well, well, well...would you look at that. another week has gone by in the mission field and it literally feels like I just wrote you all yesterday.😂
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First thing first, zone conference! we had a lovely conference with some missionaries serving around me on Thursday and we got to hear from our mission president and some other mission leaders :) something that president blair brought up was a vision that he has about our mission 10 years from now.
president blair: "alright everyone, close your eyes... now imagine yourself ten years from now in 2026 and you're watching general conference with your spouse and some little kids. your kids are loud and obnoxious, but you continue to try your best to listen and gain at least something from this session of conference. you see the prophet of the church walk up to the pulpit and hear him declare his love for the church, and for every single member. you love the prophet, and you really can feel the sincerity of his words. he then mentions the growth the church has had over the past couple years as he prepares to mention some new temples that will start being built shortly. you yell to your kids to quiet down so that you can hear which areas of the world are being blessed with a house of the Lord. the prophet starts choking up and he's now speaking through some tears. 'We are pleased to announce...a new temple... in Sharon, Vermont.'" as soon as president blair said that location, I was basically in tears. Sharon, Vermont is the birthplace of Joseph Smith and it's the area I served in last year around this time. how incredible would it be to be watching conference and to hear the prophet announce a temple in that area? as a missionary serving here in a mission with no temple in its boundaries, we are all doing everything we possibly can to build the wards and branches in the effort of receiving a temple. I pray for the day in 2026 that all of our hard work pays off and our mission is blessed with a house of God.
sister brown and I also had the privilege of bringing a senior missionary that works in the office to an appointment with us last week. her name is sister badger and she's a sweetheart. after our appointment, we went back to the church to talk and get to know each other better.
sister brown and I also had the privilege of bringing a senior missionary that works in the office to an appointment with us last week. her name is sister badger and she's a sweetheart. after our appointment, we went back to the church to talk and get to know each other better.
backstory: sister brown and I have been really struggling lately with confidence, comparing ourselves and our efforts to others, and discouragement. as we were talking with sister badger, she asked us questions that eventually led to us telling her about some of those problems. talking about those problems also led to us telling her about our physical self confidence and how we put ourselves down because of the way we look. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it really is a struggle for us. sister brown and I were both born with a facial defect which has damaged our self esteem and that has been a trial that we've grown up with. we ended up telling her about this and she said some very profound things.
CELEBRATE YOUR CHALLENGE.
She said how it's so important to remember who you were before you came when you wanted the challenge presented to you. Heavenly Father prepared me and told me about the cleft lip that I'll be born with and I saw the potential trials and tribulations I'll endure because of it. I had the strength and the testimony and the confidence in myself at that time to accept it anyway with a smile on my face, knowing with a full heart that I can OVERCOME it, LEARN from it, and GROWN from it. It definitely sounds strange to celebrate a challenge, but why wouldn't we? challenges are what help us to come closer to Christ and to become more perfected so that one day we can return to live with Him again.
we should be celebrating the trust that the Lord has in us in giving us these challenges. trust me, it isn't easy. it hasn't been easy. it won't be easy from here on out. I will always struggle with the way I look and that's okay. I will continue to face challenges and hardships, and that's okay. this life isn't meant to float on by without a single night where you fall asleep in tears, or when your testimony is backed up against the wall, or when you feel like you can't move forward. instead of asking Heavenly Father, "why me?" we should be asking, "what can I be learning from this?" there is something to learn from everything that happens to us, it's our job to take it by the reins and learn something new from it and add it to the list of things we agreed to endure before we came down.
This reminds me of a quote I found by Linda S Reeves from a general women's broadcast. she says, "I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?"
I can testify of her words, and of the words of sister badger. no challenge is too great, no trial too impossible to endure, and no affliction too painful to keep us away from the loving arms of our Savior.
I really should just take my own advice, because this past week has been its own personal challenge. I would honestly be lying if I said that this past week was the greatest week of my life and I learned a
lot and taught 4739 lessons and had several spiritual experiences...because none of those things happened. in fact, this past week was one of the hardest for me. you would think that this whole missionary thing would get easier the longer you're out, but that is SO false! I still feel just as stressed and inadequate as I did my first couple weeks in Maine. BUT I know that my Father hears and answers my prayers. He knows my struggles and He knows my weaknesses. But, I also know that He is proud of me and that He loves me and THAT is what matters.
lot and taught 4739 lessons and had several spiritual experiences...because none of those things happened. in fact, this past week was one of the hardest for me. you would think that this whole missionary thing would get easier the longer you're out, but that is SO false! I still feel just as stressed and inadequate as I did my first couple weeks in Maine. BUT I know that my Father hears and answers my prayers. He knows my struggles and He knows my weaknesses. But, I also know that He is proud of me and that He loves me and THAT is what matters.
I'm sorry that this was so long, but I hope you all got something from it. have a great week :)
Lunch at zone conference
These are the people I met up with at red lobster a month before we all left for the MTC! it just so happened that we were all at the same zone conference together so we had to get another picture. I
The picture we took at Red Lobster over a year ago :)
We found a gigantic cemetery!
