 |
| Good-bye Sister Quinones |
People, just letting you know that I jammed my left
ring finger while playing oompa today and it is really painful to email
ya'll. Oompa is like ultimate frisbee mixed with basketball mixed with
football americano. You can only take 3 steps with the football, and you
can pass it, and you try to make it into the basketball hoop. It was
tons of fun, but my finger is seriously puffy:(
You
know that part in "Phantom of the Opera" where Carlotta tells everyone
"I'm really leaving"? That's kind of how I felt yesterday as I said
goodbye to all of my friends in Accokeek and Stafford Spanish. Because
I'm really leaving this time! It was kind of surprising and crazy
because I had a really strong feeling that I'd be staying. All day Saturday (transfer call day) I wasn't nervous and I hardly thought about it. When it was 10:30 PM, we thought we were safe for sure!
Then at 10:40,
we received a call from President Wilson... I almost didn't answer it.
He told me that I was the last call of the night! He apologized, but
said that I'd be moving and TRAINING again. This means I'll either be
opening an area or whitewashing. I'm kind of nervous, but I'm also super
grateful that I was able to train Hermana Quinones first so that I have
some experience training. But I do feel bad that another Hermana will
finish her training. I'll let you know next week where I end up!:) Until
then, you can send mail to the mission office!;)
*So here's about our week...
We
have one investigator who I think they'll end up dropping soon. The
lesson was just so sad. They're very offended that we can't give them
rides in our car, but we can give a ride to a member who's going with us
to a lesson. I tried to explain it as best as I could, but they accused
us of being unChristlike and said our leaders were "equivocado." I went
home and prayed and cried about it. I started thinking about my purpose
as a missionary. I'm here to invite people to come unto Christ by
helping them receive the restored Gospel - faith, repentance, baptism,
the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I can give temporal
service, but I'm really here to do spiritual service. Christ, before
healing anyone, forgave them of their sins. He came here to heal us
spiritually before healing us physically/temporally. If we were allowed
to give rides to people, it would distract us from our purpose.
 |
| 3rd Trip to Gov't Island :-) |
On Wednesday,
we did an afternoon exchange with the Fred Hermanas! I went to Fred,
and Hermana McRae came to Stafford. Hermana McRae is the blonde one I'm
with in one of the Government Island pictures. She's also training! We
wanted our trainees (Hermana Quinones and Hermana Romero) to have an
opportunity to lead in their areas so we organized a half-day exchange.
It was a lot of fun!
On Thursday,
we had Sister Redd with us because Sister Nelson went to the temple
with all of the departing missionaries. We did weekly planning so not
much happened;) haha.
Zone Meeting was Friday
and they announced that at the end of the month of September, the whole
mission is taking the week off to do a Book of Mormon read-a-thon!!! I
didn't even know this kind of thing was allowed;) But President Wilson
said that it's not likely we'll have another opportunity like this in
our lives--to read the BOM in one week--and he wants us to be able to do
it on our missions! I'm super excited:) Stay tuned for more details!
Saturday
was super painful because we had some morning appointments, then came
back to the apartment to have lunch and finish studies. (As part of
training, we have to do 2 hours of companionship study a day.) Hermana
Monica called us at 2 pm to ask if we were coming for lunch. She had signed up for Sunday, but somehow got mixed up and thought it was Saturday.
She also needed some help, so we decided to go over. This was after we
had already eaten. So we ate there. And then we had dinner at 5, so we
ate again. During dinner, I was so stuffed that I thought I was going to
throw up on the plate. Oh the woes of being a skinny Hermana;)
But
we had some great lessons that night despite the stomach ache! Miguel
Angel is progresando and he loves church and loves the messages we
share! When he prayed, he thanked God for sending us to share His word
with him. It's so cool when that happens!
We also had a great lesson Sunday
night with Yuri! We finally got her husband involved! We did a Noche de
Hogar con la familia Morgan. Her husband was just going to drop her off
with the kids, but we talked him into coming in. Hermana Morgan made
lots of food and we talked about the temple and eternal families. Yuri
was so sad that I'm leaving! But she's a great investigator and I know
she'll keep learning after I leave.
 |
| Branch President Vasquez & Family |
Anyway, I'm
really grateful that I was able to spend 11 months of my mission here in
the Stafford/Fredericksburg area. It feels like I'm leaving home again!
I've learned and changed so much here! I'm excited to take all of this
and apply it in my next area. While praying this morning, I felt the
strongest confirmation that this is the right time for me to leave.
Heavenly Father wanted me to feel like I was staying to help me stay
focused and to help me love the people even more. Last February I
received a priesthood blessing from Brother Houtz that said that my
heart would expand to love more than I thought possible. I finally
understand what that means!
That's all for this
week! I've got a lot of packing ahead of me! I love you all so much!
Thank you for your support and love:) Thank you for the occasional BYU
Football updates. What would I do without you???
Con amor, Hermanita Crandall
No comments:
Post a Comment