Now, onto the stuff that happened this week. Man, there's so many good things.
MONDAY: We had a good, chill p-day. We just basically rested and recuperated. Those are the best. After that we ran into some difficulty because we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves until our dinner appointment with the Ps. We still hadn't heard from our dear sweet N, whom we usually see on Monday nights, so we just tried to knock and stuff but that was not a very good use of our time. Afterward, we went to the Ps. Sister P is a published author and her novels are for sale at Deseret Book!!! You should all buy them. They're romance novels. Yep. And Brother P is really cool. He is a convert and he and Sister P got engaged after dating a week. True story. We left them with a commitment to pray for a desire to do missionary work, live the commandments, and pray for what they can do specifically to be missionaries. AND, I challenge all y'all to do that.
TUESDAY: I went on exchanges with the beautiful and hilarious Sister Simons of SV3. She is from St. George and came out with Sister Larsen. We had such a great time. She is a fabulous person.
WEDNESDAY: We went and did service at Habitat for Humanity, we had house inspections, and then we went to teach R (ASL). That was really fun and I was pretty excited that I could understand most of what was being said. She was really excited because a couple of members in our ward had invited her to come over for her birthday. ADORABLE. OUR WARD IS ADORABLE. After that we went and had a fun mutual activity with the youths about missionary work. We had them do a roleplay about using the Book of Mormon to help people with their challenges. It was a good time had by all. After that we finally got to see our dear sweet N, who has unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) slipped up on some of her pre-Word of Wisdom habits. The fortunate part is that she recognizes that this happened as a direct result of her not meeting with us or attending church on Sunday, and told us that she has felt an absolute lack of the Spirit of the Lord in her life. She said she felt like she'd been on a high until she committed those sins. SO, she committed herself to be baptized on April 7th so she can have the Spirit with her always and have protection against and forgiveness from those sins. She came up with all that on her own, too. So that was special.
THURSDAY: We had a messenger lesson with one of Sister Hamilton's investigators from Spartanburg. It was pretty good. We also ended up seeing K when we went back to see A from last week. Incidentally, A wasn't even home. But we had a good conversation with K and got to watch her son K dance around like a maniac, which is a really fun time. We then practiced ASL in the park, much to the alarm of passersby. After that we saw a member of our ward in a nursing home, who is the sweetest. Then I got a blessing from Brother G, who has to be one of my favoritest of favorites. He is so tall! And so kind! And when he gave me a blessing, he sort of opened up my future for me. That was really special. He blessed that I would know the path I am to take in life. That was very comforting. And then we did our Facebook Live, which was as usual very fun even though we are not very eloquent and wise.
FRIDAY: We planned for our week and also saw N. We actually had a discussion about our previous discussion about the Law of Chastity. She said she was now willing to live it, and that it's not so important to her anymore. That was really great. It was a super spiritual time for us. That night we began fasting so we could be spiritually prepared to listen to our visiting general authority friend Elder Jorg Klebingat.
SATURDAY: I know I will never be able to put into words all my emotions that I felt. It was absolutely wonderful to see all the Upstate crew again, those folks are so special to my heart and always will be. It felt so good to talk to Sister Larsen and see how much she has grown. She has so much confidence and strength about her. I know that it comes from her remarkable faith, and it was so wonderful to see that it's still growing. #proud And of course my dear hermanas - it was so fun to see them too. And then, add that joy to the joy of hearing a general authority literally address everything you wonder and worry about. OH MAN. Not only is Elder Klebingat a fireball who very lovingly roasted us into the Second Coming, he is also so, so funny. He is sharp and German and awesome. He did a couple things that were just so good - anytime he was telling us about someone who was saying something dumb, he used an American accent. He kept getting after the elders and he'd just be like, "Elders, are you kidding me?" Let me give you some quotes from him to help you see how the day went.
-"Whatever DNA strand involves beating around the bush, I wasn't born with it. I don't have it."
-"My highest degree of depression comes when I pull my toast out of the toaster and I realize my Nutella is gone."
-*Looking directly at Sister Hamilton and I* "That is a boatload of...untruth."
-"I don't care if you only move one inch, but move."
-"The least the Lord can expect is your best effort."
-"You don't earn respect by trying to earn respect. You earn respect by leading."
-"Well, hello!"
-(After saying some "insensitive" things about mental health, AKA missionaries who use bad mental health as an excuse not to do missionary work) "Some people tell me, (reverts to American accent) 'you can't say things like that, you're in America!' And I'm like, 'well, the Lord called me here, so...'"
