Hey, it's almost Mother's day. In case I don't get to send a card today, Happy Mother's Day to the best mommy in the whole wide world! I can't wait to talk to you.
Does anyone know if Peyton Green has turned in her mission papers and if she has her call yet? I heard she wanted to serve.
The picture I've included is from this last Saturday. The Chula Vista YSA ward had an all day activity they called "One Day Mission". Basically they went on splits with the Chula Vista missionaries. We went out proselyting for 5 hours. Sister Greathouse and Sister Brown stayed together and they were supposed to get a third but she never showed up. I had two companions, Sister Lao, who served her mission in Lubbock, TX (WHOO-HOO!) and Sister Lee, a recent convert. They were awesome! We added a new investigator that day and taught a less active family, taught an active member, got a phone number to a guy who said we could come back, and talked to a bunch of people. It was a pretty cool day.
I love being a missionary. This Sunday was fast Sunday and an elder that used to serve in our ward that just barely went home last week came and visited. All 3 of us sister missionaries (we're in a trio now) bore our testimonies as did the former Elder Roestenberg. It was such a spiritually uplifting sacrament meeting. Lukas Roestenberg said in his testimony that he didn't know what true joy was until he came on his mission. He said "you want to know what true joy is?" And then he went on to say that true joy was seeing members of the ward that were recent converts in the congregation, or less-actives that were at church. That really rung true to me. Our whole lives are missionary work. Just for this little amount of time, I get to focus on nothing but serving the Lord's children by inviting them to be baptized and join His church. It is SO good when those we're helping take a step towards Christ. It really is rewarding.
There is a 16-year-old in my ward that came up and sat with me after I sat down from bearing my testimony. Her name is Mariella Macias. We identify with each other because we both have a sister on a mission. She was really missing her sister (that reported to the MTC 2 weeks ago) and she came and cried on my shoulder. She's super sweet and wants to serve a mission one day. While I know that missions aren't for every young woman, they certainly seem to be for a lot of them. And they are! The Lord is hastening His work and we are scrambling to keep up.
While I love being a missionary, I have some days that I miss home and other "worldly" things. Last Saturday I had a dream about dancing. I LOVED that dream and was sad when I woke up. I did fouette turns in my socks in the gym before we started morning sports. I was sad at how out of shape I am. Still am,actually. Did you know that 30 minutes of exercise isn't very much? And people like to feed us? Yeah.........weight gain happens. Bum. Anyway, I love ballet. I realized that I haven't done ballet in what will soon be 6 months. That is the longers I've EVER gone since I started at age 9. There is an 11-year-old in our ward that just got her pointe shoes. She showed them to me when we went over to their house for dinner last night. I almost cried. I miss my pointe shoes.
BUT! I love being a missionary. I just put my faith and trust in the Lord that I will be blessed for my service in His work. It's pretty exciting. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm a missionary and that every morning I put on a name tag that shoes I'm a representative of Jesus Christ. Crazy cool, that's what it is.
I love you!
-Sister Audrey Michelle Bishop
Audrey and her two temporary companions
No comments:
Post a Comment