Dear Family,
It has been a great and crazy week. There have been a couple of
times that I have wanted to check my call letter and Check to see if I
was called to be a missionary or a life coach. My name tag says
Missionaries but I have just realized that this week people have
problems. Lots and lots of problems, and for some reason they all think
its a good idea to unloose to two 21 year old girls and say, "Well how
can you fix me?" I feel a little unqualified. I'm just here to teach
about Jesus. That's all. Sister Heath says that 18 months on a mission
should qualify you for a bachelors in Psychology. No thank you. I
will stick with the ABC's. But seriously, this week we have had a
couple lessons with couples who have severe marital problems and abusive
pasts. It seems like the spouses want us to "fix" their partner so
they can stay married. we taught another girl who has extreme
insecurities and anxieties. We had a lesson with a man who is normally
the sweetest man ever but that day he was talking about how he wanted to
drop kick this other guy down the street. We Taught a woman who is
super addicted to prescription drugs and frankly we don't know if we can
believe a word she says. Not to mention the people who hate the ward,
hate thier work, have no work, have no family and much much more. And we
haven't even gone through half of our lessons this week! We taught a
lot. What ever happened to people having nice happy lives? Where are
they and why don't they want to take the lessons.
I really do love all these people, and we got the highest number of
lessons in the district this week, but my concern is that half of these
people are so distracted by everything that Satan is throwing at them
that they are forgetting that Jesus is the one who can help them threw.
I have been so grateful for the sentence in the white handbook that
says, "Do not counsel members or nonmembers on personal problems." I
have realized this week that I am so not qualified for a lot of things,
but I am qualified to teach the gospel of repentance. When those around
us listen and internalize the message that we share I know that
everything else will fall into place. That is what we have been doing
this week and I am so grateful that the Lord is very much involved in
this work.
Okay now that's off my chest... I can't remember anything else
that happened this week. We had interviews with the mission president
and his wife. I absolutely love them. Pres Cook talked to us about
working with the ward council and having them set their baptismal goals
for each month of the year so that they can achieve their ward mission
plan. Once the ward has set their goals then we as the missionaries
work our little tails off to achieve it. He also told me to enjoy my
time with sister Heath because its only going to be about 2 weeks more.
Not really a shocker- she has been here about 7 1/2 months, but it was
still sad to hear. I don' t know who my companion is going to be- I
don't even know where we will be living. The Lessies are doing some
work on their house so it's not really conducive to a missionary
lifestyle anymore. We have to find some other members to let us live
with them.
I absolutely love living with the Lessies. They are so good to
us. They are always there to get us things if we need them or be our
member for the member present lesson. We told President that sometimes
Sister Lessie puts chocolates on our pillows. He burst out laughing-
and I'm afraid he might not take us as seriously anymore. Anyway, This
week I couldn't find my tag anywhere. It was just completely gone and I
was really sad because that tag has been with me everyday of my mission
so far. I don't have a spare. When I called to order another one I
found out that it would be about 2 weeks before I get it. Sister Lessie
saw how sad I was and she printed out a tag that looks Identical and
she taped it to sister Heaths old tag. I've been wearing t for about 4
days now and only 1 person has noticed it is not the normal tag. Of
course having a paper tag has its problems. I am now deathly afraid of
sprinklers. For example last night sister Heath and I were pretty far
away from our car and we were running back to it so we could get in on
time. (Nothing says peculiar like two girls in knee length skirts
running down a dark street at 8:45 pm and then stopping suddenly to
strike up a conversation with that guy in his garage. I know we're not
normal.) Anyway we had to run through a sprinkler and while the cool
water felt nice I freaked out because My tag got a little wet. Oh
well. Such is the life of a missionary.
When all is said and done this has been a pretty normal missionary
week. We picked up some new investigators that I actually think will
get baptized (I just don't know when) we had one of our investigators
come to ward conference and listen to the stories of a few recent
converts. The spirit was so strong and I was so grateful for it. We
dropped a few investigators. Including the 86 year old widower. But
it's okay because he agreed to let us teach him in the spirit world.
It's been a great week. This transfer is going by so fast but I think
it's mostly because we are really enjoying our work. It's not easy being
a missionary. In fact at times it is down right hard, but I know that the
Lord is right there and he is the one who is telling us what to say
when we just have no idea.
Anyway I've got to go. I love you all so much. I'm happy and healthy and hope everyone else is too!
Love Sister Allred
p.s. Sister Heath and I are currently sitting next to a guy snacking on straight garlic. California is really weird.
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