We had to wait very patiently while driving all the way from St. George to So. California to pick up Melissa's email! Happily, it was worth the wait. She has transfers coming up this week, so please keep her in your prayers - that she'll be happy with wherever (and with whomever) she ends up!
Hello! This is my last full week of this transfer. We get our t-texts this Saturday night! Talk about stressful. I would love to stay, but also I would hate for anything I say to affect where I go, so I'm just keeping my mouth shut, my head down, and working as hard as I can. That also means that I will likely not get to e-mail again until next Wednesday.
This week was pretty good! We still have basically no progressing investigators, but we are still working with members. I feel like I say that a lot. It's always a challenge trying to figure out whether the reason we aren't being blessed with people to teach is because we aren't doing enough, or God wants us to learn patience, or maybe both. I just tend to stress myself out thinking that I'm not doing enough because I don't ever want to become apathetic.
Easter was a nice treat. I love getting to go to two different church blocks! Such a treat. I learned a lot this week. As usual, I learned a lot from the words that were said, but I was also instructed by the Spirit - not necessarily directly related to what was said. I love that! yay for learning. I'll share some of my new insights:
* Hymn 198: Because Christ conquered pain and death, we can (if we "give our love and pledge our all" to Christ) conquer FEAR!
*In Luke we read that on the road to Emmaus, the disciples were so focused on the hype of the news of the Resurrection that they didn't recognize Christ! Am I sometimes so focused on the day-to-day (scheduling lessons, filling out progress records, daily planning sessions, etc.) that I miss the bigger picture or WHY I am here?
*It's true that Christ's suffering was so severe, so complete and infinite that our mortal minds cannot even comprehend it - but we can understand it a little bit more, and increase our faith in this somewhat nebulous concept every time we experience the peace that comes from repenting.
*When I recognize the immortal nature of our soul, I gain an eternal perspective which helps me never settle for mediocrity (if you're not going to grad school, you might be okay with just passing a class in your undergrad, rather than trying to keep it up or focusing on true learning…)
Anyway I thought that was neat. I always love learning more and Easter was a great time to recommit myself to focusing on the important things. Isn't it interesting that even when I'm out here doing the most important work I can be, I sometimes lose the big picture? I really want to always remember what's most important. I should focus on the "why" of the situation, like President Uchtdorf teaches, and then the "how" and the "what" fall into place naturally.
This coming Monday, the 16th, we get a special treat. Because it's Patriot's Day (who knew? I always thought September 11th was called Patriot's Day!) get to go to a historical reenactment of “the shot heard ‘round the world” that began the Revolutionary War. Because, you know, Lexington and Concord are just north of us. Pretty awesome to be in such a historical place! I'd love to be here in the city for the 4th of July, too! I love Patriotism and Patriots and history and America. We get to arrive at 4:30 am, which will be maybe not the most fun part about this, but THEN we get to go to the temple!! And because it's transfer week, we still have normal pday on Wednesday! It is so nice of President Evans to let us go to the temple. I feel so lucky to be so close to a temple. Every time we get a ride up to Belmont, we get to take Route 2 and see pretty little Boston temple. The 100th dedicated. I have some definite Boston pride. :)
This pday should be fun. Most of our Zone (including all my roommates) are going to a tour of Fenway Park. I decided that, although I love Jimmy Fallon and Fever Pitch, it is not worth my time or money to see/support something that I hate so much: professional sports. SO - I found a babysitter to babysit me! I am going to write letters while she does homework, and then we are going to the apple store and buying her a macbook pro. Yep. I'm going to play on an iPad 3 and go buckwild in the AppleStore. Lucky me!
I hope that when you get this you are happily settled in in the beautiful city of Cypress. It's a lovely place. Some mornings when it's foggy/smoggy I like to pretend that it's a "marine layer" (we are next to an ocean, yeah?) and that I'm in socal and the reason I have to get up at 5:30 is not to go running, but actually to get in line at Disneyland because we get to be there early because of our 3-day pass. *sigh* thank goodness you are not going to Disneyland this trip :) I'm way way WAY looking forward to going on trips with the family when Andrew and I get back. I'm curious, are you packing up the Suburb? Or trekking down in a Subaru? You COULD fit in a Subaru, but if I know my father like I think I do, you probably have approximately 2 cubic yards of camera equipment that you're carrying so the Suburban may be necessary. :) That is so fun that you're going to be spending time in Springdale/Zion as well! I love that place! Please take and send not only pictures of the beautiful scenery, but also of you humans ENJOYING the scenery. This means you, pa! You can't just take the pictures, I expect you to be IN some of them.
I'm glad that you liked your package with my pictures :) It was fun to put it together. There were some good, good laughs in there. : )
Have fun on your trippy-poo and I'm especially excited to hear how you like Trader Joe's and your miracle ice-cream.
Love you!
Sister "somehow I have Karma Chameleon stuck in my head even though I haven't listened to it in 7 and a half months" Broekhuijsen
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