The Week We Were Blessed

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-the sisters ate a
lot of yummy pizza and cookies, Sister Cale started skipping naps in
order to get various things done, the weather got warm again, our air
conditioner wasn't (still isn't) working, the Sisters taught 25
lessons-many of which had to be completely spirit guided because they
ran in the opposite direction of their plans, and everything was just
good.

Hello Dear Ones,

I feel like I've learned a lot about myself this week and the ways
that God can use exactly who I am when I'm being myself to help his
children receive the restored gospel. We had interviews this week and
it was really cool to talk with President Daines about the ways that
I've recognized growth in myself over the course of my mission. He
said something that explained all the ways that I had noticed myself
growing. He said that I'm more myself than I have been thus far on my
mission. And it's true! I am experiencing the Savior's promise found
in Matthew 16:25, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Sometimes
missionaries will express that they have become a completely different
person over the course of their missions. I find that I am becoming
more and more who I have always been trying to be. I am me, just even
more than I was before. And the amazing thing is that as I become that
woman, I am more and more able to do the work that I have been called
here to do in ways that feel rewarding and effective.

I learned about miracles this week. We have been working inexpressibly
hard to try and help our investigators come to church because we know
that as they come to church and feel the spirit that is there that
they will then be more prepared to continue receiving the gospel. We
set a goal at the beginning of the month that we could have twelve
people come to worship with us at church this month. This goal was two
people more than the goal that we set last month. It seemed a little
gutsy to set a goal two people higher than the goal that we hadn't
even achieved, but we felt inspired by the spirit to set the goal and
then get to work. As of last week, we had had five awesome
investigators come to church with us. When sacrament meeting started
yesterday morning not a single one of our investigators was there. The
opening hymn happened and still no one had arrived. It was at this
moment that I had to decide if I was going to be discouraged or if I
was going to show faith that God would help us to accomplish this
goal. It would have been so easy to give up and throw our arms in the
air in surrender. But we didn't. I said a silent prayer that the Lord
would help to reach our investigator's hearts and help them to use
their agency to be at sacrament meeting where he would have them be.
And then the miracle started happening. It seemed that every time that
we turned our heads that someone would arrive until we had not only
the five investigators that we had set a goal to have at church this
week, but seven, allowing us to achieve our goal with a week to spare.
I know that God heard our many prayers and was mindful of all the work
that we had done to help people be at church. I know that he wanted
our investigators to be at church even more than we did and yesterday
was a good reminder that he is more involved in working with our
investigators than we are. They are his children and he loves them.

My other favorite part of this week was getting to do service with an
organization called Touching Little Lives. Touching Little Lives
donates blankets, clothes, and toys to hospitals and clinics around
Ohio for premature and needy babies. I love their cause so much. It
was remarkable to see ladies who participate in this group bring in
large bags of quilts that they had made, bibs, clothes, and toys. We
get to crochet afghans for the babies this month and next month the
chair lady is bringing me some embroidery work that I can do. I love
that I get to use some of my favorite skills to help make the
startling arrival into this world a little bit better for some tiny
humans.

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

Love,

Jessica

The Week We Were Blessed

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-the sisters ate a
lot of yummy pizza and cookies, Sister Cale started skipping naps in
order to get various things done, the weather got warm again, our air
conditioner wasn't (still isn't) working, the Sisters taught 25
lessons-many of which had to be completely spirit guided because they
ran in the opposite direction of their plans, and everything was just
good.

Hello Dear Ones,

I feel like I've learned a lot about myself this week and the ways
that God can use exactly who I am when I'm being myself to help his
children receive the restored gospel. We had interviews this week and
it was really cool to talk with President Daines about the ways that
I've recognized growth in myself over the course of my mission. He
said something that explained all the ways that I had noticed myself
growing. He said that I'm more myself than I have been thus far on my
mission. And it's true! I am experiencing the Savior's promise found
in Matthew 16:25, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Sometimes
missionaries will express that they have become a completely different
person over the course of their missions. I find that I am becoming
more and more who I have always been trying to be. I am me, just even
more than I was before. And the amazing thing is that as I become that
woman, I am more and more able to do the work that I have been called
here to do in ways that feel rewarding and effective.

I learned about miracles this week. We have been working inexpressibly
hard to try and help our investigators come to church because we know
that as they come to church and feel the spirit that is there that
they will then be more prepared to continue receiving the gospel. We
set a goal at the beginning of the month that we could have twelve
people come to worship with us at church this month. This goal was two
people more than the goal that we set last month. It seemed a little
gutsy to set a goal two people higher than the goal that we hadn't
even achieved, but we felt inspired by the spirit to set the goal and
then get to work. As of last week, we had had five awesome
investigators come to church with us. When sacrament meeting started
yesterday morning not a single one of our investigators was there. The
opening hymn happened and still no one had arrived. It was at this
moment that I had to decide if I was going to be discouraged or if I
was going to show faith that God would help us to accomplish this
goal. It would have been so easy to give up and throw our arms in the
air in surrender. But we didn't. I said a silent prayer that the Lord
would help to reach our investigator's hearts and help them to use
their agency to be at sacrament meeting where he would have them be.
And then the miracle started happening. It seemed that every time that
we turned our heads that someone would arrive until we had not only
the five investigators that we had set a goal to have at church this
week, but seven, allowing us to achieve our goal with a week to spare.
I know that God heard our many prayers and was mindful of all the work
that we had done to help people be at church. I know that he wanted
our investigators to be at church even more than we did and yesterday
was a good reminder that he is more involved in working with our
investigators than we are. They are his children and he loves them.

My other favorite part of this week was getting to do service with an
organization called Touching Little Lives. Touching Little Lives
donates blankets, clothes, and toys to hospitals and clinics around
Ohio for premature and needy babies. I love their cause so much. It
was remarkable to see ladies who participate in this group bring in
large bags of quilts that they had made, bibs, clothes, and toys. We
get to crochet afghans for the babies this month and next month the
chair lady is bringing me some embroidery work that I can do. I love
that I get to use some of my favorite skills to help make the
startling arrival into this world a little bit better for some tiny
humans.

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

Love,

Jessica

The Week We Learned About Faith

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-the cold decided to
come back (since it never bothered anyone anyway), service was given
in the form of brushing horses and cutting fabric, the sisters worked
on a lunchtime project to make superhero accessories for a
particularly super family, the Sisters started The Book of Mormon
Translation Challenge, Sister Cale hit her fifteen month mark, and
despite the cold the Sisters got things done.

Hey Dear Humans,

So we just got back from a spectacular adventure with Sister Lynch
(that's why I haven't e-mailed until now). We got to go exploring
around Easton for a bit and then we went to a restaurant called The
Melt for lunch. The Melt is the home of gourmet grilled cheese
sandwiches. For this dreary rainy day it was a happy perfection. So
much yum.

So this week was awesome and I learned a lot about the role that faith
plays in missionary work and in life. I realized that I have
frequently denied myself blessings as I have claimed to be rational or
realistic about how things are going to play out. I fully understand
that my doing so was about trying to prevent feeling unnecessarily
upset, but this week I have been shown that even that was misguided.

So here's where it all starts-we're sitting in District Meeting on
Wednesday and we set a goal as a district to help one person be
baptized this month; however, not a single companionship in our
district had someone who had committed to a baptismal date for this
month. We got home from District Meeting and worked through our area
book to see if we had anyone who would be able to meet the necessary
requirements to be baptized. After going through all the names, we had
one person who could qualify to be baptized this month. We prayed and
asked the Lord to help us know if this was his will at this time. We
felt inspired that we should try and trust that the Lord could help
us. So we went back to see Anita. I was amazed at the spirit that
attended us as we sat down in her apartment. I felt very guided to be
direct with her about our purpose in being there. We shared a part of
Sister Oscarson's conference talk, "Do I Believe?" And then told Anita
that we had felt she could be prepared to be baptized this month and
that the Lord wanted to support her in making this choice. Anita was
able to open up about some concerns that she had and we were able to
address them with the guidance of the spirit. As she prayed at the end
of the lesson she was so sincere in her willingness and desire to do
what the Lord would have her do. After she finished praying she
accepted the invitation to be baptized, saying that she felt good
about it. I know that the Lord directed us back to her and then helped
us to teach according to his will. Unfortunately she wasn't able to
make it to church this Sunday and won't be able to be baptized this
month, but I know that this was the way that things needed to happen
in order to get us to reconnect with Anita.

Another thing I learned about faith this week is that as much as it
takes great faith to encourage someone who has stopped meeting with
the missionaries to be baptized, it also takes great faith to let
someone you have grown to love and care about go. Over the course of
my mission I have been incredibly lucky to evade what most
missionaries would term the "break up" talk. Most of the people I have
been blessed to meet have either progressed while I have been working
with them, have been working to keep their commitments, or they have
fallen off the map and I haven't really had to reestablish our purpose
or give any ultimatums. This week I had one of less than a handful of
these conversations with an investigator whom I have grown to love
very dearly. As saddened I was by her admission that she just doesn't
have a desire to read The Book of Mormon or come and see what our
church is like, I was so grateful that she was finally being real with
us about where she was at. I have a testimony that the Lord teaches us
line upon line and precept upon precept and I know that when the time
is right, he will lead missionaries to her or her to missionaries and
she will be more prepared to receive the fullness of the gospel.

We started the Book of Mormon Translation Challenge this week on my
fifteen month mark. It was particularly tender to me to begin reading
at the pace that got me on my mission on the day of my fifteen month
mark. I love the Book of Mormon so much. I know that it is the word of
God and I love all the things that the spirit teaches me as I read.

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

Love,

Jessica

The Week of Calls to Repentance

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-members spoiled the
Sisters to no end and took them to Olive Garden and Longhorn
Steakhouse, Sister Cale may or may not have prayed for an investigator
to be hit in the head with a spiritual 2x4, Sister Cale added peanut
butter to the s'mores bars to the satisfaction of all who tried them,
General Conference was AMAZING, Sister Cale's pen and journal problem
resurfaced in the form of a new conference journal and pens (but they
pens were needed, for reals), the Sisters washed windows for the
Pickerington Police Department, and there was lots of really good
learning.

Hello Dear Humans!

I have a confession to make-I used to feel very frustrated when the
spirit or someone speaking brought something up that I felt like I was
not being particularly effective in (like whenever anyone talked about
missionary work or sang about missionary work, or said the word
missionary when I wasn't going on a mission). I pretty much just hated
it. But somewhere along this crazy awesome journey, it turns out that
I have started to look for ways to grow and change and become better.
Saturday morning during personal study I had an opportunity to review
my notes from the other two General Conferences that I have watched
during my mission. The coolest part was to see how my questions had
changed. Last April one of my questions was, "What steps can I take to
show the Lord that I am willing to change?" Fast forward to this year
where I asked about what I needed to look to change and improve next.
I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is willing to
frequently call me to repentance and then help me through the process
of change so I can become more like him.

One particularly significant call that I received this week happened
during our Zone Training Meeting. As we discussed our goals for this
upcoming month many of the missionaries became concerned that we were
being unrealistic and expecting too much of our areas. One of the
Sisters chimed up and said something along the lines of "Elders and
Sisters, where is your faith? Is our God not the God that parted the
Red Sea and rose from the dead? Can't we trust that he will help us
accomplish our goals?" The spirit very gently nudged me and told me
that it would no longer be sufficient for me to show only faith that
Christ can work miracles in our lives, but that I needed to increase
my faith and act in accordance with the understanding that he will
work miracles as we show the requisite faith. I have been applying
this understanding to my prayers this week and heaven feels so much
closer!

Being able to watch General Conference is always one of the best
things that happens in missionary life. We're always starving for more
spiritual light and understanding, anything that will help us to be
more capable and powerful instruments in the hands of the Lord. I
thought it was perfect that in this week of seeking after greater
faith and a stronger conversion that so many of the talks very
specifically gave suggestions for how we can increase our faith in
Jesus Christ. During these months in Ohio he truly has become my best
friend. He is there in moments when I would be otherwise utterly alone
and helpless and with his help I am able to do that which would
otherwise be insurmountable. I love him and am so grateful that I have
the opportunity to participate in this work with him.

One moment of heavenly help that was particularly profound to me
occurred as Sister Scott and I planned for what we would teach Jake.
In the middle of personal study I looked up at her and said, "I think
we need to talk about Saul and how he became Paul." She paused her
studies and looked up at me and agreed. We then had a
mini-companionship study in the middle of personal study where we read
the story of Paul's conversion and about who he became. I sat in
reverent awe as I considered that through the atonement of Jesus
Christ, this man who had been one of Christianity's greatest opposers,
who had participated in the martyrdom of an apostle, became an
instrument in the Lord's hands and served as an apostle to invite
others to come closer to Christ. There is no place so far that Jesus
Christ cannot reclaim us from. But not only that, he can reclaim us
and transform us into something wholly and entirely inspiring. I
realized that the real "Cinderella stories" of our lives are not those
of rags to riches, but rather those of souls who think they are beyond
help and find themselves redeemed by Jesus Christ through their faith
and repentance. Another awesome part of the inspiration to teach about
the Atonement and Paul was how often Paul was brought up during the
first session of conference which we watched with Jake. It was a
reassurance to both of us that we had done according to the Father's
will.

I am so excited to get to work and find those who are waiting to
"taste the joy" as Alma would say of repentance and feeling the
Savior's love. The church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and
Satan hates you.

Love,

Jessica