This has been quite the strange week. It went from frustrating and degrading to giving me one of the happiest days on my mission.
So to explain, Sister Chandler and I were struggling a little bit. Things were said during a lesson that shouldn't have been said, and we ended up having an argument. I felt, in the nicest term, like trash. I don't always feel helpful. The amazing Sister Chandler is wonderful and productive, but in the process of that she is also really quick and assertive. I worry that I slow her down and frustrate her, nor am I as sensitive to things as she is because she thinks of things before I do. We talked before bed because I locked myself in the bathroom for 10 minutes. I'm doing my best to worry more about other people, but not last Monday.
Right before all of this, we'd been talking about getting the ball rolling with youth sharing social media. Sister Chandler has been trying to put me in charge of it because I keep bringing it up, but that's ok because she contributes a lot. I mean a LOT! So we called all the yw, ym presidents to set up appointments with them and their presidencies (we currently have seen three of them so far). We also went on splits with the amazing Sister Settle. Both the BYU companionships were busy with appointments while we were open, so we drove her to one of the church buildings in her area. She did a wonderful job leading the priest activity, and she let us participate as well. It was a great experience because Sister Chandler and I now had an idea of how we could do this for the youth in our area!
Things went well with transfers. Sister Chandler and I are very grateful to stay in our area!
Now, you wouldn't believe the blessings that have come our way. We struggled with finding new investigators during my first transfer here, but we have had three calls for referrals. The first two are investigators who called us because they want to be baptized (we haven't counted one of them as new yet because we need to set up a lesson with her). The last is a less active member with a great background, and the bishop in her ward really wanted us to teach her. The missionaries in Rigby will teach her too because she lives there with her parents. She is engaged to a wonderful man who had a serious rodeo accident, and they a aiming for a temple marriage.
We are also teaching a sweet couple, along with the help of Cassie. Her husband passed away this past December. Both she and her husband helped to fellowship the couple we are teaching. This couple has participated in church callings involving missionary work before, so they are very fond of missionaries. However, both of them have had very rocky lives, so they struggle coming to their ward. To them, everyone else's life just seems so rich and perfect, without a care in the world. The only ones they really liked in the ward were Cassie and her husband. Cassie was a huge support in the lesson (we only got through three points of our lesson, but that was all they needed yesterday), and she was very bold with them. The brother liked to go off on tangents, but his wife and Cassie kept things straight. Sister Chandler and I were also able to share our testimonies of Jesus Christ, the gospel, and the power of the priesthood. I shared more about myself than I thought I would, but I thought it would help. I've struggled big time with emotional stress my whole life, including resentment, but I told them how I didn't let it get to me. Sister Chandler, by the way, is very good at making me say "put ups" (instead of put downs), because I tend to beat myself up. But anyways, Cassie stunned us when she started tearing up and acknowledged her husband's presence and spirit in the room at the time. It made some of us tear up as well. We look forward to seeing them again, same time next week. We also got to teach another family whose son is contemplating a mission. We made sure he had a Preach My Gospel book, which is good at answering missionary questions, and told them he could practice teaching the lessons with us (instead of us asking to 'practice' lessons on the family). They're a really sweet family!
So to explain, Sister Chandler and I were struggling a little bit. Things were said during a lesson that shouldn't have been said, and we ended up having an argument. I felt, in the nicest term, like trash. I don't always feel helpful. The amazing Sister Chandler is wonderful and productive, but in the process of that she is also really quick and assertive. I worry that I slow her down and frustrate her, nor am I as sensitive to things as she is because she thinks of things before I do. We talked before bed because I locked myself in the bathroom for 10 minutes. I'm doing my best to worry more about other people, but not last Monday.
Right before all of this, we'd been talking about getting the ball rolling with youth sharing social media. Sister Chandler has been trying to put me in charge of it because I keep bringing it up, but that's ok because she contributes a lot. I mean a LOT! So we called all the yw, ym presidents to set up appointments with them and their presidencies (we currently have seen three of them so far). We also went on splits with the amazing Sister Settle. Both the BYU companionships were busy with appointments while we were open, so we drove her to one of the church buildings in her area. She did a wonderful job leading the priest activity, and she let us participate as well. It was a great experience because Sister Chandler and I now had an idea of how we could do this for the youth in our area!
Things went well with transfers. Sister Chandler and I are very grateful to stay in our area!
Now, you wouldn't believe the blessings that have come our way. We struggled with finding new investigators during my first transfer here, but we have had three calls for referrals. The first two are investigators who called us because they want to be baptized (we haven't counted one of them as new yet because we need to set up a lesson with her). The last is a less active member with a great background, and the bishop in her ward really wanted us to teach her. The missionaries in Rigby will teach her too because she lives there with her parents. She is engaged to a wonderful man who had a serious rodeo accident, and they a aiming for a temple marriage.
We are also teaching a sweet couple, along with the help of Cassie. Her husband passed away this past December. Both she and her husband helped to fellowship the couple we are teaching. This couple has participated in church callings involving missionary work before, so they are very fond of missionaries. However, both of them have had very rocky lives, so they struggle coming to their ward. To them, everyone else's life just seems so rich and perfect, without a care in the world. The only ones they really liked in the ward were Cassie and her husband. Cassie was a huge support in the lesson (we only got through three points of our lesson, but that was all they needed yesterday), and she was very bold with them. The brother liked to go off on tangents, but his wife and Cassie kept things straight. Sister Chandler and I were also able to share our testimonies of Jesus Christ, the gospel, and the power of the priesthood. I shared more about myself than I thought I would, but I thought it would help. I've struggled big time with emotional stress my whole life, including resentment, but I told them how I didn't let it get to me. Sister Chandler, by the way, is very good at making me say "put ups" (instead of put downs), because I tend to beat myself up. But anyways, Cassie stunned us when she started tearing up and acknowledged her husband's presence and spirit in the room at the time. It made some of us tear up as well. We look forward to seeing them again, same time next week. We also got to teach another family whose son is contemplating a mission. We made sure he had a Preach My Gospel book, which is good at answering missionary questions, and told them he could practice teaching the lessons with us (instead of us asking to 'practice' lessons on the family). They're a really sweet family!
I hope you are all doing well! I love you! Have an amazing week!
Sister Brinkerhoff
