On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale and
Sister Gordon accomplished their finding goals and talked to all the
people, or at least, they talked to as many people as they possibly
could and there were lots of cool things that happened because of
that. Some of those people set up return appointments (that fell
through, but that's just missionary life for you) and others sent them
to talk to other really cool people. They solved the mystery of the
locked bathroom door in the locked apartment (poor design for
functionality), got estimates on our missionary car (verdict- it seems
terribly expensive to pay for a cosmetic repair that is barely
noticeable unfixed and that doesn't interfere with the functionality
of the car), and Sister Cale heard all the music in the land while out
and about that brought joy to her soul (Erasure, John Mayer, Howard
Jones...now if I could only send a positive request into the universe
for some Sting).
Hi Loves!
What a totally and entirely insane week. Seriously, Sister Gordon is
such an awesome companion! We were able to accomplish so much together
and it was so cool to see that even though we are both kind of nervous
about knocking doors and contacting alone, knowing that we are
together gives us courage. I feel so blessed to be able to see the
blessings of this companionship. In the land of finding this week we
didn't yet find anyone that is actually interested in meeting with us
(all our return appointments fell through), but we learned some really
important things-if someone has a dog, talk to them about their dog,
it makes the transition into missionary conversation less awkward.
It's miraculous. Saturday nights at some apartment complexes are
absolutely dead and you will be hard pressed to reach your contacting
goal there (we did it, but only because I think Heavenly Father knew
how hard we were willing to work to make it happen). All things
considered, even if the finding didn't pan out with a handful of new
people to teach (or even one), I still know that we did good work and
were able to bless people the way that Heavenly Father needed us to.
The best part of this week was our miracle with Garrett. Sister Gordon
and I had both felt like we needed to invite Garrett to be baptized in
our upcoming lesson, and we needed to invite him to be baptized before
going back to school in August. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it
was so cool to see once again how much he had been prepared to receive
the doctrine. It all just sounded so familiar to him and he had no
questions, he kept saying "It's just so clear." When we finished going
through the Plan of Salvation we invited him to be baptized...in
August...prefacing the whole thing with the understanding that just a
few weeks away would be absolutely crazy in a normal rational world.
We pulled out a calendar and started looking for a possible day.
Looking at the calendar it became clear to all of us that the only
available days were either this last weekend, or this next weekend.
CRAZY. So fast. Well, he was pretty sure that he wanted to do it,
which meant that we needed to teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ, all
the commandments, and Laws and Ordinances in the next ten days. So we
taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he had profound things to add to
what we had to teach and at the end of the lesson said he knew he
needed to be baptized, so why wait. I have heard missionaries tell
stories about their miracle investigator who was so prepared to be
baptized that they were baptized in just a few weeks. I had honestly
thought that was something that I wasn't likely to experience as a
missionary. After all, we taught Dan for almost a third of my mission.
So that's probably the thing I'm most excited for in this upcoming
week. We get to continue teaching crash course lessons and then he'll
be baptized Saturday evening. The spirit does good work.
I've officially reached the point in my life where I have missionary
dreams now. Except they're also just mixed in with what I'm sure my
brain wants to insist is reality. It's weird. And I'm tired...all the
time. But if there were ever something to be consistently tired for at
this point in my life, I'm sure it's this.
The Church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you.
Love,
Jessica
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