Hello Everyone! This week has been really hard but it has also been very good. Definitely have had lots of ups and downs, which helps you learn a lot I guess?
Before I was transferred my mission president spoke to me and told me that although I’m still fairly new out, with this new companionship I’m supposed to kind of take charge and get us moving and start building up the area. To say I was overwhelmed and panicking is an understatement. This week we had multiple phone calls from people yelling at us because we had missed appointments or lessons because they weren't ever written down, so they were forgotten. And because no one can understand Sister Patea's accent, I have to take every mean call even if I have no idea what they are talking about due to my newness to the area.
I also accidentally offended someone in a lesson and definitely got told off which I deserved. He asked me to tell him straight up what I thought about him and his situation (and he always asks us to be super blunt with him), and I was like, “I think that God has blessings waiting for you, and you're denying yourself of those blessings because you won't do what He's told you to do.” He got mad which is understandable. I also have felt super lazy and like I'm wasting all of our time, even if we're out doing "stuff" 24/7 because none of it seems effective. We do street contacting now for about 3 hours every day and we have never found a friend from it. I've felt frustrated and like everything I'm trying to do is pointless. So yeah.
However, it has also been a pretty good week. We had exchanges this week, and Sister McDonald (my STL) is inspired and amazing and gave me a bunch of helpful advice I needed. She told me that God has put me in this area with this companion because I need experience leading so I need to take charge and implement the ideas I've had about how to help the area. This was all after I had a breakdown in her bedroom because I felt so inefficient and so dumb and so embarrassed with everything we were having to report and I felt stressed with the newness of my situation, my companion, and the area. Hahaha.
We also met a really golden friend this week while tracting, named Judy, who thought everything we were saying made perfect sense and she wants to learn more. We also finally made a game plan for Oldham to build up the area with new and creative ways instead of ways that just aren't effective.
So in the end, it was a really good week for learning lessons and leaning on the Lord. I think something else that has really helped (even if I am a little bit behind) has been the Book of Mormon Christ challenge, which is when you take a new blank Book of Mormon and mark every reference or teaching of Christ. Everything has been great, but especially with the books of Nephi. Nephi had so many issues and so many challenges and so many problems, but he always did what he was supposed to do. I've been underlining when he says "nevertheless" and he says it so often! The Lord gave him a commandment and even if he didn't understand it, or if it was hard, he still always did it. He also continued trying to teach and talk to his brothers, even after they had tried to kill him a few times. So even when people might be really mean to me, I can still love them, and want the best for them. Or if maybe I think that what I've been given is too hard to work with, I just need to suck it up and get going and ask the Lord for help. It's really hard, but I am going to try to work on that throughout this transfer.
This week a woman spat on me and I just laughed for a solid 5 minutes until she shut up and walked away. Honestly you can find joy in anything. That was my funny story for the week! It doesn't sound super funny, but honestly if you think about it, there was this little 5-foot tall grandma with dentures telling me I'm a disgrace to the Queen and to God trying to get enough spit in her mouth to spit on me. It was honestly amusing.
Overall, it’s all going really well. I love Sister Patea and really admire her optimism and love for everyone she comes in contact with. She's wonderful. She just is a little disorganized and is really scared to change what has been done in the past, but if we don't change anything, nothing will get done.
Doctrine & Covenants 127:2 is killer and Doctrine & Covenants 121:7-8 is an amazing scripture. Go give them a read and remember to pray every day!
That's the week. Go team. Hahaha. Love ya and miss ya and Merry Christmas!
Sister Pursglove
Fave food: Jaffa cakes. Little biscuits with orange marmalade covered in chocolate.
Photographs Below :)
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Weekly Letter #11: December 9, 2019
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Oleh
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