Dearest Family,
I'm doing great! Another crazy week. More crazy things happening. I'm getting to the point that I don't know how to tell you about everything that is happening here. Home seems like an imaginary, wonderful place, and I really sometimes struggle to translate my experiences back to that place. I'm working on it. :) Also, I don't remember how much I've already told you, so forgive me repeating myself sometimes.
The craziest things that happened this week.
First of all, we had a wonderful lesson with Selene. I know, I know, every lesson with Selene is amazing. But this time she finally gave us the last piece to her puzzle. Slowly over time she has told us more about her past and where she was coming from. This time, everything clicked together and it all makes sense. Someday I think I will tell you her whole story, but only with her permission after she gets baptized. It's an amazing story. As she finally told us that last piece, I just sat there in awe. Here is my journal entry about the occasion (part of it) "I feel so humbled. I looked at her across the room as we talked about how she feels like she has a unique calling in this life. She's pretty much one of a kind...She feels like God has prepared her for something...As I listened to her express her yearnings for a work to do, I was just overwhelmed by how special she is. I know she has an important calling. I know she is one of the noble and great ones--the elect of God. It was SO humbling. I got to be the missionary to teach this amazing daughter of God. What a blessing!
"As I looked at her I almost thought, "Who are you?? Who were you? What is in store for you?" It was almost like I caught a glimpse of the wonderful person she was in the premortal life. She is a divine being that has existed for eternity. She has developed talents over eons.
"And That was who was sitting in front of me. It blew my mind. I love her, and I knew in the instant that God loved her SO much. I almost understood it. It was almost overwhelming to just be in the same room as such a divine being. I was filled with the spirit, and He testified to me about who she was and is.
"The more I think about it, the more I realzie that that was a unique feeling and experience. Eye opening. If I could have the perspective on who everyone is like I do with Selene, it would change how I treat everyone. Maybe we all had to forget who we are and who everyone is is so that we would have to work thorugh faith to discover our identity as children of God. Finding our identity is part of the challenge. :)"
So I don't know if that really conveyed what I felt this week, but I do know that Selene is very special. I don't know what is in store for her, but her life's path was one led by God to prepare her for something. She wishes she could go on a mission like me, but she has some other work to do first. Now she just needs to find patience to wait for it. :)
To top it off, we were at church early on sunday for our meeting, when in walks Selene and Orson. I hugged them and asked why they were early. Guess why. That's right, for choir practice. And as we sat in the congregation and watched them sing in the ward choir, I'm sure I was grinning like a proud parent. Selene joined the ward choir and performed this sunday!!! What? Does that happen? Do investigators do that??? yeah, I was super lucky to be her missionary. She's so amazing.
I also realized this week that because we found her so early in my mission, teaching her has molded who I am as a missionary. Looking back, now I realize that sometimes when I was unsure of myself in a lesson, she encouraged me. She was helping out her missionary. How cute! And now she tells Sister Lewis all the time that she is doing great, and that she is a wonderful missionary. She's the kind of person that helps people, and so she's even helping her missionaries. She's amazing.
We taught a lot this week, which felt good. We taught Nolan, the old man, again. He's so unique. Did I tell you that he studied for 15 hours for our last appointment and is always prepared with typed notes when we come? Yep. He's that crazy. But he really is a wonderful person, and I think he's progressing. His attitude about prayer is slowly softening, as is his attitude about Baptism. His next question is how we know what we know, and if we just chose it to be true and stuck to it--can what we know change? He basically questions everything except the bible, so the Book of Mormon is slow progress. "How did this Nephi man know that angels spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost? And what are angels anyway?" We left him Alma 32 to read. Hopefully that will lead where we need it to.
We also taught a super nice couple this week. Their names are Michael and Susan, and they both have very strong faith. I love hearing what they believe because they actually know what they beleive. They are seekers of truth, wherever it may come from. We need to get them to listen long enough to hear the first lesson, though, because I think that will answer a lot of their questions about the nature of God and how Christ makes the difference. We'll see how that goes.
We also are teaching a Part Member Family--the Harps. The wife is non-active member, and really she just wants us to come to give her husband information, and not to convert any of them. We'll see if they will open their hearts enough to let it be more than about information. They are having a baby next month, so hopefully the questions we asked got them thinking--what are you going to teach your son? What role do you want religion to play in his life? Why religion at all? Anyway, they are super nice and hospitable, but I really hope they prayed together this week like we asked them to.
Remember Marcella? The one we commited to baptism? Well, we were soooo hoping she would come to church. We got her a ride and everything, but then she told us that her baby's daddy's grandma was going to drop them off. Then they didn't show (and neither did the less active who was so excited to help us by giving them a ride). It was a bummer of a sunday. We went to see her yesterday, and she was passed out on the couch. So we talked to her son's father and to Mckayla, her eleven-year-old daughter, for a while. It was really good because we finally got a glimpse into where they are coming from. We brought a member with us, which was perfect. They stayed and talked to Lance (the man), so I wandered across the room and made friends with McKayla. She was so sweet. It was obvious that she doesn't get a lot of attention. I listened and was friendly, and I think we are friends now. I already told Rachel this, but as she opened up, I got to hear about how much she has been through. She still has managed to stay a child at heart, but it made me really grateful for the home I was raised in. I could tell it was scarring for her to not have any idea where her father was, and she vividly remembers her mom picking her off of her tricycle when she was 4, and them walking away from her dad, leaving everything behind. She still doesn't know why they left. Lance also told us that part of the reason he went crazy as a teenager was that when his parents got divorced when he was 5, he thought it was his fault. I think he might still think it is his fault.
It just goes to show that Satan is really attacking families, and if families fall apart, it ruins people. Marcella is living in a dirty, dingy, tiny apartment, she's unemployed, and really has no sense of the future, and gets wasted sometimes to get away from it, and her kids don't really know where to go. It broke my heart.
So thank you, mom and dad, for raising me in a clean, safe home, and staying together. I honestly can't think of a single part of my childhood that could have been better. Sometimes I ask why I was so lucky, and I think it is because I'm supposed to do something with it. That's why I'm here. I can show people what is possible for their families if God is in the equation.
So anyway, I've gotta go, but I love you all. Don't forget to stop and be grateful for all that we have been blessed with sometimes. :)
Love,
Sister Atkin
No comments:
Post a Comment