I blinked at it's Monday again. I'm incredibly grateful that as we work hard, the time seems to fly by until suddenly another week has passed. This week was totally different and still incredible in its own ways.
Last Monday night we got to show one of our investigators, an eighty year old woman named Judy, the movie Legacy. It was really cool for her to be able to see and recognize that even though the pioneers experienced serious trials and hardships, that because they had faith, they pressed forward. I'm honestly in awe of the way that the pioneers pressed forward despite serious opposition and obstacles. I want to say that I would have been that good in similar situations, but I'm not entirely sure that I would have been.
Tuesday was my first ever Zone Conference. Zone Conference is essentially a gathering of two or three zones at a sort of centralized church building where we receive extra training and direction on things that President feels we could use additional help with. There is an incredible strength and peace that happens when missionaries gather together to learn how to be better harvesters in the Lord's vineyard. It really is astounding to me that Heavenly Father trusts young adults to go out into the world and share the gospel. President Daines challenged us to give up a lot of our contacting cushions (saying things like "We're just local missionaries", "We're just missionaries from our church," "we're on our mission trips", "we share a message about Jesus Christ" etc.) and rather to pay special attention to those ways that we can establish our purpose without declaring it. At Zone Conference we role played this, with President giving us only a minute to notice something about the people we were talking to, ask a question, relate their answer back to the gospel, point that towards the restoration and arrange a time to teach more. Luckily in the real world that isn't the expectation. He just knew that if we could do it in a minute, we could easily lengthen the process to make things less awkward for people who would have no idea what we were doing. At the end of Zone Conference he had us all set goals for things that we could accomplish between the end of the meeting and Thursday morning at eight thirty when we would meet again for Zone Conference Follow Up.
Those goals made Wednesday one of the busiest and craziest days of my mission so far. We always work hard, but when you know that you're going to have to talk to 15 people (and get through the process explained above), that changes things. And it was really through relying on the spirit that we were able to accomplish all of our goals except finding a new investigator. Delaware is tricky for finding new investigators, but we aren't going to give up.
My favorite part of Zone Conference happened on Thursday when we reported our goals. Sister Daines related the process of accounting the work we had done during the day as missionaries to what Christ did in reporting the work of the creation. She said that in giving an accounting to our Father in Heaven, we are giving him the chance to say "it is good" and "well done". I love the idea of that. I know that we all do things that Heavenly Father wants to tell us that we handled them well, but if we don't share those things with him, we aren't providing the chance for him to tell us.
Friday we had exchanges, and my Sister Training Leader, Sister Puddicombe, was sick. We came to the library for family history time, taught one lesson, and then spent the rest of the evening in the apartment with her curled up in bed trying not to die. I love getting to know other sisters better. Even though she was sick, we still had really good conversations and were able to talk about how to help things in the Delaware 2 area. Saturday morning it was snowing. And it was snowing hard. By seven thirty we had a text from the Zone Leaders that choir practice was cancelled that day and that no one was allowed to drive. Because of the goodness of one of the members in Marion, Sister Hibbert was able to get back to our apartment so we could do our weekly planning. Living in the Elder's area is hard, because there's really not much we can do when we get told not to drive as we live so far away from our area and the Delaware City planners don't believe in sidewalk.
Church yesterday was phenomenal. I think it's so interesting that we only truly realize how grateful we are for things as we don't have them for a while. It really was such a blessing to be able to partake of the sacrament and to feel the quiet spirit in the chapel. Our ward is full of amazing people who truly do just love the missionaries and want to help us. I am so grateful to be a missionary in a time where there are wards established for us to go to (as opposed to being a missionary when the church had just been established). The phrase "ward family" has truly taken on new meaning for me as I have been loved and cared for by the families in our ward. They check on us and make sure that we're doing okay. I love them all so much.
After Church Sister Hibbert and I looked at our plans and knew there was no way we were going to be able to accomplish them. You see, we had next to no gas and hadn't been able to fill up on Saturday because we weren't allowed to drive. After lunch, we went back to our apartment and decided to pray about what we should do seeing as there was no way that we were going to be able to drive out and see all the people we had initially planned on seeing. In the prayer Sister Hibbert asked that we be given the names of people that we could see with the gas that we had. After she finished, we both looked up at each other and had the same two names in mind. It's amazing what the spirit can do for us when we ask. We made our plans and we carried them out. After visiting a less active sister who lives just a short walk from our apartment we met Bev. If ever I have met someone who has been prepared to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is Bev. We connected over liking Shemar Moore (who plays Derek Morgan in Criminal Minds) and then talked to her about the goodness of God and the Book of Mormon. We're going to go back and see her later this week. I know that we were where God wanted us to be, and because we were there, he put Bev in the right place too. She stood outside in the freezing cold and talked to us for over forty-five minutes. When we got back to our apartment, I was frozen, but I was also incredibly happy.
There's a lot of joy in this work and as I shift my perspective to look for it, I'm amazed at how happy I feel.
I love you all immensely and am so grateful for your love and support. I wouldn't be the missionary that I am without the ways that you have loved me and helped to mold me into the person that I am.
The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan hates you.
Love,
Jessica
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