This week has been a crazy week. On Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) I was transferred to Centreville. My new companion is… Sister Jeppsen (my MTC companion)! I am so excited. It is going to be awesome. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at a family in the ward’s home. We ate on a dining room table that is a replication of President George Washington’s table. Our plates and silverware were gold! It was very fancy pants. But things are great for me. I am doing very well. I am happy here. It is so weird, I am learning how much I have really changed and the things that I am learning. Sister Jeppsen is a lot like Sister Patten in some ways. She cuts me off in lessons and she really really really loves people very easy and so sometimes I feel like I am taking the backseat. But I have changed a lot because I am able to recognize that and not get so upset and take it to heart the way that I did when I was with Sister Patten. It is so great to see my strengths and see my progression. It’s so amazing.
Here are the things that I have learned from Sister Patten:
1. I am learning how to truly love the people that I teach. She tells them that she loves them and they can feel the sincerity in that. I learned to be “best friends” with my investigators. Meaning, to love them enough to invite them to do hard things. I love Anna enough to tell her to repent and to come to church for all three hours.
2. The importance of working with less-actives. She was less-active and so she feels a duty to work with them. It was great to meet those members and help them to be active again. We met a sister in the ward that has not been to church in many years. We met with her and now she is coming to church. It is great to see.
3. What it means to ease others burdens. Sister Patten would always ask people, whether they were members or not, if we could serve them in any way. She is always looking for service opportunities. Even though it does not lead to teaching appointments, it always leaves us both feeling grateful. We volunteered at a food bank and Sister Patten asked the manager if there was anything that we could do for her. She asked if we could label some things. We took the stuff home and worked on it during lunch and dinner and the next day brought it back. It was awesome! I am really grateful for learning that. It is important that we ease other people’s burdens. It only took a few hours to do and in the end that woman was so happy.
4. I learned that really every minute and every hour does count in missionary work. We work until 9pm and then we go home. We do not work until 8:45pm and then get in our car and drive home so that we can be in the house at 9pm. I have seen so many miracles happen in those 15 minutes that I would normally leave to get home.
5. I learned how to open up more. I do not open up to people very easy because I feel like my life is personal and I do not want people to know things about me because then my life is no longer personal (weird concept I know). But I have learned that it’s okay to talk about my experiences, in fact, my investigators and the members need to know that I am human. I have feelings, I have trials. Of course, I don’t need to go in to detail but I can tell them that I struggled with the principle of prayer but I was able to gain a testimony of it and prayer has helped me a lot in my life.
I am so grateful to have been companions with Sister Patten. I have learned so much about myself and about my Heavenly Father. It has blessed me in so many ways.
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