My dear, dear family and friends,
First of all, Happy Birthday, Ryan!!! It sounds like the birthday celebrations were perfectly fun and full of excellent food (I would expect no less from the Woods!). :) I hope it's a perfect day today!
This week has been pretty crazy. CRAZY. It included a Sunday evening miracle (forgot to mention in my list last week), some spicy Liberian food, an exchange with our Sister Training Leaders (that means I had some face-to-face time with Mama Hollan- I LOVE THAT WOMAN!), a trip to the ER, Return and Report in Boston, some needed comp inventory, a great lesson with a new investigator, another baptism, and an Irish dinner.
And now I've got 20 minutes to pound it out. Here goes!
So the miracle that happened last Sunday: We were out with a YSA looking for less-active YSAs and we met a 17-year-old kid named Jerry who is the brother of one of the YSAs and was baptized when he was 8. We invited him to church and he seemed open to it. Our new Branch president (President Fairbank, who is awesome and is getting his PhD in Roman Classics or something at Brown and unfailingly wears a bow-tie every week) went by with a Priest in the Branch to invite him personally and he came to church yesterday!! It turns out his name had been in address unknown and we had transferred him out of the Branch. SUCH A MIRACLE! I didn't get to talk to him, but it looked like he was really enjoying being at church and feeling like he has a family and friends there. SO AWESOME! As we were driving away from meeting him last Sunday, it occurred to me that with the age change, he could be out on a mission in a year. What a big turnaround, but I don't doubt it can happen! I have seen so many miracles on my mission and I know that the our Savior and his gospel has the power to change us. I can't wait to see what happens with his life!
Our trip to the ER happened Tuesday night. Sister Bosch Bello, one of the Spanish sisters in our apartment, has been really sick for a month and it finally got bad enough that we all decided (after talking to Sister Packard) that the ER would be the best option. We checked in at 10:30pm and weren't seen until about 7am (I don't really know what happened at that point- I was SO tired from sleeping in the waiting room.) I'd spent the whole night trying to sleep with the TV blasting in the waiting room (although I now feel sufficiently caught up on the missing Malasian airplane and the #whaling trend <--totally gave me the giggles.) and when we finally saw the doctor and he had to ask Sister Bosch some personal questions, I got the giggles so bad I started weeping. He commented that it was good to have humor about these kinds of things. :)
Anyway, so that was crazy and then Sister Watts and I had to drive to Boston the next morning for Return and Report, a meeting with President and Sister Packard and all the trainers/trainees. I maybe broke down in tears while chatting with Sister Packard and Sister Watts about the ER. The fatigue is what finally let out the stress I've been feeling about getting along with Sister Watts. The Spirit was so strong in our meetings and afterwards we chatted with President briefly and he counseled us to work in unity because we are both phenomenal and have unlimited potential together. The two of ushad a chance to go up to the temple and reflect for a minute afterwards. Sister Watts and I said a companionship prayer afterwards where we both got pretty emotional and I think we both needed to feel raw from fatigue in order to be more open with each other. Things are getting better with us, but it will continue to take more work. I really do love her! It's just going to be a learning experience to figure out how to work together with our personalities.
We had a lesson with one of the low-lying fruit young women, Kalyn, on Wednesday night at the YW President's house. Despite us being so tired, the lesson went well (thank goodness the Spirit does the heavy lifting!) and we'll continue teaching her. Her mom is in the hospital this week, so please say an extra prayer for her.
Thursday night, Bob Coolen was baptized. He has been coming with his "adopted" daughter, Sister Mijangos, since Christmas and the whole Branch LOVES him. The other Elders mostly taught him, but it was still so special to be a part of his baptism. Sister Mijangos pretty much taught him all the missionary lessons on her own. SHE IS A ROCKSTAR!
So yes, we had 3 confirmations this week in our Branch. It was SO special. Providence really is the promised land. :)
Okay, I think that is it. The other events in my list were more minor, but they were awesome. I love you all so much! I hope you know that. And I hope you know that I have a testimony that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that our Heavenly Father loves us unconditionally and has a perfect plan for us. It makes me so happy! :)
Love love love,
Sister Wheeler Jr.
P.S. I totally had a copy-paste fail last week and titled it "Week 41" when in fact it was "Week 42". Just so my future posterity knows. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment