midst! Thankfully, everyone had a great attitude about it, and the spirit
was strong in that meeting. We each
were encouraged to come with a
personal question we wanted answered in the meeting. So far, everyone I have
spoken to had their question answered as he spoke. I love the
fact that the spirit can give us
personal revelation! All 700 of us
had very different questions, yet I am sure everyone received the
answers they needed through the spirit.
Its been a week and a half since I
got to this new area and became companions with Sister Remington!
It is my third area now, and 4th place I have lived. Although we get
use to changes as missionaries,
you better bet your bottom dollar
that they are still uncomfortable. My first few days here were full of
trials, and I felt like I did at the beginning of my middle school
experience! Quite honestly, it was
hard for me to see past the trials
for a few days. I admit there were times when I would eyeball the keys
to our car, and I daydreamed about taking the car to the airport and
getting a one way ticket home before
anyone knew I was gone! This reaction of mine made me
realize one of the greatest personal blessings of a mission for me. In
real life at home I often could run
away from annoyances, challenges,
etc. At the very least, I can cry and have my parents there for
advice and comfort right away. For instance, at this point in my life,
if a class at school is too hard,
I can drop the class, or if a
person is testing my patience, I can often create a schedule so I do not
have to associaite with them. If I do not like one part part of
town, I can avoid moving there. Of
course, there are many excpetions
to that rule in real life, and often you have to face trials head on.
But one huge blessing is the fact that I am faced with those things
all the time, and there is no
escape. There is no way for me to
opt out of having a hard companion. There is no way for me to opt out
of having a tough ward that is in the slums. Heavenly Father knew
what he was doing when he called me
on a mission, and he knows what he
is doing when he calls me to each specific place! I get to face these
challenges, and instead of running away, I get to find ways to cope
and become victorious over my
challanges! It is like a boot camp
to prepare me for life, and I KNOW I will be grateful the rest of my
life for the lessons I am learning here in such a short period of
time.
I love you all, and continue to be
so proud of each one of you! I hear about all of your great
examples of faith and courage. I hear about your hard work and your
accomplishments as well. I couldn't imagine better people to associate
myself to, than all of you.
I love you!
Sister Younce
A good man said: “I believe the
test of a great man is humility. I do
not mean by humility the doubt in
one’s own personal power; but
really, truly great men have the
curious feeling that greatness is not
in them but through them and they
see the divine in every other human
soul and are endlessly, foolishly,
incredibly merciful.”
--A Prisoner of Love
If we could look into each other’s
hearts and understand the unique
challenges each of us faces, I
think we would treat each other much
more gently, with more love,
patience, tolerance, and care.
---The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword
Quote of the week: Perhaps our
Heavenly Father’s greatest hope is that
through our fears we may choose to
turn to him. The uncertainties of
earth life can help to remind each
of us that we are dependent on him.
But that reminder is not automatic.
It involves our agency. We must
choose to take our fears to him,
choose to trust him, and choose to
allow him to direct us. We must
make these choices when what we feel
most inclined to do is to rely more
and more on our own frantic and
often distorted thinking.
