Transferred and Thanksgiving

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.

New Branch

This week was a long week. I have not been having any spiritual experiences lately. I feel like I am stuck in a rut. I don't know how I feel. I love Aquia with all of my heart but I am really struggling with my companion. I don't know what more I can do for this companionship. I pray every single day for ways in which I can handle this.

 

We now cover the Rappahannock Singles Branch along with the Aquia Ward. So that's great. I am so excited to start that adventure. The Branch President is so funny and so laid back. He also knows our Bishop in the Aquia Ward and they have been friends for 30 years! I love it so much. The Singles Branch has 4 members who went to SVU with me! It is so fun to be able to see people that I hung out with.

 

I think that my depression is coming back into my life. I cannot tell if it's because of this companionship or just random. But I have not wanted to get out of bed the past three days. I really don't know if I want to be here any more. I really am trying but I just don't know.

 

I am trying to figure things out. I am trying to figure out how I can make the best of this. 6 weeks will be over soon enough. I know that there is something that I am supposed to learn in this companionship, and I am greatful for this companionship because I am seeing how strong I really am. I could have given up on Thursday and said: "whatever" and left this situation but I did choose to stay. There was something deep down inside of me that told me to stay with her. I will tough this out. I mean she is a really great missionary and I love her so much.

 

On the positive side: I love Aquia! The people are so nice and so kind. They really do take care of us. Every day this month we have dinners set up and next month (December!) is filling up quickly! How crazy is that? I love it. Rappahannock Singles is awesome!

Sporadic Thoughts

This week has been a very interesting week to say the least. Monday I got a blessing from Brother Broadbent to deal with everything that was going on. I felt, and feel, a lot better. The storm was not so bad here. It was very windy and rainy but nothing like July’s storm. We have had ten (10!) lessons this week! It has been good teaching people. On Wednesday President Riggs came down to Fredericksburg to talk to me and Sister Patten. It was good. I am listening to and applying the things that I felt would help this companionship. Then I had fun on Halloween! It was great. We got to watch some great movies (Puss in Boots and Madagascar 3).

Thursday was a difficult day. We went over to do service for a member in the ward. We started cleaning and she opened up to us as to why she’s a ‘hoarder.’ She talked about how hard her life has been. Sister Patten got so upset and just couldn’t function afterwards. To make matters worse, we checked on a less active in the ward and it was just depressing. The woman said that she does not believe that this church is the true church and she only believes that ‘some’ of the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Then we tried to share a thought with her from “Our Search for Happiness” and before we could even quote any of it, the woman ‘chewed us out.’ She said: “If you think that life is hard now, you might as well put a bullet to your head.” It was rough. But Friday was phenomenal! It was just great. We had a wonderful lesson with Ana and she is just amazing. This weekend was good too.

I just hit my 6 months mark (from the MTC). It is crazy. I cannot believe that I am 1/3 done. I am happy. Two of my recent converts got the Aaronic Priesthood! Terence and David! They are awesome. I saw David yesterday at the Departing Missionary Fireside. It is awesome to see that they are still going strong. I love them to pieces. They are fantastic. I saw Sister Anderson too and she is doing great. She is happy and she doesn’t want to leave Mount Vernon. She has never stayed in an area for 3 transfers and she hopes to stay for another transfer. I trust her with my area. I know that she is taking care of it. Transfers are this week. I think that I am staying in Aquia with Sister Patten. President Riggs at least alluded to that with Sister Patten on Wednesday. I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, I love this area (the members and the investigators) so I want to stay here but I will be okay if I leave.

I am just not use to having a companion 24-7 and having different opinions. She really is a great person, but we are just so different personality wise. I am used to becoming friends with/ or getting put in a situation with people who are hard to get along with or have self-esteem issues. President just thinks that I am strong enough to handle those kinds of people. I am sure that if I had people to talk to here things would sound better. I really am not that depressed. A mission is just "refiners fire" for missionaries. You learn so much about who you are.

I am learning about how real Satan is. He really does not want us to be happy. He wants us to be upset and feel inadequate. He wants us to suffer and not feel like we can do anything. He wants us to beat ourselves up. I am also learning about how real the Atonement is. I have been studying a lot about the Atonement. I have been using scriptures, Bible Dictionary, Topical Guide, and True to the Faith. It has been a real eye opener. All of those feelings and thoughts that Satan puts into our minds the Atonement already cover. It is so cool. I love it. I love Christ. It is wonderful to think about. There is nothing that the Atonement does not cover. There is no feeling or action too big for Christ. I love that.