July 25, 2011

Hiya family!

I sure hope you had a good week! Mine was both amazing, and really not. hahaha.

Before my mission, a good friend of mine told me that missions are amazing, and that you experience the highest highs of your life, but also the highest lows of your life. Sometimes in the same day. That has been true for me this week!

I won't tell you much about the lows. Just that we're experiencing some major struggles with some of our investigators, recent converts, and less actives It's tough to know how to deal with them. I pray every day for more guidance by the Spirit to know how we can help them. Last night, for example, we met with a cute, young, less active couple in our ward. Both the husband and the wife are returned missionaries. We talked pretty seriously about their experiences since they've not been active, and, just as it says in the Book of Mormon, they've forgotten everything. They have no light of the gospel in their lives. The testimonies that drove them while they were on their missions, and the joy in the service that I KNOW they must have felt, are gone. Just gone. They have no desire to come back. And it broke my heart. I absolutely refuse to be them after my mission. I'm sure that the Lord placed them here for me so I can learn from their example. I promise to Him, to myself, and to all of you, that I will NEVER be inactive!

Despite all the lows, or maybe because of them, we're seeing some great miracles too. Juanita, our investigator from Colusa is still rocking it! She'll be baptized on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to that, not just because of the baptism itself, which will be amazing - it always is - but also because most of the branch is planning on attending. So I'll get to see all my friends again. It'll be great. :)

We also picked up another new investigator this week, who will be a lot like Juanita. We didn't have to work for him at all. His name is Jack and he's 89 years old. He's been married to an active member for 64 years, and supported several of his kids through missions and educations at BYU, but never wanted to get baptized till this week. So we set the date for August 21st, and we'll teach him till then.

A couple things I've noticed as a trend in my mission... First, that I work with a lot of old people. Maybe my experiences at the Seville with grandma Reid prepped me for this... ? I love them. And I find that I can understand them. And I love hearing about their lives and their experiences. :) Also, I've noticed, especially the last two months or so, that the harder I struggle with personal trials and the harder my mission seems to be, the more "golden" investigators we get. It's like the Lord is balancing things out. I got transfered away from my favorite companion, to shotgun train someone who can't speak English, and we pick up Juanita (who's getting baptized on Sunday!). And then I find out that I'm staying here, and some things are about to get harder, and we pick up Jack - the 89 year old. These investigators are people I never had to work a second for. No knocking on doors, no asking for referrals. They just came to us...... It's nice. Not that I'm asking for any more hard stuff... it's just nice. :)

Anyway. That's about it for this week. I love all of you. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Especially those of you from whom I haven't heard in awhile. This means you, Kayti, Daniel, Jared, and Jaymi! I understand it's hard to write... but you can Email me! As for the rest of you, I found out you can email too. I can't email you back, but I can print your emails, and the write you back. So next week, I expect LOTS of email!!!

Love, Sister Reid