A peak into my head and happenings...

Here is a bit of an insight as to what my life as a missionary has been like recently. This is the email I wrote home a couple weeks ago.

 

Dear Family,
Sooo... in all honesty, we didn't get much time this week outside our appartment. One of my dear sweet companions was sick most of it. :( I had some good study time, however!

Sister Morgan is our new companion! She is also going to Brazil--- same mission as Sister Johnson2, actually! :) She is great!

Yesterday was about the only day last week we were able to really get out and do a lot. ...And man it was just filled with awkwardness! We went to contact a referral that a member had given us. We had high hopes for this one... but as we got up to the door, it was open, and we could hear people yelling at each other inside. So we tried to run away as sneakily and fast as we could, so they didn't know we were there! Yeah...we'll try those people later.

Then another referral we went to contact, and that one we actually got to talk to the man... but it was also weird--- but didn't realize why he was acting weird until we'd said good-byes... apparently he was just trying to keep his dog away from us, so it didn't eat us. (That was nice. I Iike it when people we talk to don't want their animals to eat us. :) ) Luckily however, he gave us his wife's number, to set up an appointment, so hopefully we can have an encounter that is not awkward, and we can teach them. --These two came to Pageant and we talked with them before it started...they were sitting with a member couple in our ward (I'm not sure if I told you about them in a past email--- I actually gave the wife a pageant card when we were tracting, and she was just in her car picking someone up-- she said she wanted to come this year, then it was really cool to see them with the members. And the memebers they had been at Pageant with told us later that the husband had seemed touched and had even been crying at the end...). Aaaanyway, we have high hopes for them! :)

Then later we talked with another lady who for some reason only would peak her head around the door...oddly.

And then, we went and contacted someone we'd talked to before. It had been weird before, but to keep our word we went back. And she was clearly telling us lies...but for no good reason. Just making up stories. So weird.

 

Anyway, that was yesterday. Strange day!

 

I will tell you a little about what I've been pondering on lately.

In district meeting, a well-meaning Elder who was giving the training passed on advice his uncle had given. It included something to the effect of "if you are really working hard enough as a missionary, you should be coming home every night so exhausted and in pain that you are praying/wishing for the 'sweet relief of death' to take you." --- To which I leaned over to Sister Johnson1 and commented that I was going to ignore that comment and pretend I hadn't heard it. We should always want to improve, and be better servants, but we do what we are called to do, and He doesn't have unrealistic expectations for us. ----- It would be hard to find anyone in this world who wishes more dearly than I to be able to do so much that I am so exhausted in the work of the Lord. ...But that is not what He has called me to do, and that has sometimes that has been a struggle for me. ((I wish I could teach and baptize ALL of Western New York, and have them all be 100% fully converted to the Lord, but they have their own agency...and I have a limited capacity. and am not perfect! :) ))

Sometimes what I am called to do is to love and take care of a sick companion. Sometimes it is to sit (during the winter) at the historic sites, waiting for the one (and only one) person who will venture in that day for a tour. Sometimes no one will even come in, but we are there for them just in case! ---- But one thing I am learning is that 'the one' is worth it to the Lord. During my extra study time this week, I read in the New Testament about Phillip getting sent by the Spirit to go into the desert. I don't actually know how long of a journey it was, but it sounded like a fair distance to me. Also, I think he had been with a pretty big group before, but was sent to leave and go elsewhere. Well there in the desert, he meets a eunuch (sorry that is how the story refers to him... I don't have a better name) who is reading scriptures, but not understanding. He expounds the scriptures, teaching the eunuch about Jesus Christ. Then the eunuch is happy and believes with all his heart and asks to be baptized! Philip baptizes him, and then the Spirit immediately takes Phillip away. ---Phillip was sent all the way out there for JUST that eunuch. Heavenly Father cared so much for just that one person. ...And the same with these people out here in Western New York. Often times that "one" is my companion. Often times, when I'm at the sites, it is some random person, non-member sometimes, usually member though, that just needs that little bit of strengthening-- and He cares enough about them to place us there to help them. --- But no matter what He wants me to do, that is what I will do my best to do. Sometimes I will get that fulfillment as we tract, sometimes as we have amazing lessons, sometimes as I get to sit and study and study, and sometimes as I get to run back and forth to the microwave every two minutes to keep wet dishrags hot for my companion's head (one of the senior sisters said that works for sinus infections)!

I love missionary work. I love being able to serve the Lord, and learn the lessons He would teach me. Its HIS work!

Love you all!

--Sister Gillespie