Can I get a HALLELUJAH?! haha
Totally kidding. I LOVE Kuna- especially the Kuna 4th Ward. It was like leaving family for a second time. Ugh, the worst. But there were no tears shed (I've moved WAY too many times in my life to cry about leaving an area). Just heavy hearts. I love being able to serve somewhere like Idaho though, because I can come back on a weekend while I'm back at BYU-ID. It's the best. I have NO DOUBT that I will see these people again. They are family, and I love them.
I bought a journal for people to write messages in, as well as contact info. Thank goodness I did that! It was a great idea. Unfortunately I didn't get it to everyone I wanted to. Fingers crossed that everyone still lives there when I get off of my mission! Hopefully I get some facebook friend requests. :)
Sister Sleigher is staying in the area- and she's actually getting 2 more wards to cover. I'm so jealous of her! She'll be covering 3 wards now!!! I hope that this doesn't become a pattern... All the work starts after Sister Gubler leaves! BAH!
My new area is Parma, ID- population 1,711. Again, I'm only covering 1 ward (Parma 2nd Ward). But apparently they have (almost) 8 investigators! SWEET! I'm so excited to finally start teaching people again. We're actually part of the Nyssa, Oregon stake and we drive out to Ontario to do our emailing/church/district meeting.
My new companion is Sister Pritchard. She just came out 6 weeks ago- so I will be finishing up her training with her. (Man... there's a long story on that one. Long story short- I'm here to fix some things in the area and help everyone become more obedient. Which I can TOTALLY do.) Sister Pritchard is awesome. She JUST turned 19... IN the MTC. Crazy, right?! Crazy. But she is a great missionary, desires to be exactly obedient, and really wants the best out of her mission.
HA! So. The reason I'm so late getting on here today...
(Mainly cause I know Mom wants ALL the details on how this works.) I woke up at 5am to get ready/finish packing so that I could leave the house by6am. Sister Sleigher and I had to drive into Nampa to be at the transfer spot at 6:45am. Well, then they loaded up my things into a trailer and I got into a 15 passenger van with a bunch of other missionaries that were being transferred. We drove to Caldwell- dropped off missionaries, picked up new ones. Then we drove to Ontario- where I was dropped off and met my new companion. We went shopping, dropped off my things at home, and then I asked if we could go email... Well... my companion has no idea how to get around the area. -_- Oh joy. We were lost for... forever. We literally drove over 100 miles todayjust trying to find the library. (They had already used all of their monthly miles when I got here. I don't know how we're going to get anywhere.) And she doesn't know where the church building is! Uh-oh. We're gonna be in trouble. I was getting so frustrated. But if there's one thing I've learned on my mission so far- it's not to get frustrated at the little things that you can't control. So, in my head, I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness. You seriously don't even know how to get to the ONE most important place?! You can't even get HOME?!" But what I ACTUALLY said was, "Don't stress about it. You're doing great! You've only been in this area for 6 weeks. You'll get the hang of it." I was pretty proud of myself. haha AND she bought herself a GPS. Good for her. haha
We're at the library this week- and I have no idea how to upload pictures. Soooo... I'll send them next week. Sorry. :/
Okay, so, in response to my last email. I thought that complaining would make me feel better. NOPE. Lesson officially learned. Complaining NEVER makes you feel better. Complaining NEVER fixes the problem. Just learn to deal with it and do your best.
We taught a lesson this week! We met with Jackie- who we had been missing for a long time. Turns out that we really just needed to go to her house to be able to catch her. She started going over 2 times a week (well, the last week I was there). We had a lesson with her about the "questions of the soul" and how she can find the answers in the scriptures for herself. The lesson went really well, and the spirit was definitely present. Rather than just TELL her where all of the answers are, we wanted her to be able to know that she could find them herself through reading and study. We had her ask a question, flip open to a random page, and then we read together and (after every 4 verses) discussed what we read until we found the answer. Some of the questions took a while to find answers to, but that happens. Sometimes it takes chapters to find an answer- and that's the point that we were trying to get across. Sometimes answers aren't just going to jump out at you. Man. The spirit was SO STRONG. It was great. I was walking on air afterwards. Ahhhh, yes. :)
Dave FINALLY attended Sunday School this past Sunday!!! After 4.5 months of me being in Kuna, and visiting with him twice a week, and urging him to come... my LAST SUNDAY... HE CAME!!! YES! I was so excited! It's too bad he couldn't hear what was happening... :/ His hearing aids were acting up. Dang it. TECHNOLOGY FAILED US AGAIN!
And Haley (Remember Haley? 14 year old, from the beginning of my mission) texted Sister Bell during Sunday School and told her that she was ready to take the lessons. She said that she knew that this was the right path for her life and wanted to start learning. WHAT?! Right as I leave?! BAHHHH!!!
Ohhh.... Relief Society... I'm going to vent a little bit here. Because, oh boy, it was rough. The lesson was on Sister Reeves talk at conference about pornography.
The lady giving the lesson was so ANGRY! She talked about how if someone in her family was addicted to pornography, she would kick them our of the house that very second and there would be a bonfire in the backyard of all of their things. Ugh. I could go on about the angry comments that she made. She read horror story after horror story about this addiction. It made me feel sick inside. My hands were sweaty, my heart was beating, and I just wanted to leave the room. The spirit was gone. There was no mention of the atonement, forgiveness, love. She had such a lack of understanding. At first, I had to say a little prayer in my heart and ask Heavenly Father if I was supposed to be viewing people with this addiction with that much severity, or if I just truly understood how to view these people correctly- and I just understand. As I sat through the lesson, my heart literally ached and my eyes teared. I felt sorry that this teacher did not have an understanding of the atonement and addictions in general! I wanted to raise my hand and shout, "No! NO! NOOO! You don't GET IT!" But I held my peace.
My prayer is that people will work to understand, encourage, forgive, and love. People with addictions are not monsters... but just need help. Help from Heavenly Father- and help from us. The atonement is for EVERYONE. Not just for the sinner. Not just for the righteous. EVERYONE.
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