Today the sun is shining, there is at least a foot and a half of fresh snow on the ground, and it is actually kind of warm. It's a March Miracle. On this weeks episode of Being A Missionary in Delaware: The sisters go to OSU for New Missionary Training, have to ask the members for rides EVERYWHERE on Sunday, and laughed a lot. Some days were positively frigid and others were almost warm; however, everyone keeps telling us that Spring is coming, so it must be true.
We've started saying that Aslan is coming, because that seems so much more fun than saying Spring is coming. Honestly, just as I become convinced that the snow is going to go away and that the cold is going to leave and that we'll have flowers and happiness soon, it snows again. Go figure that I get sent to another state that acts like Utah in terms of the weather. I guess you could say that it was something I have been prepared for.
Today has been a different kind of Monday as it actually isn't p-day. We have P-day on Wednesday because Transfers are on Wednesday, but President still lets us e-mail on Monday, because he is a kind and generous soul who doesn't want missionaries building barricades and declaring a revolution. Actually, I have no idea what his motivation was in doing things this way, but I'm certainly not complaining.
This last week was honestly pretty incredible. I feel like we got to be part of a lot of miracles for God's children here in Delaware. I will never forget the experience that we had last Tuesday with two of our recent converts and their non-member mom and brother. Last weekend Sam had called us and asked for some financial advice. Her family was really struggling and she just didn't really know what to do. We asked her if she had been praying about it and she said yes, but she didn't really know if she was getting an answer or not. We asked her if she thought getting a blessing could help and she said yes. We arranged for her to have the blessing on Sunday and for the Elders to come with us as they don't have the best rapport with the ward right now. She cancelled when we asked if we could come over in about an hour. Fortunately we were able to schedule a time with the Elders on Tuesday for after we all finished meeting with Reverend Powers on OWU's campus.
I'm grateful that Sisters are able to serve missions, but there is honestly something entirely different and remarkable about having two worthy priesthood holders in a home where the spirit normally can't even be felt. Elder Monahan and Elder Bowman ended up giving Sam and her sister a blessing, but also her mom and brother. We didn't even know this, but her Mom has been listening in on our lessons from other rooms every time we come over. I was honestly blown away by the softness and kindness in their home after the Elders left. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever been a part of. I am so grateful to have grown up in a home where the Priesthood was available to me. Living without a priesthood holder now makes it quite apparent what a difference that spirit makes in the home.
On Wednesday last week we had a really interesting evening. We had made our plans before and then had gotten done with a lot of them for the evening when we didn't feel good about what was on our schedule anymore. We had planned to see Judy earlier in the day, but she had told us not to come over because she was having a really rough day and wanted to rest and we didn't want to ignore that request. As we often do, we knelt to pray and found ourselves thinking of Judy again. We decided that we should do something for Judy, even if we weren't going to actually see her. Since she has hip and knee problems, we thought that sticky-noting her door would probably cause more problems then good. Eventually Sister Hibbert decided to draw Judy a quick sketch of the three of us together. As Sister Hibbert was drawing I felt like Judy needed to have something from me as well, but I wasn't sure what. As I thought further, I knew that if anyone had experienced an "Unthinkable Year" it was Judy. We called one of the ward members and asked her if she would let us come over and then log into my google docs account and print off a poem for us. Sister Riggs is amazing and said that she would. When we went to tape the things on Judy's door, she actually caught us (apparently she has a driveway alarm). She had us come in and it was one of those moments where we knew we were supposed to be there. She loved the poem and the picture and was softened enough that night to be able to agree to a priesthood blessing (something we've been encouraging her to accept for almost a month now).
Friday was New Missionary Training at Ohio State University. This time we got to go and place Restoration Pamphlets on campus, which was weird...but good. I'm less scared of just talking to people now, but find that I still do better with something that Reverend Power's calls "relational evangelism". It's not that I'm not bubbly or anything, but as Reverend noticed when we met with him a few weeks ago, I'm a little softer and quieter. And I absolutely am a relationship builder. The only thing that I didn't like about New Missionary Training was when they separated us from our trainers and the mission president's wife had us fill in the blank on the phrase "If my companion would only...then life would be great". First and foremost, I'm not exactly super excited about giving anyone that much power over whether or not my life feels great. Nope. And secondly, for companionship's that are struggling, I can't imagine that that particular exercise would help to improve things.
Sunday morning, fifty minutes before church, we received a text from the Zone Leaders that we needed to park the car for the day as snow was just really coming down. Which is a good and fine story, except for the part where we then had to scramble for a ride to church. We absolutely did not want to miss church. Brilliantly, Sister Sheets (the one who sent the picture a few weeks ago Mom), and her husband were able to give us a ride. We were even more blessed when the Bowman's and the Johnson's were willing to help shuffle us along to our appointments for the day. Ward members are such a blessing and I love all of ours.
Well my dears, the time has come for me to say goodbye for today, but I love you all. Send mail, it's super fun for us to find things in our mail box.
The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan Hates You.
Love,
Jessica
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