The week started off with exchanges with our STL's (Sister Trainer Leaders) and so I got to exchange with Sister Turley! She was wonderful and she was also trained by Sister Cromar so we got to reminisce about those good times together. Lol! But seriously, it was so great. It was such a fun day. We mostly tracted and visited people but we were laughing like, all day. It made the work easy and fun and reminded me of those days with Sister Cromar where we just laughed all the time. We met a lady tracting that had been wanting to read the Book of Mormon and learn about the religion because her daughter just married a Mormon boy. That was a miracle! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she told us we could come back and teach her! :) It was really hard to say goodbye to Sister Turley the next day and send her on her way again! Maybe sometime in the future we can be companions, she's only been out 6 months, so it could happen!
With Sister Turley
We had district meeting on Wednesday which is always so fun to meet as a district and get to learn and grow together. My district leader, Elder Davis, is such a great missionary and I really look up to him. He only has 3 weeks left of his mission, but he still is going strong as if he just got out here, which I really respect. Anyway, there is this book that President and Sister Bonham gave the missionaries permission to read and it's called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton Christensen, and I've been wanting one but wasn't sure where to find them. I made a comment in district meeting and Elder Davis is like "eh, I go home in 3 weeks...here, you can have mine!" I was so excited! I've already read like the whole book. I've been reading it when I work out in the morning on this bike machine we have (gotta get prepared in case I'm transferred to a bike area. Lol.) And it is seriously so good, I would recommend that everyone read it. It changes your whole perspective on missionary work and how you can share the gospel. I'm already 75% of the way through and I plan to read it again and again and again.
We did some more service this week and helped a lady pull out some trees and bushes and grass and weeds. Its weird but I have grown a love for pruning ferns. Lol! How weird does that sound? But seriously it gives me such joy to see this ugly fern with dead leaves and such, and then cut out all the dead pieces and watch it take a 180 difference. By the end it makes the yard look so luscious and green. We also helped another family with some yard work and pulled SO many weeds. We probably pulled around 10 wheel barrels of weeds! But the garden sure looked dang good if I say so myself. Lol! Then we were also able to help this single mom fold some laundry which seemed like no big deal to us, but meant the world to her! It was so sweet to see how much that little act of kindness meant to her.
We had interviews with the President on Friday and it was wonderful. President Bonham is truly such a wonderful man of God. The best part of the interview was at the end when he told me how proud he was that I was following the Lord in exact obedience, and he's loved watching me grow and mature in such a short time into a wonderful missionary. It doesn't get much better than that, people! It was also a little funny when I first came in and sat down and he's like "well, you sure look a little more chipper then the last time we met in this office together" (since the last time I was bawling, like 'NO President, I can't train another missionary...I don't even know what I'm doing?!!) So that was pretty funny. But it went very well. :)
This is my desk area, just thought you might like to see all the craziness that goes into planning and such, with notes and calendars and all that!
This is one of the areas we were tracting. I thought it was just beautiful. SO not like anything you would see in Texas!
This we also saw tracting... isn't that just GORGEOUS?! The way the sun just came through the trees, it was like the first vision or something, like nothing I had ever seen. The Lord's hand in the beautiful creation of things is so magnificent. It doesn't even look real.
One of the best parts of being a missionary is that everyone in primary just LOVES you. This sweet girl, J, (who just turned 4)...every time she sees me on Sunday, her face lights up and she immediately starts a full sprint down the hall to hug me. And I had to walk into primary yesterday to get the ward calendar for missionary meals, and all the kids got up from their chairs and gave me this giant hug. It was so sweet! I love it!
At church I think I mentioned this before, but we are the Gospel Essentials teachers. We had the opportunity to teach again yesterday and it went so well. I have truly grown such a love for teaching. That scripture that talks about learn the knowledge for yourself and then teach it to others really hits home. I have just loved getting to study, learn and grow and then teach what I know, and bear testimony of that truth to others. This really is an example of a weakness becoming a strength with the help of the Lord. I used to be so deathly afraid of speaking or talking in front of people. I usually would prefer just to keep to myself. But this experience has truly opened up my eyes to so many things that the Lord has blessed me with, and for that I am grateful.
I am also especially grateful for the life I was given. I see so many broken families. We work with single parents struggling to stay strong in the gospel because of the trials and burdens upon their shoulders. And we work with part member families in which one of the parents is taking all their kids to church and struggling to remain strong without having support from their spouse. And we work with people who do not have the gospel at all, and watching how that missing piece is affecting their life. It's just made me so grateful for my parents and the household I was privileged to grow up in. That I never had to, or ever have to, worry about my parents splitting up or losing their faith and foundation in Jesus Christ. So, pretty much thanks mom and dad for being amazing, and thank your parents for being amazing too.
I love this gospel and I love getting to declare that to the whole world!
LOVE you all!
Sister Wawro
p.s. Tell Brit I did a sock bun for the first time today and it turned out okay, but not as good as hers. I love her and miss her!
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