1 Month Down!

Man, time goes by so fast here! This email will probably be so disorganized, but I will do my best to tell highlight just some of the many things that have happened this week! It has been such a good week. As a companionship we have never taught so many lessons in one week and we are able to teach with much more unity. We had a trainer/trainee follow up meeting where I got to see all of the missionaries that came out with me and received my IPAD! I had my first zone training meeting, where I was asked to do a training (?!). And we met a new investigator named Jordan that I really see some potential with.

In our mission we call our investigators "gators". Haha, I think it is super cute. Right now we have 5. We have a set of sisters (13 and 10) that want to be baptized, but because of divorce complications they will not be able to until 2016- but we continue to teach them anyway! D____ (who I wrote you about several weeks ago) is going to be baptized on the 10th! It has been challenging to get her to the end of this week. This whole week she has been cancelling our appointments last minute and even left town on the fly 3 days before her baptismal interview. We hadn't been able to get a hold of her till the night before her interview, which had been arranged with someone from our mission presidency weeks ago. But despite telling her the date and time of the mission interview once more for the following morning, the morning came and D____ still hadn't picked us up like she told us she would. To make a long story short, we ended up getting a member to drive us to her house where we woke her, her daughter and grandmother dressed and fed in 20 minutes and made it to the interview. But after the interview, it was incredible to see the glow that D____ had about her. It has been interesting to see the change in someone develop a testimony of the restored gospel, being that she had already known and worshiped Christ. Also noteworthy is that we found a new gator this week named Jordan. She is a young mother of two, but terribly needing this gospel. I can tell her heart has been prepared. Her story is very powerful. She has gone from losing several children and hating god, to needing to rely on him as she has learned that her whole family can live together forever in harmony and peace. The other gator we have is a man that I think we will have to drop for not keeping our commitments. It seems like a heavy thing to do, but know that in not spending our time with those not prepared to change that we can find those who are ready to act!  And because you asked, Chris never responded to our texts and calls which is to bad, but very common. He also wouldn't answer the door when we came by again.

I really am loving Florida. I am seeing things here that still surprise me. It now seems very ordinary to see cranes crossing the street, people parking in the grass, sidewalks abruptly ending, and safari like landscapes. But more so, I didn't realize that so much of my mission would be working with members. Much of our time is spent trying to get a hold of people to accompany us to lessons, and drive us different places. In turn, they certainly utilize the missionaries every Sunday. This includes playing the piano for all the meetings. I am literally the only one that can play both hands together. So many have approached me to let me know how grateful they are that I can play, and lately my response has been "Don't thank me, thank my parents- they made me practice". Haha, but seriously, I am so grateful I can site-read well because I have had to jump in for music numbers and am playing in all other meetings throughout the day.

I am doing really well. One thing that keeps me positive and motivated throughout the week are the meetings our district have once a week. I have noticed that on a mission, everything feels heightened (success, failure, strengths, and weaknesses). So it is so encouraging to have time set aside every week to uplift one another, set goals, and practice things that do and don't work. In our area we have 12 sets of missionaries, so it's common to pass by several each week. I love knowing that I am part of the Lord's errand with so many others! Ultimately I have seen a real change come about in myself this week as my focus has no longer been to do "missionary-like" things, but Christ-like things. I have been better at discerning without judgment, studying my scriptures with more intent. I initially thought the missionary work would be more about driven contacting, hustling in all my works so that I can maximize my time and energy for the next 18 months- since I know it will go by quickly. But the longer I am here, I can see that missionary work is much more about learning to embrace correction, and worrying about energy management (what I dwell on) rather than my time management.

I love being an ordained missionary for the Lord. I love my companion. We can always sing, talk about our families, and have fun with one another and other missionaries/members, while still being primarily focused on our contacts and gators. I am grateful to know that this gospel is a simple one. And I love seeing the change come about in others as they develop their testimony of the Restored Gospel. Keep reading your scriptures! :)