The Week that Finally Felt Normal‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-the Sisters got to
teach a lesson in the waiting room of the temple, a closet door tried
to kill Sister Gordon with a sneak attack on Tuesday night, district
meeting was everything that the Sisters needed to hear, the Sisters
got to shake hands with an apostle and hear the awesome things that he
shared with the mission, and had their first normal Sunday night for
the whole transfer.

Hey Loves,

So this is one of those weird Wednesday e-mails because transfers are
tomorrow. And I'm leaving Pataskala...and I'm really sad about it
because I feel like there are still about a million things that I can
do here. Sister Gordon is going to be training a new missionary
though, and that is going to be totally awesome. She is going to be a
brilliant trainer. I just wish she were going to be being a brilliant
trainer somewhere else.

Anyway, not to dwell on that, let's look at the past week and a half
and see all the craziness that happened, shall we?

So, Tuesday night we were able to have a lesson with Garrett and Julie
in the temple waiting room. Our lesson was all about putting on the
armor of God and preparing to go to the temple. I am so glad that
Julie suggested that we have our lesson in the temple waiting room. It
was the world's best idea ever and totally awesome because it meant
that we got to go and be in the House of the Lord after several weeks
of general discouragement and overall minor chaos. I love the temple
so much. I'm excited that we get to go as a mission in September.

Tuesday night we had all sorts of fun when a closet door that had been
taken off its track by previous missionaries decided to jump from its
spot where it was resting against the wall and attempt to knock Sister
Gordon out. She went into shock, I couldn't really remember how to
treat shock (besides help them breathe and keep them warm), our
district was variably helpful, and we woke up once an hour every hour
to try to make sure that she was okay. Later on in the week one of our
investigators who used to be a trauma nurse said that she was pretty
sure that Sister Gordon had a concussion. Cool story.

Wednesday we had easily the best district meeting that I have ever
participated in as a missionary. Elder Lloyd centered our district
meeting around what makes someone a
successful missionary. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Pataskala
is a wonderful place full of really nice people, but I've really had
to adjust my expectations for how I measure whether or not we did what
Heavenly Father needed us to over the course of the week. In Delaware
it was pretty easy to see our work from our lessons. That's not
exactly the case in Pataskala. It was perfect to be reminded that
numbers do not indicate success, but rather the desires of our hearts
and our diligence in the work.

Easily the coolest part of this last week was our mission wide meeting
with Elder Cook, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Titera. We gathered early
as a mission and were all waiting quietly in our seats a half an hour
before the meeting started. Elder Cook came in and asked President to
arrange for us all to be able to come up and shake their hands. That
was very cool. The miracle of the meeting for me actually came as the
questions that I had searched for answers to were answered by the
spirit as I listened to the different remarks that were given. Most
significant to me was the apostolic blessing that Elder Cook gave to
us as the missionaries of the Ohio Columbus Mission. He promised us
that we would come to recognize that missions are supernal. And that
we would recognize later on that we were able to bless everyone that
we love better by being here on missions than if we were at home. He
blessed us with the spiritual power to accomplish everything that the
Lord needs for us to do at this time. That was huge for me. It should
come as no surprise to any of you that I am a master worrier and I
spend a fair portion of time wondering if I would do more good if I
were at home. There was a very special sort of spirit present as Elder
Cook made that promise. And I'm trying very hard to hold onto it.

Other cool things that happened this week include painting with
Tiffany (we taught the Restoration and then painted our representation
of the lesson. It was so cool! I'm really sad that I'm not going to be
there for the rest of Tiffany's lessons. She's brilliant.

Well my dears, I love you all. The church is true, life is good, God's
in charge, and Satan hates you.

Love,

Jessica