This Week on Sister Cale in Columbus-two amazing P-days two weeks in a row (Build-a-Bear and Lush last week, the Columbus Zoo this week), we input records, all the records (not even sort of all the records, we still have so much to do), we saw the OWU Chaplaincy Staff, we got to talk to a guy who had read a bunch of Anti, and it rained (still).
Dear Friendlies,
Dear Friendlies,
Hello Loves! Well, here we are again and I'm going to try to write this as fast as is humanly possible because for whatever reason I'm worried that I'm going to run out of time. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors that occur in my haste.
This week was a wonky one friends. It was kind of funky. We had a lot of experiences with things just not going quite right. If my life really were a TV show (which it shouldn't be, because it would be largely not funny enough, and lacking enough drama to make it critically acclaimed) this week's episode may have been entitled-The Two that Got Away and the One that Read Anti.
So last Monday night after our super fun dinner and FHE with the Fowler Family (we played "Nephi Says, Laman Says" and talked about how we should do things with a good attitude), we had time scheduled for contacting. I have THE hardest time with contacting. The struggle is so totally and entirely real and it's very frustrating and just hard. I hate feeling like I'm imposing in on people's lives, even in the message we have to share is arguably significant. But I said I'd do it so we went. At the second house we went to we were able to share "Because He Lives" with two brothers. And it was awesome. They both not only felt the spirit but were able to recognize it.
After it was over the older brother asked how what we believe is different from Christianity. So we talked about the great apostasy and the restoration of the gospel. They were both super excited for us to come back the next day and we were pretty dang thrilled. Well fast forward to less than twenty four hours later, we are back at their house and the older brother comes out to our car and tells us that his mom won't let them talk to us. Devastating. The only consolation in this particular interaction was knowing that we had planted a good seed. We were able to give the brother a copy of the Book of Mormon and a mormon.org card. Hopefully he'll have a good experience with those things.
Moving on to the one who read Anti...ugh. We went to check on a gentleman that we had an excellent interaction with a few weeks ago. We'd gone back to check on him before but he wasn't home. When we got there Wednesday night he told us that he had something for us and tried to give us the copy of the Book of Mormon that we had left with him back. We wouldn't take it. He wasn't impolite or even mean. Just condescending and so wholly convinced that whatever he had read was reason enough not to talk to us again. It was so disheartening and wholly aggravating to have him tell us that we need to look at our religion more closely before we continue to go around trying to share it with others. Here's the deal-I know that anti is out there. I also know that my testimony is founded on something so much bigger than the actions of men, both taken out of context and left therein. The Book of Mormon brings a greater peace to my life than anything else that I have experienced. I have complete confidence in saying that it is the word of God. It was hard for Sister Brown to stand there while he was talking like that. After we left we sat in our car and read from the Book of Mormon for about fifteen minutes. I love that book. It is the most precious thing that I have as a missionary. It was a straight connection to light after such a dark interaction.
One of the highlights of this last week was our district meeting. Elder Teames talked about how we truly cannot fulfill our purpose as missionaries without love. He said that we can't afford to attempt to teach these people if we aren't going to allow ourselves to become fully invested in loving them. And yes, that opens us up to hurt, but it's the risk we have to take in order to do things as the Savior would. It made me think of Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher, "It hurt because it mattered." I'm seeing that a lot in my work and in my life as a missionary. Things hurt because they matter. The growing that is happening hurts because it matters. And I'm grateful for every single moment that something has hurt, because it allows me to feel my Savior's love and lets me know that I'm loving others as he would.
I love you all. I hope you have remarkable weeks!
The Church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you.
Love,
Jessica
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