Plagues & Patience

Another week, another email! I hope you're all enjoying the nice dry heat of the west....the humidity here is just....no. I wouldn't wish this stuff upon my worst enemy! Weather is hot, air is sticky, sisters are sweaty, but the work must go on.

WE HAD A PLAGUE IN OUR APARTMENT LAST NIGHT. Some guys had to take out the air conditioners and then put them back in when they replaced our windows last week, but what we didn't do was put the tape back on them to cover the little cracks so no bugs or anything gets in. Yeah, I know, we're perfect. So we walk into our apartment last night after the day was done (we hadn't been home literally all day) and all of the sudden 50+ flies just blow up out of nowhere! We are such girls, you should have seen us...we were thrashing around trying to get them off of us and it was treacherous. We called of one of our ward mission leaders (Matt Wood) and he gave us plenty of suggestions for bait, but we didn't have any of the supplies. He and his wife Lilli eventually came over to help us because we were seriously being engulfed in flies and we didn't have tape or a fly swatter or anything! So they came and helped us kill all of them... Sister Brown had a spatula, Matt and Lilli had their flip flops, and I had a paper thing that I folded. It was quite the sight to see! Lilli is 8 months pregnant and swatting flies with flip flops, the sisters are trying to smile through the pain as they see their apartment smothered in flies, and Brother Wood is swatting like a madman with his flip flop. Another one of those mission stories, you know? 

Ready for the best part? 

There I was...getting myself ready this morning when all of a sudden our fire alarm started blaring and yelling "FIRE, FIRE!" at us over and over. The beeps were so loud and we tried everything to make it stop. There clearly wasn't a fire in our apartment...it was just a matter of figuring out how to shut it off. We pressed every button, took out the battery, put the battery back in, etc. It kept yelling and beeping and shattering our eardrums. We texted Brother Wood again for help and he tried his best over the phone, but nothing was working! Eventually, after trying to study through a now roaring headache, I decided to walk outside and drag a random construction worker into our apartment and have him fix it. Good news! He took it completely out of the wall and took it outside with him and it stopped beeping. And that right there is the story of the sisters witnessing two of the 7 Plagues right inside of their apartment. :.)

Now, let's talk about all of our flourishing and progressing investigators, shall we? OH WAIT. We don't have any... Well, we do, but none of them truly have the desire to learn or keep commitments. We try so hard to meet with them and teach them and invite them to church but we just aren't having any luck. We put a lot of effort into the ward and the less active members since our area is very tough with finding new people to teach. I really believe that's why sister brown and I are here together right now. There are many families that need the extra help and need the spiritual upliftment and it's easy for missionaries to look past that and spend their days tracking and finding and more tracting and more finding without any success. We have made great connections with most of the members and they're opening up to us which they've never done with previous missionaries. Sister brown and I are very 'ward-focused' or 'member-focused', whatever you want to call it, and we are seeing success with that! There are so many different ways of doing missionary work and it's cool to be a part of more than one of those ways.

Something that has been coming to my mind lately has been the concept of patience. I was thinking about it, and missionaries are constantly exercising their patience. 

"How many days left until I return home?"
"I can't wait until zone conference to be spiritually edified by President Blair."
"I can't wait to see what investigators make it to church this Sunday."
"When is lunch/dinner hour? I'm starving."

There is also having patience with ourselves...

"Why do I make so many mistakes?"
"How come I didn't just open my mouth and invite them to learn when we walked passed them?"
"I'm never going to be a perfect missionary."
"Are my efforts even paying off?"

I have learned up to this point that all impatience brings is discouragement. Heavenly Father has wonderful things in store that He's promised are right in our grasp as we live worthy of them. He wants us to be happy. That is His main goal, to make us the happiest that we can be. It is through impatience and discouragement and disappointment that distance us from that joy. I love this quote given by President Dieter F Uchtdorf in the October 2015 general conference. He says, "God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy! 

So if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter. No, it doesn’t happen instantly, but honestly, how many good things do? Seems to me that the best things, like homemade bread or orange marmalade, take patience and work.” PATIENCE AND WORK. 

We can't sit back and impatiently endure the trials of life. That reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon found in the book of Alma. I'm pretty sure it's Alma 34:41 and it says, "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." I love this scripture! We need to have a firm hope that one day, all will be made right. We need to do all we can to taste of the sweet joy that comes from living the gospel. We need to put our complete trust in the Lord and patiently wait for the blessings He has in store, no matter what trial or length of time placed in front of us. 

Can I also just tell you how much Heavenly Father loves you? I probably already said that, but I need to remind every single one of you. There is ANOTHER QUOTE (sorry I just love quotes) given by Dieter F Uchtdorf about this pure love. He says, "Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God’s love for you. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely." 

That just about sums it up. WE ARE LOVED.

Love, Sister Watson