November 23, 2014

Wow! Time has certainly been racing by, and other transfer has come and gone! Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to sneak by another transfer in Medicine Lake. The time has come for me to leave and go to Burnsville. It is so bitter sweet to say goodbye to all these wonderful people! I am so excited to meet the people in Burnsville and be in a new zone for the first time in a year. But I am SO SO sad to have to leave! I feel like in my life I never had a hard time saying goodbye in school, or even after college. But for some reason on my mission being transferred has been the hardest, most difficult thing in my life. I have come to love these people so much. And I certainly hope that I have made a difference in their life. But no matter what small change I might have caused for them I know that they have made a huge impact on my life. I have never met a more devoted people, humble and pure. They have taught me how to love, how to sacrifice and to keep our eyes on the temple no matter what.

In my studies this morning I came across this quote,

"You cannot develop respect for someone who does not utilize his talents to the best of his ability. This is one of the great problems in the mission field. No matter how good you are, in every mission there are young men who take their callings as missionaries altogether too lightly. For every act of indifference, for every degree of laziness, for every failure to live up to the highest capacity which is ours in the performance of our missionary duties there is a penalty. I cannot tell you what the penalty is, but I am conscious of the one great penalty. That penalty is that when you leave the mission field, you take with you the standard that is going to be yours all of your life. If any of you elders feel that you can rise above the standard you fix for yourselves while you are laboring in the mission field after you get home, I am sure you are in for a very, very sad disappointment. I have had the privilege of watching returned missionaries come home from the field for over fifty years, and I have yet to see the first case within my experience where a missionary ever did anything better than he did his missionary work. It is very popular though out the world to seek to get something for nothing. As far as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no room for such philosophy therein."

Even though it is so hard for me to say goodbye, I know that i will continue to grow in the gospel as I am moved to Burnsville. And that doing God's will is so much more important than doing my own. I feel like I am finally starting to figure out what missions are all about. And I certainly hope that I can do everything that God wants me to in the 3 short transfers that I have left.

But on to better and funner things!

We have an investigator named Musa that we are teaching, he is from Sierra Leon and he is AWESOME! He came to stake conference last week, and as we were talking to him about the holy ghost he was telling us about how it spoke to him during that conference that this is something of God and he needs to be a part of it. AHH! and he was Muslim when we found him! How cool to see such a huge change happen in his life in just a few short weeks. Him and his daughter will be baptized on Dec 20.

Then there is also Shaharrah, who is 13 and a friend of the coopers. She is doing so good and is set to be baptized in December! She is the cutest thing, and she cares about the gospel so much! We went through baptism interview questions with her this week and it was amazing how much she knew and how diligently she has studied so she can make this a part of her life!

also, on Saturday we were walking around trying to find people to teach and we saw this man Lester walking down the sidewalk. We talked to him for a little bit and asked him where he was going, which he replied, "nowhere, I just felt like I needed to go for a walk." we shared the message of the restoration with him and he was SO excited! he loved everything and then asked if he and his wife and 2 boys could come to church with us. and we told them we would get them a ride and give them a call. Later on that night we hadn't got him a ride yet, and he called us and was like, "Hey I really want to come to church, do you have a ride for me?" and that NEVER happens. but he came, and Everyone LOVED him, and just lit up when he talked with them. Ahh it was so good. This area has just exploded. When I first got here there was no one to work with and we were struggling to find people to teach, and this Sunday we got 7 people to church, we have 5 people working towards baptism in the next month and there is so much goodness going around. AHH i am so sad to be leaving. But I am so excited for Sister Smith and everything that is going for this area! It has been such a blessing to be here. I love seeing how much can change in such a short amount of time. And I have really found that attitude is everything. If you want to share the light of the gospel, you have to be shining yourself.

and of course, enjoy this picture of our crazy district. Hooligans. all of them.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Love, Sister TERRY