-"Heavenly Father, I am dying 1000 deaths right now..."
-"Why are you laughing? That was profound, what I just said."
-"You cannot be perfect but you can easily be consecrated. If you're not willing to do that, you would be better off at home."
The day was split into 2 sessions. The first session, Elder Klebingat opened at least my eyes to who I was before this life. Also my tear ducts. I basically cried the whole time. I premortally covenanted to gather Israel and I am a royal personage. That really doesn't do the feelings I felt any justice, but missionary work and life in general is just so much bigger than I even thought or imagined. YOU ALL HAVE INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL. Literally, so much, you don't even know. God sent you here because you have so much ability to change lives and bless people. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. Since then a lot of things have clicked in my brain, one of which is that I am more powerful than Satan. Sometimes he will try and make me feel like crap about myself and my abilities. That is lame sauce. I can tell him to quit it, and it's so much easier to handle the hard times when I'm just like, "I don't even like feeling like this. This is just Satan." The feelings of sadness and sorrow still come, but they don't last as long and I find it's easier to continue to be good and work hard despite the hard times. And so, my testimony from first session: If you come to understand better who you are, Satan will have no power over you.
Also, in between the 2 sessions of mission conference, I had a burning feeling to talk to President about some stuff I had going on in my life. It was not an easy conversation to have with him, but he offered some really perfect words of comfort, and then offered to continue to work through some of the things after our mini MLC with Elder Klebingat. Then we went into the second session and Elder Klebingat opened it up to questions. AND LITERALLY EVERY DOUBT I HAD WAS DECIMATED BY THE POWER OF ELDER KLEBINGATS TESTIMONY AND THE SPIRIT. It was so cool. YOU GUYS. IT WAS THE BEST. And then I had a question for him. I stood up and looked this six-foot-something German intimidating general authority and said, "How do I fully trust the Lord?" And he spoke directly but with power: "By putting yourself consistently in situations where if the Lord doesn't come through for you, you'll crash and burn." My own personal words of advice from an anointed servant of God. Cool as fetch. And also true as fetch. And after all was said and done, Elder Klebingat shook all of our hands, and he thanked me. And I was like, "why?" And he was like, "For serving a mission." And it...was cool...really cool. So, Saturday, March 24th will go down in my personal history as the day I cannot ever walk away from thinking that God is not real and that He doesn't love me. I challenge y'all, again, to find that out for yourself. I promise you will be forever changed.
SUNDAY: Okay, Sunday was also really great. At church we had a great sacrament meeting. After working with the Primary for 2 weeks it was wonderful to hear them sing Gethsemane in church. They are the cutest little bunch and I was crying with the rest of the moms in the audience. Also, this guy in our ward gave the BEST talk on the Resurrection of the Savior that I have ever heard. We had a great gospel principles class in which Nora was hilarious, as usual. We had a wonderful time in Relief Society and R was welcomed and felt like everyone loved her (which they did because our ward is the best). Also K was there, also A who we taught last week. So funny story about THAT, we went to birthday lunch for R at they Gs, and it took 5ever (which is perfectly okay because they fed us shrimp and scallops and also they have the cutest grandbaby on planet earth) so we weren't sure what we'd have time to do before we had call-ins with President. We thought we wouldn't be able to teach A, but then, last minute, the Bs invited us over, so we went. And oh my goodness. That has got to have made the top ten for most spiritual lessons of my mission. It was one of those aforementioned situations where without the help of the Lord, we'd have crashed and burned. A missionary who used to serve here (who trained Sister Hamilton and used to be my STL and whose dad works with my dad) named Sister Flinders, and her parents, and Brother C, and the Bs, and us, were all just there to answer A's questions. And whenever my mouth opened, I found that it was being filled with the words I needed to discern what he needed. And it happened the same for Sister Hamilton. MAN, it was so cool. We talked about prayer and recognizing the Spirit. OH, MAN. I just can't even. We told President about it and he was like, "could you be a little more enthusiastic, Sister Pew?" And I was like, "Probably, President, but it'd probably bust your eardrums."
So anyways.
This week.
Was the literal.
Best.
Week.
Ever.
I also want to close with my witness that God doesn't abandon anyone. Satan wants you to feel like you are wasting your time and efforts. Don't listen to him. And don't listen to anyone that tells you you aren't enough, including you. You are always enough because Christ atoned for you. Tell Satan to take a walk off a hike. That is what I mean when I say
Don't let the muggles get you down!
Love,
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| If you look close it says they are ASL missionaries on their tags |
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| grandchildren of a friend |
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| Exchanges |
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