August 18, 2014
Today was a
lovely P-day of just sitting at home lounging and writing letters. Emailing was odd and very quiet today. No one was online and I ended up wrapping
everything up with 20 minutes to spare.
I ended up listening to Levi’s farewell talk. It is so surreal that he is actually already
a missionary! I think that I am driving Sister B a little crazy with how with
how much I have been talking about it, but, I am just so gosh darn excited! I am so grateful that my siblings are making and
keeping sacred covenants. It gives me great hope for our family’s future.
SB and I
had an interesting conversation during my companionship study today, discussing
what the Lord defines as a “successful missionary” verses what all of the
mission leaders tell you is success. We
reflected on how LONG it has taken us to feel satisfied with our work, and
joyful while serving. We feel like the
Lord is accepting our efforts and He is sending his Holy Spirit to help us with
this task. But there are many missionaries
who are depressed and discouraged because they aren’t accomplishing what is
(incorrectly) defined as “success”. It’s
just sad to see.
(Side Note:
my first zone leader, Spencer Goodrich is here visiting. It is very weird to see a missionary post-mission!)
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| Our ward mission leader and his family with returned missionary, Spencer Goodrich. |
Pictures: our last district meeting--Elder Hawks, one of the best zone leaders I´ve ever had, is going home! He seemed really sad, but also WAY happy at the same time.
August 20, 2014
We had a
division with the Eugenio de Dentro sisters.
They split the ward and so there
are two companionships that are opening an area. Sister Rocha and Sister Wallace (who is from
the same district as Sister Burris’s MTC district, but JUST NOW arrived in
country), and Sister Nasciamento and Sister Trussell (from Garrsion’s MTC
district). Essentially both Sister Rocha
and Sister Trussell are training and opening a new area…that is a ton of
stress! We ended up doing divisions a
little differently. SB stayed with one
companionship while I was with the other.
Sister
Trussell had a GREAT day planned and had talked me through a lot of the
commitments, but literally every single plan fell through. I felt so badly for her because I know how
nice it is to be able to show off your area, investigators, teaching skills,
etc. during divisions. But, sometimes
you just have a day where nothing goes according to plan. Every missionary who’s been out a while know
that it just happens. Sister Trussell and her companion just took it all in
stride and kept working and inviting people to hear our message. I was touched by their work ethic and sheer
drive to do their best. I’ve done quite few divisions now (4 months as LT) and
usually you have to do a lot of pep-talking, cheerleading, and hand-holding to
get the Sisters truly excited about the work.
It was so comforting to see sisters working hard and striving to reach a
high standard of excellence.
That night
we made SMORES to celebrate Sister W. and Sister B.’s 1-year mark. They were waay good and it was quite fun to
make them together. (We ended up
microwaving them after a failed attempt to make a fire outside.)
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| The amazing Sister B. |
August 21, 2014
Sister
Burris’s 1-year mark!!! Yeah!
We ended
our division and all of the sisters commented that it was the best division
they have had. They were dreading divisions, but SB and I helped them to feel
comfortable. It was such a nice compliment and really rewarding because we do
actually put a lot into these divisions.
We pray, plan, and practice so that in some small way we can help these
missionaries feel good about what they are doing.
August 22, 2014
Sister B.
and I had a great day. We’ve really got
a hang of how to work in Barra, and have once again established a great teaching
group and area of focus. Our planning
sessions are very effective and we feel guided by the Spirit in our work. Everything is just going really well. We’ve greatly improved a lot of things…so you
know what that means?? We think that we
are going to be transferred. Probably…I
don’t know, but we will find out on Sunday.
SB and I are feeling really anxious.
We’ve loved our time together and I can say with all my heart that it
has been the most effortless companionship that I have ever had. We teach well,
plan well, and work well together. It’s
been a huge luxury to have an American companion, but beyond that, it has been
great to have SB and a companion. Her
parents should be so proud of their sweet, focused, obedient, and hardworking
missionary. I am sure proud of her!
We are
teaching our ward mission leaders neighbors, B. and M. B. was baptized at age 8 and went to church
until she was 15. Then her family moved
and she lost contact with the church.
Now, they are both looking for a church to help them raise their
rebellious preteen daughter. They are
both so ready and so open to hearing the gospel. It sure makes a huge
difference when you teach people who actually WANT you to be there. Also, the WML is very excited to be helping
his neighbors.
The other
high point of the day was with another investigator, one who has been taught
before but who has never been to church.
We were trying to figure out what was holding her back and today the
Spirit prompted me to ask, talk, and testify about eternal families. It was
just one of those moments where you teach exactly what the investigator needs.
August 23, 2014
Today we
went to McDONALD’s for lunch!!! I don’t
think that I have ever looked forward to a Micky D’s burger and fries so much
in my whole life. It was really good and
afterwards we started fasting. Poor SB was feeling like crap. She has had a pretty good week, but today not
so much. So we opted for a post-lunch
nap before hitting the pavement again. I
woke up after about 45 minutes, but she was still out. I let her sleep some
more because she was really needing it.
We then headed out and had some fabulous lessons! Moral of the story: it is so important to
take the time to take care of ourselves so that we can help others. If we don’t, we won’t have the Spirit and we
won’t be able to do much.
Today’s
highlight: acting upon the spirit to be very straightforward with M. about
living the commandments and going to church.
She stood up from our lesson and exclaimed, “let’s go to my room!” (uh, okay..why?) “I have to pick out clothes that I will wear
to church tomorrow!”
….We’ll see if she actually goes.
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| Beautiful Barra |
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| A great family in the ward! |
August 24, 2014
Transfers
came…WE GET TO STAY TOGETHER IN BARRA!
We are beyond happy about this.
It was literally an answer to our prayers and we are so relieved and
thankful to be able to serve together again.
I love SB and we have a great companionship. Today was filled with miracles. M. wore her specially selected outfit and
came to church! No one thought that she would come, but she did! We also had another less active member come
with her nonmember husband and daughter.
They are all very excited about the church. Our bishop is really happy to see the growth
here and he is starting to trust us more.
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