Hello
Family :)
So I am not going to
lie....mostly cuz i'm a horrible liar....but I'm a little bit emotional today.
Yesterday we were getting ready to leave and go invite people to church when we
get a call from president weaver. Tomorrow there are 2 Cambodian
Sisters coming to our mission. Sister Mcquivey in Mountain View ward has been
waiting for them, she's Cambodian speaking but she has been the only one. So
she has been companions with Sister Casselle who is English speaking. So we had
to have an emergency transfer. Sister Packard is going to Mountain View
tomorrow at noon with Sister Casselle, she's not going to be an STL anymore cuz
she has been one for 6 months. (That’s the max)
I am getting a sweet companion, her name is
Sister Chipman and she is a flower. :) I don't know her too well, but I do know
that she's tender. President started to cry when he told me, he is a very
tender man and he knows it will be hard for me to not have Sister Packard be my
companion anymore. I was crying when he told me. But I think he has a vision
for Sister Chipman and I. Everyone says we're both tender flowers, and that we
are going to do very well together. I am excited. But I feel like being selfish
and keeping Sister Packard as my companion forever. :) She's going to be in the
zone right next to me (Tacoma east) and Sister chipman and I are STL's over
Tacoma east and my zone Tacoma West. So luckily I can still talk to her :) haha
But I am just...sad! haha it's worse than leaving Steilacoom! So that's my news
for the week :P Transfers weren't supposed to be til next tuesday.
So I'm going to have an 8 week long transfer
with Sister Chipman. :) It was supposed to be 7 weeks cuz if it was the normal
6 transfers would be on Christmas Eve. So now it will be 8! That’s a long
transfer! But like I said it will be good :) Sister Chipman is great :) This
morning I woke up with all sorts of emotions, sadness that Packard is leaving,
overwhelmed with change I don't like change :P, thinking about my investigators
and how we can help them...the emotion list goes on...I needed help! I want to
be good I want to help others with my calling not only as a missionary but also
as an STL. So I asked God to help me. I knelt down before personal study and
asked Him to help me know how on earth I can be prepared for this next transfer
and be the best that I can be. My half way mark is coming up, and I want to be
better. I want to be more. So I asked Him to show me how, then I opened my
scriptures to start reading the BOM which is the first thing I do every day,
except for today. The pages opened to St John chapter 15, the words were marked
red from my childhood days so they caught my attention and I read
" 4 aAbide in me, and I
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
no more can ye, except ye abide in me."
I knew I was getting
an answer to my prayer, so I went back and read the whole chapter...
2 Every abranch in me that beareth not bfruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cpurgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
4 aAbide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me.
5 I am
the avine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without bme ye can do nothing.
6 If a
man aabide not in
me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and
cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If
ye aabide in me,
and my words abide in you, ye shall baskwhat ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
10 If
ye akeep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my blove; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and
abide in his love.
11 These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your ajoy might be full.
15 Henceforth
I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I
have called you afriends; for all
things that I have bheard of my Father I have made cknown unto you.
16 Ye have
not chosen me, but I have achosen you, and bordainedyou, that ye should go and bring forth cfruit, and that your fruit
should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in mydname, he may give it you.
19 If ye
were of the aworld, the world
would blove his own:
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember
the word that I said unto you, The aservant is not greater than his lord. If they
have bpersecuted me,
they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours
also.
21 But all
these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not
him that sent me.
22 If I
had not come and spoken unto them, they had not hadasin: but now they have no bcloak for their sin.
24 If I
had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not
had asin: but now have
they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be
fulfilled that is written in their law, They ahated me without a cause.
26 But
when the aComforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall btestify of me:
I learned A TON from
this chapter. It became very sacred to me today. But the top 3 things I got out
of it was #1 I need to abide in Christ, rely on Him, draw near to Him. #2 I
need to be joyful and rejoice! I have found such joy this transfer and I don't
want that to go away. #3 Love with my whole heart. So that is what I am going
to do! Remember Him.
