Snippets of Mission Life

By | 8:48 PM

Thank you for the letter.... I know it's hard and that you are busy, but those letters are sooooooo helpful!  I need physical letters!

An example of my schedule when we have exchanges:
6:30—wake up and start laundry—shower, eat, dress.
8:00—personal study! I’m reading about Abinadi.
9:00—Companion study—planned the exchange with sister Ficklin.
10:00—2:00—a rush of emailing, laundry, shopping, and more planning.
3:00—Companion leave and I’m alone with Sister Ficklin on exchange. We taught Evie Eastman at 7:00, just read over 2 Nephi 31 and talked about baptism. Then at 8:00 we did a service project for the Peirce family.
Tuesday we started the morning with study and planning and then joined the Pierce family for an early lunch at11:00. Sister Rawlinson gave us a ride at noon and we saw Tessa and Kenny, Jan Clem, Kim Hutchins, Sister Blackwell (all less active members), and then at2:00 we have a set app. with Jesse who wants to get baptized but he won’t marry his live-in girl friend. He is a sweet guy though and he is doing the best he can. After Jesse we saw Margaret and we practiced the baptism interview questions with her and set an app. for the elders to interview her the next day. Then we stopped by Dora and Eddie’s and tried to convince her to come to church. Eddie loves church and I bet he will have a baptism date soon—but Dora is struggling. At 5:30 the exchange was over. We had dinner with the Cruces, the family we live with.

Did I tell you how we live with a member family? The Cruces have 3 girls, but only one is still at home in high school. She will be a senior this year. We share a bathroom with her. I have a hard time cuz the kitchen is never free for me to make snacks or gluten free treats…and their T.V. is always on! I seriously miss T.V.! But I feel safe here and Brother is a strong priesthood holder so I appreciate that a lot.

Can I tell you how much I love Sister Magness? The first part of her mission was incredibly hard and she has been really sick most of the time. She has learned the hard way about reliance on the Lord. We work hard here. I’m learning the incredible difference being busy makes. I didn’t really understand what missionary work looks like until Claremore. Sister Magness loves me and I love her—we hug and share stories—we understand our trials and our weaknesses. We try to help one another. I’m so grateful for Sister Magness and her patient obedience and example. It’s hard and I’m open with her and her with me and we both understand each other’s weaknesses and we strive to help one another.

I will send you the notes on my talk (on pioneer heritage given in Sacrament Meeting).  I had quite a few people afterwards tell me how amazing it was.  how much they loved it. so I'm rather proud right now about it..... :)  but I'm sure most of it was the constant prayer and the fast that morning.....  I was very stressed!  I only worked on it for an hour Saturday night.... remember how we are busy here in Claremore?  when was I ever supposed to write a talk?  Grandpa's stories were a hit though :)  people really enjoyed them!  and did you know that the story of Amanda Barnes is in "our heritage"?  yup....

OKAY!  on to the real story now. 

we have a standing appointment with a guy named Terry.  he is Brother Cruces co-worker (we live at the Cruces house, fyi)  and so Terry comes over to the house on Tuesday nights and we teach them with Cruce family.  this is a new thing, just started about two weeks... and last Tuesday guess what happened?

we were teaching about the first vision and praying to know for yourself if the Book of Mormon is true.  Brother Cruce broke in and bore the most amazing testimony and shared his own converstion story.  so cool.  and while he is talking Sister Magness looks over at me and whispers "extend a date"
 I'm thinking "What!?!"  but I say "okay"
the next thing I know I'm pulling out my Book of Mormon and looking like a totally awesome scriptorian girl and I get him to read the intro to the book of Mormon, (the last paragraph)  and I promise him that if he continues to pray and to read he will come to know the truth of it, he will come to know the truth of what we had taught him about Joseph Smith.  and then I say "and when you come to know that these things are true, you will want to act on that.  Sister Magness and I believe that you can be ready for baptism on August 17.  will you continue to pray and read and will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that date?" 
I'm looking him right dead in the eyes the whole time, and he is looking right back.  there was barely a breath or a minute and he stated with a sure "absolutely, I will”.

so, I am out of time.

I had an exchange this week as well.
so, one of pics is of the exchange.

the other three are because I got bored/weird on Monday and just ran around taking pictures!

One is a picture of me in the bathroom, very green!  and another picture is of my study area and my planner that I decorated :)

okay, bye!






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