Note from Sister Pew's mom: Emily's older brother Timo was married in the Portland Temple on May 27th so this why she is talking about wedding photos and why this post is so late. Sorry!
Firstly and foremostly, keep sending me them wedding photos. Y'all are just gorgeous. I demand that when I get home, I get to also take a road trip to Oregon. Because it looks beautiful. Obviously South Carolina is far better, so I'm happy to stay here for now.
We had a great #skruggle of a week, my friends.
Monday we just chilled and gave Sister Kniffen some time to adjust to life in the Corner. It was pretty basic. We just chilled around the house. I honed in my baking skillz by making cupcakes for DDM. It was very relaxed. That night was less relaxed. We taught R, and partway through that guy D showed up and said he'd found some "discrepancies" in our religion. We started asking him questions and found out that his real issue is with the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't believe that taking care of your body will help your spirit. Overall it was super frustrating. But when he left, R was like, "Man, he don't know what he talking about!" And we were just like "yes! Good!" She's so great. Pray that she will be able to make it to church.
Tuesday we had DDM. It was a pretty fun time. We got to have a training from the new elder in our district, Elder K. (Elder C from my MTC district got transferred out of our district this past transfer as well, and Elder K took his place.) Elder K goes home in 3 weeks, and he is hilarious. He taught us about the importance of keeping commitments and it was great. Then Elder W taught us about using the scriptures to teach. It was also great. Then, we ate our cupcakes that I made. They were some good cupcakes, y'all. Our district is really funny. We then went out to Cane Bay. It started raining SUPER HARD on our way there. Video is coming--check her blog. But seriously. Monsoon. It slowed down enough for us to teach M and picked up again. We read the Book of Mormon with him, and we bribed him with a milky way to read it without us. But little does he know thst we actually are also giving him salvation, which is much better than a milky way. Then, it was pouring rain again, but it was so fun. I love the rain you guys. We visited Sister C, and then we hid out in the church and made some calls and planned some stuff from like 8-9 pm.
Wednesday it was still raining. But we went to the ghetto and walked around anyway. Because missionary work. Super good, super fun and my hair got super curly. We did not have much outward success, but it wasn't for lack of trying. It finally stopped raining around 8 pm. We were at the church, but the elders were there so we couldn't go inside. We were hanging out by this bunch of trees and I saw a flash of light. I looked over to the trees and was much puzzled to see a couple more. And then I gasped and said, "SISTER KNIFFEN I HAVE JUST SEEN A FIREFLY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY WHOLE LIFE" and we were so excited. So we called the elders (who were on exchanges so instead of Elder D it was Elder K and that was a lil confusing #usedtoelderdowell) and we were like "ELDERS THERE ARE ACTUAL FIREFLIES IN THE FOREST COME SEE" and the elders had both seen fireflies before this even but were good-natured and humored us and came out and saw the fireflies and it was just magical.
Thursday we went to Mepkin, except all 4 of the elders from our district were there, because they were wrapping up their exchange. Elder K was christened (Ivan) and Gloria got to drive the Gator, and U was very excited to see Anthony (Elder W and it was all very nice. Then we did the family history booth and I had NO CHILL. I literally talked to everyone and tried to get them interested. It is becoming easier and easier to talk to people! Keep praying that I can forget my fears and love them enough to share what I have with them! That night R came to Book of Mormon class with K. She told us that D's church is the worst and she doesn't want to listen to him so she'll be coming with R to our church as often as she can. #blessed
Friday is where the subject of today's email comes from. I woke up Friday morning and literally coughed and gagged for ten minutes before accepting that my throat was going to feel like a bunch of turkey vultures were scratching at it all night. It was terrible. I got a priesthood blessing from Elder D-- in which he very clearly told me that I needed to stop and not do too much and take care of myself so that I could get back to work. I did not listen as hard as I should have, probably. I felt terrible still. But we weren't going to let that stop us. Oh no. The rain and the sickness are merely obstacles from SATAN and Satan is way not as cool as me so instead of not doing things all day we went finding in V which is at least 30 miles away from where we live. We went with Sister P. V is the countriest of the country. It's so cute. I took a lot of videos. After that we did some weekly planning. It was good to take it easy for the rest of the day. Elder W then called us for call-ins and when I answered the phone he said, "Sister Pew, you sound like you've been gargling sand." And I said, "oh, whatever, man. I'm good." And he lectured me for 20 minutes on how I should take it easy and not work too hard and I planned on totally disregarding everything he said and working very hard the next day because missionary. But the Lord had other plans.
Because the next day I got up and it was even worse. I was basically dying. We went over to V's to help her pack because she's moving, and she took one look at me and said, "Clara (because V calls us by our first names, which is weird), take Em home and make her take a nap!" Which Sister Kniffen did, because I did look like I was dying. I was all wilty and pale and had really bad sick person eyes and I just was not myself. So we went home, and I called the doctor, and Sister Kniffen put me to bed. After my very long and much needed nap, I broke my fever, and we started working over the phone setting up appointments and trying to contact our five billion Free Bible referrals. I started feeling much better (because dayquil and vitamins and naps) and so that night we went out to E to try and contact some former investigators. It was quite fun. But, the moral of the story is: sometimes, we want to do ALL the good things, but the physical body needs time to recuperate. "It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength." If I had listened to the priesthood blessing, and to Elder W, I probably wouldn't have been out of commission for a lot of Saturday. And would have been able to do more in the long run. So. Don't be stupid. Work as hard as you can. Sometimes that means you can't work SUPER hard because the flesh is week. Don't kill yourselves. Chill.
Yesterday was very fun. We went to the Bs' house and it was super good. We taught them a special lesson I learned from Abi Rice. The lesson is: there are lots of good examples in the Book of Mormon of missionary work. 2 of them are Samuel the Lamanite and Ammon. Samuel the Lamanite was called to stand up (literally) for the truth and call people to repentance. It was his job to withstand the arrows and the stones and the persecution. But Ammon was called to be a servant. He was called to be a good example to his peers and coworkers and friends. He was called to be "a normal guy" and then use heaven-sent opportunities to perform miracles, to teach and testify. While full-time missionary service involves both scenarios, more often it is us who are the Samuels. It is the members' job to be Ammons. To be friends. To be people whom investigators can relate to, people who can bless lives in ways that Samuel the Lamanite just cannot. So, I invite all y'all to study Alma 17-18 to see how Ammon does his missionary work. And then do yours. <3
I love y'all!
Don't let the muggles (or the skruggles) get you down!
-Sister Pew
#GodblessAmerica #happymemorialday
(I have a lot of fun as a missionary)
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| A family that had them over for dinner. Sister Pew sent us a bunch of short videos of her in the mission. I posted them on YouTube under my YouTube. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rachelle+Pew |
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