So anyways I will tell you about the week now
:) On Tuesday we had interviews with President and Sister Weaver!
They are seriously THE greatest people I have ever met. I love them so much!
They have impacted my life a ton. :) I'm so grateful for them. So anyways I
talked to President Weaver a lot about how to build my confidence. I'm not near
as bad as I was back home but sometimes I crawl back into my shell :D It's safe
and warm in there! haha But he told me to treat the symptoms. Holy cow that is
great advice! of course! Treat the symptoms of your problem and it will get
better! haha duh! but I never thought of it.. so he told me I had to interrupt
Sister Packard twice in every lesson and then he told sister Packard!
Darn....haha i thought I could keep it to myself ;) haha jk but I have been
doing SO much better this week! Sister Packard made me pin my bangs back too :P
haha So that I can show my confidence to other people :) She didn't really make
me...but she told me in her own roundabout way that I should :) haha Oh how I
love her. :)
Anyways I talked to
him about a ton of things, and I just love him SO much! He literally views us
as perfect and has SO much love for us missionaries, especially the sisters! :)
His love has enabled me to do so much. He has so much Charity. I seriously
can't tell you how much I have learned from that man! He really does want
what's best for me. He helped me a ton. :) Not that I need a ton of help, but
this life is time for us to prepare to meet God! It's our time to improve :) so
he is helping me to improve :) Then I talked to Sister Weaver about how to be a
better STL I want to help the sisters so badly, but she said that all I can do
is just love them. And be me. :) She read with me Alma 5 and made me cry. They
really do see the best in others. She just read the questions and looked at me
and said "yes" their love truly motivates me. And reminds me I am a
daughter of God.
And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of
the church, have ye aspiritually been bborn of
God? Have ye received his image in your
countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty cchange in
your hearts?
Do ye exercise
faith in the redemption of him who acreated you? Do you look forward with an eye of
faith, I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of
the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me yeablessed, for behold, your works have been the works of
righteousness upon the face of the earth?
I am so grateful to be
in this mission with President and Sister Weaver :)
So
anyways the rest of Tuesday went really well. We taught Luis who came
to church last Sunday and cried the whole time. He cried during the whole
lesson too...poor guy. His wife just got back from Afghanistan and is with
another man. :( He was just in pure turmoil when he got to the church for his
lesson. So we talked to him about the Atonement and somehow Sister Packard and
I were blessed with a ton of joy during that lesson. By the end Luis's whole
countenance had changed! He was smiling! It is amazing, the power of the spirit
in healing us. So he came to church this Sunday too. He is doing so
well. We met Luis the very first day of this transfer, and luckily got to be
there with words of comfort from God when he needed it most. God works in
mysterious ways.
On
Wednesday I got to go on an Exchange with Sister Davis! She's one of the
ones I went to the salt lake temple with before my mission! And I'm not going
to lie she's scared the crap out of me until this transfer as I got to know her
I've learned that I love her tons! :) It was a fun exchange; I think it's one
that I learned the most from. Sister Davis has grown a TON since she's been out
and I loved hearing her experiences. She's not one with a ton of emotion haha
she's extremely sarcastic, but she's hilarious and she likes me so that's good!
:) haha So we had a good time :) I got to leave my area and meet some other
people in Soundview ward! :) Oh! I met my 11th grade English teacher's sister!
Mr. Woddups! He was like my favorite teacher and now his sister is working in
the mission office! They got here 2 days ago! There have been a lot of new couple’s
missionaries coming in. The jones are leaving soon :( they are my favorite! They’re
the ones who took us to lunch a few weeks ago and they are just so precious!
They will be missed.
