The Week Where I Woke Up‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale got to
have legitimately awesome e-mail conversations with all of her family,
the Sisters attended a Bible Study on Naomi and Ruth, Sister Cale got
to play the violin for the first time in...years and wasn't as bad as
she thought she would be, there was Dr. Pepper, the Sisters got a
little bit better about getting ready for bed instead of painting,
Sister Cale almost finished the Book of Alma (it will be done
tomorrow), Sister Cale hit her fourteen month mark (today! Holla!),
there was knocking doors in the rain, running back in the door of the
apartment to grab hand warmers, and leaving coats behind because Aslan
had returned and Spring had arrived (at least temporarily #ohioprobs)

Hello Humans!

This week was such a blessed one. The funny thing is that Sister Scott
spent the whole week saying, "I'm over this day" and because she was
saying it I think I had moments where I felt similarly, but overall in
retrospect it is amazing to see the Lord's hand in everything that we
were able to accomplish this week.

Earlier on in my mission, I think about five months in, I had this
funny realization that sounded something like this, "Oh my gosh. I've
been being a missionary for five months. I have been teaching lessons
about Jesus Christ and talking to complete strangers for five months.
I've been eating dinner at a different house every night and asking
members for suggestions of people that they know that we could talk to
and..." You get the general idea. That initial realization wasn't
particularly against being a missionary, but it was much less
enthusiastic than the many moments of realization this week that
sounded something like, "Did that really just happen? Did Heavenly
Father really just let me be part of that lesson? I can't believe that
he lets me be a missionary. Oh my gosh. I am a missionary. I'm a
missionary! This is the coolest thing ever. I can't believe that I get
to spend my life like this right now!" It's funny how nine months can
change your perspective on something. I've always thought I was happy
doing this work, but my joy has been increased even more with each day
that I let go of what I think I want to do and do what he would have
me do. It's the strangest most beautiful thing. I woke up this week
and the color of this life is out of this world.

Some of my favorite moments this week involved the times that Sister
Scott and I were able to sing for different investigators and members
in order to invite the spirit and help to lift them up. I'm grateful
that Sister Scott is confident enough in her abilities to sing that
she will volunteer us to do things because I don't think I would on my
own. I tend to feel more confident speaking. We also had a cool
opportunity to participate in a Bible Study at Sister Crissinger's
apartment complex this week. A local church women's group comes and
meets with the women in the building once a month and we were able to
join them this week. I think the coolest thing about us being there
was that we were able to help many different people form positive
opinions of Sister Missionaries, or at least begin that process. When
we left we both felt pretty confident that if missionaries ever
knocked on the doors of any of the women that we were there that they
would at least offer them a water. On Tuesday we taught an entire
lesson and invited a girl to be baptized on her doorstep in the rain.
It was spectacular. I cannot say yet that I have no fear the way that
Mormon did, but I can say that my love for these Ohio people has
increased to the point where I am no longer concerned about their
reception of our invitation, I'm just happy to get to invite them to
have more.

Last night we were able to lead the BYD discussion with the youth and
help them begin the process of creating family mission plans in their
families. We had several of the youth participate in giving mini-talks
and asked Karen, a recent convert, to share her experience with
members while she was being taught. It was fun to get to see the youth
start out kind of bored and then get excited about having
opportunities to help the people they associate with have the same
blessings as they have. They had fantastic ideas and it was fun to
hear them realize ways that they could invite that we as the
missionaries probably couldn't or at the very least shouldn't such as,
"Hey! You should come to this youth activity with me. There will be
cute boys there."

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

Love you all!

Jessica