This Little Ride of Mine: IT'S A GIRL!!!

email 15 September 2015

Well Sister Smith is safe and sound in Arizona now. I miss her already. But she's an amazing daughter of God and has a lot ahead of her in life!

So President Jaggi called me on Friday to talk to me about some things. We talked about how the musical fireside was going, how I was doing personally, and he asked me if I would be willing to train a new missionary. I told him no. The musical fireside is pretty stressful and I don't know if I could train a missionary. Not to mention train them while doing the musical fireside. So we left it at that. I wasn't going to train. I felt kind of bad. So I prayed about it and I told Heavenly Father that if he really needed me to do this, then I would. I get a call from President Jaggi the next night and he tells me that Heavenly Father really wants and needs me to train. So I am now white washing (replacing the missionaries) Syracuse Bluff and I'm training a visa-waiter who is actually called to serve in Brazil. I'll be trying to help her learn Portuguese as much as I can! Yesterday we had a 5 hour meeting for trainers. It was one of the most spiritual meetings of my mission. And very humbling. We talked about Jacob 5 and how it can apply to us. This verse specifically stuck out to me.

4 And it came to pass that the master of the vineyard went forth, and he saw that his olive tree began to decay; and he said: I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that perhaps it may shoot forth young and tender branches, and it perish not.

I feel as though this verse is a story of my mission. At the beginning of my mission, I was decaying. And throughout these 13 months I've been pruned, dug, and nourished. So that one day I could produce a young and tender branch, or, train a new missionary. That day is now. I can't explain to you the feelings I had during this meeting. Complete peace. Complete gratitude. Gratitude that Heavenly Father trusted me to even come on a mission. And gratitude that he trusts me to train one of his "Young and tender branches". I feel 100% inadequate. I do. But I understand that this is an experience I need to grow. As I was studying the story of Christ's baptism in Matthew, I realized it applied a lot more to me than just my need to be baptized.

14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Sometimes we're asked to do things and we say "You want ME to do it?" This is one of those times for me. But it will becometh me to do this thing. I'm excited! I really am. I can't say I'm not nervous. I'm terrified. But I'm excited to see what this experience will bring. I will also be piloting a new training program where we have set hours every week to do community service and family history. It's interesting! We'll see how it goes. I've decided the scripture I will turn to for strength in this experience is Mosiah 4:9:

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Going along with that, my new area doesn't have a car. I will now be a walking and biking missionary. AHHHHHH WHAT?! I'm going to die. Especially since it's starting to get colder. Heavenly Father knew that it was too easy being put back with my two best friends, twice. Now it's payback time, haha. I'll have monstrous calves by the end. This may be my last area I serve in! I only have 4 more transfers. So it could go either way.

Well now for some fun things of this week! Utah missionaries get the best service experiences. I got to help out with shampooing and drying hair extensions, haha. It was definitely interesting! I need a list of new skills I've acquired on my mission.

On Sunday they wanted Sister Smith and I to share our testimonies. Which is good! They just made us do it along side Missionary Moms. BAD IDEA!!! We were all crying. To celebrate the close of Sister Smith'ss mission we took some #artsy pictures in front of corn.