I wrote an email earlier but somehow it got wiped.
So. Take two.
When I look back on this week, it felt like a lot of meetings,
meetings to plan for more meetings. I enjoy myself a good meeting
every once in a while, but I decided that I get antsy as a missionary
when I'm not on the street getting to talk to someone about the
gospel. A strange, but somewhat rewarding realization / revelation I
had about myself today.
I made the mistake of looking at the calendar today (who's counting)
and realized that I have exactly 40 DAYS left in the field. I often
feel urgent, but today it was kind of reminiscent of "I have to give a
concert in two days and I haven't touched that Chopin étude in 3
weeks" kind of urgent.
Fortunately, I can be a missionary for the rest of my life. Problem solved.
I've been also having these moments of intense cheesy missionary
love--where I love the work I'm doing, love the people I'm working
with, love the awkwardness of loving people who don't really love you
back, just LOVING LOVE. Almost to the point of tears. I've never
considered myself a terribly sentimental person, but I've become so
incredibly aware of how love is at the core of the gospel, and if
everyone just had a little more love in their beings, the world would
be a more beautiful place.
Anyway. About the work. My favorite moment of the week: we had made a
jar of scriptures written on little bits of paper for one of our
friends. I'm normally not the cutesy type of missionary that takes
cues from Enrichment Night but ... you do what you gotta do. We show
up to the lesson, and she has a scripture from the jar pulled, with
REPENTANCE ENOS 1:4-8 written on it. And I felt squirmy. Sometimes
missionaries struggle with "bold but not overbearing," but it's a work
in process. I was hoping the first scripture she would pull would be
sort of "rainbows and smiles" type of scripture ... So ... Anyway, she
sits down and says, "I've been feeling lately that repentance is
really important. I've never thought about this in my entire life but
I just think it's really really important and I want to do it."
When we met months ago I felt like our first interaction was something
of, "Hey, sure you can come over, you two little cute foreign girls."
But the interest has changed, because the Atonement is more real than
you can ever imagine.
I love her so much. She's pretty great. And loves the ward. And can't
figure out why she wants to cry in sacrament meeting. "IT'S THE
SPIRIT, FRIEND, AND ISN'T IT GREAT?" Seeing how people change through
the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of the most incredible things,
especially when the change is literally right before your eyes.
There's a lot of other great things about the week. I baked a batch of
peanut butter cookies from pancake batter and melted chocolate
truffles from last Christmas. It was a hit with all of our friends, if
I do say so myself :)
One of our friends calls us and says, "I normally don't become friends
with people I just meet somewhere random (it's okay--me neither), but
there is something different about you." It's not us; it's the gospel.
With the gospel of Jesus Christ, there's always something to smile
about.
Have a terrific week. Loves to you all.
Love, Sister Margaret Willden
(Monday, November 10)
Pic 1: look at this nice electric line isn't it beautiful
Pic 2: our friend Cindy gave us flowers from her Ikebana class at school!
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