April 22, 2013
Well, I guess that is what people refer to as a missionary’s
last email. I am not entirely sure what they mean because I plan on being a
missionary for the rest of my life AND I assume I will write emails (not sure
if the world still writes email), so this is not the end.
We had a great week that ended with two baptisms. As I was
sitting in both baptisms, I couldn't help but reflect on the amazingness that
missions are and how they truly help you learn and grow. You push yourself so
you can become the person Christ needs you to become. One of my favorite mottos
that I have adopted on my mission is that God doesn't give us trials based on
what we can handle. God changes us to be able to handle the trials he already
wants to give us. Change hurts, but that is just how we learn and grow. Imagine
if we couldn't learn and grow. LIFE WOULD BE SO BORING!
Second motto I have lived by on my mission: Be so happy that
when others look at you, they become happy too. I actually found this at Hobby
Lobby and succumbed to buying it. :) I couldn't NOT do it. Anyways, the gospel
makes us happy, right? In 1 Nephi 8:10-12, Lehi talks about eating the fruit
and how it made him so happy, he just wanted to share it with everyone. News
Flash! THAT IS ALL THAT MISSIONARY WORK IS! It is sharing the things that bring
you the most happiness. We aren't trying to convert people for numbers or to
get a trophy; we share this message with people because it makes us happy. If
people can understand that we visit them for the sole purpose of their
happiness, they are going to listen. Like Sister Trayner always tells us,
"The people don't care how much you know until they know how much you
care." We have the way to eternal life people! WE GOTS TA SHARE IT!
Knowing me and my excellent ability to MASTER chapter 8, I am
actually, basically almost done packing. It is actually fun because it is a
missionary's closest opportunity to play Tetris on a mission. Not only do you
have to try to make everything fit but you also have to make sure it doesn't
weigh over 50 pounds. We had fun weighing stuff this morning because, depending
on where the scale was, my weight fluctuated 15 pounds! Then we had fun moving
the scale to different parts of the apartment to see how much we weighed in each
room. It was like the exhibit at the Clark Planetarium where you find out your
weight on different planets, except it was how much you weigh in the different
rooms of the apartment. Gotta love the things that make missionaries happy!
We are heading out to the island again today to play on the
beach for zone activity. Gotta love Frisbee on the beach! Sister Sturgis is
hooking me up with some awesome boxes to ship my books home, so they should be
getting there via box. Speaking of, did my bike make it home? I hope you are
pleased with how much that cost me! If you weren't so insistent on me having my
bike, I probably just would have donated it to a local child or something.
HAHA! But don't you fret, I will get some great use out of it. I love my bike.
She's worked hard!
I reached a very cool milestone this week. At the beginning of
my mission, I set a goal of how many people I wanted to baptize. Numbers aren't
important, but without a goal, the people perish. Anyways, I reached my goal
this weekend and it was one of the most fulfilling feelings of my life. God has
blessed me so much! When it looked like I would miss it by one person, he
transferred me into an area that would help me to gain my last baptism. God is
good. Seriously. He has such an amazing plan for us. I get so excited when
transfers come around because I love trying to use my logic powers to guess
where everyone is going. I feel like I will be the same way up in heaven,
jumping so I can see over God's shoulder saying, "hey, hey, where's this person
going? Send them here!" I can just imagine Him saying, Sister Giles, watch
this. Then He would do something CRAZY that I never would have thought of and everything
turns out better than I would have ever guessed. Hey, that sounds a lot like
life! ;)
I have come to realize over the past year and a half of my life,
that the analogy of the waffle and the spaghetti and how men and women think is
kind of inaccurate. Or maybe it's just different for missionaries because in my
brain right now, I am spaghetti inside a waffle box. For those of you that have
no idea what I am talking about, I will explain. The short version is that
women think like spaghetti where they are just in everything and everything is
intertwined and men think in waffle boxes, one at a time. I say that I am
spaghetti in a waffle box because I am thinking about everything intertwined
and crazy spaghetti, but yet, I am still in my mission box. People keep asking
me when I am checking out and if I have died yet, but I honestly don't understand
how people can. I understand I am coming home in a matter of hours, but my
brain doesn't really comprehend that, so I have been acting exactly the same
and it's weird to people. Ah well. If you can't tell, I am just rambling my
inner thoughts. Crazy missionary.
Tonight we have dinner with am awesome member family named the
Banks. They have instantly become our friends and we love them! Then we are
going to have an FHE with a member family and their neighbor; then we're
visiting their other neighbor. That means we are going to be WORKING until the
very last moment. I am still trying to figure out how I can work in Mission
East until we have to go to dinner at the Trayners. I have like 3 hours between
my interview and dinner so I don't see why not! I'm still working on logistics.
Family. Friends. Stalkers. I love you all so much and I am so
grateful for the support that you have given me for the past year and a half of
my life. I can honestly say that it has been the hardest and best year and a
half of my life. I have learned so much and grown exponentially. I have learned
how to love. I have learned the basics of the gospel. I've learned another
language for cryin' out loud! I know that this gospel is true because I have
received a spiritual confirmation from God. I have had some of the happiest
moments of my life this past year and a half, and I can't wait to
see what is next. It had better live up to my mission though or I'm coming
back!
TMMer for Life!
Sister Giles
No comments:
Post a Comment