The Week Where Sister Cale was Sick‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale was
almost kind of sure that she had bronchitis, the Sisters had miracles
because good things happen when you work when you're sick, they made
cookies, played phone tag with President Daines regarding a baptismal
interview, and were busy, busy, busy.

Hello My Lovelies,

I have to admit that in the haze of feeling like I was maybe going to
die that I forgot to write down the highlights of the week on the iPad
so that I would have them to reference during e-mail time. My bad. I
do remember the major miracles that we were blessed with this week.

In an instance of divine placement, when we went out to try and
contact a potential investigator Saturday morning, the door opened and
it wasn't her. The woman who answered the door invited us in
immediately. I should have just gone in, but I was a little wary as no
one has ever invited us in. We paused first to explain that we are
missionaries and that we share the Book of Mormon with people. She
invited us in and we were able to teach her and her boyfriend the
first lesson. I love that when we plan by the spirit that Heavenly
Father will get us where he needs us to be, even if it's not seeing
who we thought we were going to be seeing. At the end of the lesson
both Tylisia and John committed to be baptized if they came to feel
that our message was true and it was awesome. Unfortunately they live
outside of not only our area, but mission boundaries, so we had to
refer them to the Cincinnati missionaries. I think I was really in
need of the reminder that God knows exactly where he needs for us to
be and if we will rely on him the work that he needs to have
accomplished will happen according to his will.

We had another really cool opportunity as we were teaching a less
active member of the ward about sacrament. There's a super awesome
Mormon Message for Youth entitled "Always Remember Him" that talks
about our baptismal covenants and invites us to do something in our
lives to always remember the Savior. We shared that with Kim and then
her daughter in law started asking us questions about baptism. They
were going to be going to a picnic on Labor Day for "Fairborn Against
Heroin" and they typically have a preacher/pastor/minister there who
will baptize people on the spot. She asked if we thought that she
should get baptized at the picnic. We were able to testify of the
importance of being baptized by priesthood authority after we are
prepared to make and keep covenants with God. Historically she hasn't
been interested in learning more from the missionaries, but we have an
appointment to teach her and her kids tonight. This experience was a
testament to me that not only does God help direct us as missionaries
to be where he needs us to be, he provides experiences for his
children that help them to be prepared to receive the message that
will ultimately change their lives if they will accept it and act upon
it.

I think the major blessing of this last week came for me in Zone
Training Meeting. At the end of the meeting we were evaluating what we
had learned and things that we felt we could improve upon for future
Zone Training Meetings at the Zone Leader's request. One Elder said
that he felt that the way that we handle accountability for goals can
sometimes makes missionaries feel like they didn't do enough because
the people they were teaching chose not to be baptized at this time.
One of our Zone Leaders proceeded to relate the story of his final
interview with his Stake President prior to entering the field. As he
told the story about how his Stake President had spoken with him about
the importance of definitions and how Satan will often try to use
definitions to throw us off our game and persuade us to feel defeated
and down trodden I realized that he was talking about President
Farrell. About halfway through his story we both made the connection
that since he lives in Syracuse that we have the same Stake President.
The truly important part was this though-he shared with the Zone
counsel from President Farrell that I had forgotten somewhere along
the way that I needed to be reminded of: A successful missionary is
one who repents and progresses. I had yet again received a reminder
that God knows what he is doing and where he needs for me to be at
this time.

Upon reflecting on this last week I've been blessed with several
important reminders of lessons that I think I have figured out to some
degree at other points in my mission. Our mortal minds tend to forget
things so easily. I'm grateful for the many ways that the organization
of the gospel allows us with plenty of opportunities to remember
Christ and why we're here.

The Church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you!

Love,

Jessica