But
anyways...Thursday was Halloween!!! woot! haha So we did weekly planning
and then Sister Packard and I prepared for the training we got to give and then
we got locked in the church! Haha from 3 to 5 we had zone meeting then we got
to go and get food from this tiny little shack of a burger joint called lefty's
it's very yummy :) haha then from 6:30 to 9 we were locked in the
church! And we got to watch a movie! Oh my goodness people you HAVE to watch
this movie! It's called Ephraim's rescue! It’s about the pioneers :) and It is
so touching! And precious! it was a good movie. And of course afterward we had
a little testimony meeting! haha My very first spiritual Halloween :) It was
GREAT! :) Friday was a great day! We were super busy!!! We taught
Michael and Travis our miracles from last week! They are still both on track to
get baptized soon! We also had one of the coolest experiences! We asked
President a few weeks ago if it would be ok to take some other Sisters to the
Nursing home with us to sing. And he said yes! So we took sister Davis sister Allred
sister esplin and sister graves! :) It was SO cool! It was very spiritual and
uplifting! And there were a bunch of old people! haha they are so funny and
hilarious! Only 1 of them was Mormon though! So it was awesome! :) We got to
sing amazing grace at the end and some of the ladies started to cry...it was so
precious. And then each of us got to bear our testimonies at the end. It was
one of my favorite days of my mission. Of course....i have a lot of those :)
haha
Then
we all went and saw the Sunset Elders and their investigator Victor who is in
the nursing home! Victor is so precious! The Elders put Victor and his wife on
date last transfer and that same day Victor's wife overdosed and passed away.
Then they had to take him to the hospital and then the Elders lost track of
them, so 2 weeks ago we find out he's in the Nursing home! (That’s the beauty
of district meeting, we all know each other’s investigators :) ) So we tell
them and now Victor is going to get baptized! So we went and sang a song to
him, he started to cry, so elder poulson sat next to him on his bed and put his
arm around him, it was so precious.
That
night we went to George and Alice's! So George and Alice aren't in our area so
we've been team teaching them with the Stadium Elders elder Larson and elder Holt
for about 2 weeks now so they can go to their ward but still have us teach
them. That's what President told us to do :) So we couldn't go to the lesson
last Friday because we had Michael and Travis at the baptism and such! That
miracle and then this Friday we went over and George told us he's
getting BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! Oh the little stinker tricked us! He came to church
last Sunday and told us that the elders aggravated him and so we were super
worried then he tells the bishop and his friend who referred them brother Jarvis
that he was getting baptized but he didn't tell us til this Friday! He
says "guys I got some really bad news for you, I've gone to church and I’ve
read the book and I just……" and at this time Sister Packard and I have our
hearts in our stomachs thinking they're going to drop us and then he says
"And I can't find anything wrong!" And we're like WHAT?! And then he
says so I'm getting baptized on the 9th!!!! We screamed and danced and had a
party with pumpkin pie and hot chocolate :) haha AHAHHHH! I’m so happy! I
thought George was going to take a long time, he used to be a Baptist minister
so he's super smart and super bible oriented. But he believes! He knows it's
true! Because it is!!!! :) YAY!!!! Alice isn't quite ready yet, but she'll get
there :) So that was awesome!
Saturday night
we got to go to an elder’s quorum pot luck and Michael came he loved it! And we
got to eat good food with our ward! :) It was great! Sunday we got
our surprise call I cried and then we went out and invited people to church
then left to go to the mission office to car pool to centrailia for a fireside!
I got to see all my friends again! I love them so much! The fireside was
AWESOME! I cried :) haha of course :) We always sing amazing grace and i always
cry :P I got to sing in a group that sang "be still my soul" it was
very pretty :) and it was just....awesome :) haha I LOVE sharing my testimony
through music :) On the way back I got to sit next to Sister hall in the car
and it was so good to talk to her again. I miss her so much! :) But we are all
going to be best friends when we get home! :) So that's good :) haha It was
awesome! :) I am learning so much every single day out here. It is the best
thing ever to be able to focus on missionary work. I love it! I love being a
missionary! And i love the gospel! :) And i love all of you! I hope you are
having an amazing week!
Love always,
Sister Wilkins
"Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow."
No comments:
Post a Comment