Natasha's Weekly Letter: Week #16

I decided that one of the qualifications for being a missionary should be that you have to be comfortable with being involved with everyone's personal business. I feel like I've been involved with everyone's personal business and I'm not exactly a fan of it. An example of this was last Monday after P-day was over.

 

Monday night we texted Sister Hill (the less-active who has two daughters who aren't baptized) and she said we could come over that night. When we got to her house she comes into the room and says, "My husband's home." I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but the first time we met her she talked about how her husband was abusive and that he wasn't in the picture anymore (Example #1 of personal business). So both Sister Smart and I were like "Um what... Didn't you practically tell us he's the worst?" So we didn't really know what was going on. So that was awesome.

 

We also had the coolest of lessons with this lady named Ada. We taught her the restoration and she seemed super prepared. She said she would read the Book of Mormon everyday and that we could come back next Wednesday.

 

Wednesday was the start of a new transfer so I'm now on my third transfer! I'm officially out of training! Sister Smart and I are staying together for this next transfer which I'm pretty pumped about! 

 

On Thursday we had dinner with the Wellings who were hilarious as always. I could write a lot about the funny things they said. One of things said was from Sister Welling. She was talking about electricity and then that lead to people who had to wash their clothes by hands which led to her talking about how men must have really stuck in the olden days because they didn't have deodorant. Then she said, "When you get married make sure you're husband gets deodorant with antiperspirant. Antiperspirant is the key to a happy marriage." Hahaha. That may not be that funny just reading it, but trust me it was super funny.

 

On Friday we had another lesson with the Hernandez family. The Hernandez family has made little progress in the 3 months I've been here so we decided that this lesson was going to be the determining lesson of whether we were going to keep teaching them or not. Long story short, we told Penny that the gospel would bring her peace and we wanted her to get baptized. We still aren't sure if that changed anything, but we'll see. Sister Smart and I feel like we've given them our all and it's really up to Penny to act. There's not much else we can do.

 

On Saturday I had a cool experience that had a little to do with the Hernandez family. They were originally supposed to come to church on Sunday, but long story short, their car broke down on Saturday night and when we offered to find them a ride they said they didn't want to bother anyone. That night when we came home I was just angry. I was to a point again where I had given up all hope that there really was anyone out there who would receive the gospel. For those of you who know me, know that it take a lot for me to be truly angry. That night when I was saying my prayers I asked for the Lord to soften my heart, to take away this anger that I was feeling. Then, I remembered a quote that said, "The blessings come after the trial of your faith." That hit me really hard. I realized the blessings won't come unless I remain faithful through the hard times, not after I have give up. I have to remain faithful even when it's hard and then the blessings will come. I don't know where the prepared are, but I know they're out there and I know the Lord will lead us to them when the time comes.

 

At church on Sunday the first two hours were AWESOME! Sacrament was the greatest. There were so many good testimonies and second hour we got to teach the 4 and 5 year old primary kids. That was super fun. The third hour we had a "counsel" about suicide. I have counsel in quotations because it very much wasn't a counsel. It was pretty much a bunch of random thoughts about suicide. With something as major as suicide I feel like the lesson needs to be very structured, but it wasn't. It was a little rough.

 

That night we met with Sister Hill again. This time her girls and her husband went out to run some errands. Then she proceeded to tell us how she didn't want her husband in her home and some other things (so much personal business). At least we got some things cleared up though. 

 

This week was an emotional adventure, but I know that Heavenly Father is there and that He loves and knows all His children.

 

Love,

Sister Schouten