The Week Elsa Threw a Temper Tantrum‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-the Sisters went to
District Activity, the Sisters went to District Meeting with their new
district, there was snow (on multiple days), temperatures got to
single digits and it was rather chilly, the Sisters gave Valentines to
the pre-school aged kiddos in the ward, there were green smoothies,
good food, and of course cookies (#ValentinesDay).

Hey Loves!

How was your last week? Besides being rather cold (thanks for the hand
warmers mom, they warmed my soul) it was also really good. This week I
feel like I was blessed to see how instrumental members can be in
making missionary work effective (and I really like things when they
are effective). We were able to have several different members
participate with us in teaching our investigators and just as promised
by our Zone Leaders, it truly did influence how many of our
investigators made it to church this week.

I think one of my favorite experiences with a member this week was
with Kara. She received her mission call last Tuesday and asked us if
we would come over to be there when she opened it. We were both really
excited for her when she read that she was assigned to labor in the
California Redlands mission. She reports to the MTC in about five
weeks and she was particularly saddened that she'll be missing her
little sister's baptism, by literally a few days. We were able to have
her come out to work with us for the evening on Thursday. Things
didn't really start out so stellar. The appointment that we had
invited her to come with us for cancelled and our back up was
following up on some old referrals. It was cold, she hadn't worn
boots, and following up with people can be a little disheartening.
After we followed up with the second referral we happened to be near
an investigator's house so we decided to stop by and see how she is
doing. It was really remarkable to see how aware of us Heavenly Father
is and how much Marilyn needed us, but also how much we needed her.
After we left the lesson Kara was so excited about being a missionary
and the opportunities that she would have to have experiences like
that one.

One of the other major highlights of this week was that Dan, Clarence,
and Tine from Delaware came down and took us to dinner at Cracker
Barrel on Saturday night. It was seriously miraculous to get to see my
first Ohio family. It was a beautiful reminder to see that even though
I've been away from them for over six months that they are still my
people. I guess you could say that it reassured me about going home.

We have a new investigator named Anita who is about the sweetest thing
to have ever walked this planet. She lives in the same retirement
community apartment that one of our members lives in and she has such
a tender spirit. She asked us to help her pick an outfit for church on
Sunday when we taught her on Saturday night. She wasn't even sure if
she was going to come to church at that point, but she wanted to be
ready if she decided to come. She did in fact end up coming to church
and shared with us about how she had spent the whole night debating
about whether or not she should come, and eventually decided to come.
After Sacrament Meeting was over she told us that it had felt so good
and so right, more than any other church that she had been in. I know
that Heavenly Father truly arranged for us to meet her when we did.

I cannot believe that I am lucky enough to be here right now, even
when things are at their hardest I can feel how truly significant this
work is to Heavenly Father. These are his precious children and I
cannot believe that he lets me be here to love them.

The church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you.

Love,

Jessica